Talking Heads- Classic or Dud?

for sure

first album is better anyway

too far

Odd choice for a single, yes, leaden no.

First and second albums are the same album except the second has that swirling Eno production.

While I much prefer Al Green's funky original, I've always liked the intensity of the Heads' cover.

yeah I don't feel the intensity. the band seems removed from the quasi-religious emotional fervor underpinning the song, which is a little strange given that Byrne def figured out how to incorporate that into later material

I was looking up live performances of "Girls Want To Be With The Girls" recently, and kind of fascinated by the difference between this vs. concert performances just a year or so later. Also, this video pretty much confirms the origin of the Feelies' first album cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25XLlpAigWw

I just loooove the way the guitars sound on that first record and the way the two of them frisk each other

seems weird that the album version of "Take Me To the River" was any kind of hit, it's so leaden and sluggish

BASS LINE AS HOOK

In that old PBS Rock & Roll doc series, in the "Punk" episode Weymouth recounts a conversation she had with Bernie Worrell about why their version became the hit. He told her something to the effect that the groove they laid down made you want to move up on your lover.

https://youtu.be/Dp-dwcyFmig?t=8m33s

Can someone help me find those amazing fan remasters of the early albums that were online?

i remember reading about them here and there were youtube links and everything!

You mean those Downmix things? They do sound incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7okvbwIg9M

omg you are the best thank you!!!

Here's where you can download all the downmixes -

http://www.sharoma.com/eclectic_ril.htm

Many have different vocal takes and all sorts of antics

While we're at it: Does anyone here have the og Byrne mixes of The B-52's "Mesopotamia"? Have been searching a while for those and most places that had them seem to have disappeared in The Great Blog Purge Of '12.

I do. I just sent you email.

May I too? If it's no trouble?

You have mail!

Thanks! Replied!

Holy crap, listening to "More Songs" and it's like hearing the album for the first time with fresh ears. I've heard the 5.1 mixes, but this is something better. How awesome.

can i get that b52s?! corysklar AT gmail ??

Sent!

ookay, just one more? pretty pls mr peterson?

adamrsbeales at hotmail dot combover

Sent. Why the band hasn't made this stuff generally available I'll never know, there's obviously a demand!

The Byrne mixes are great fun. Super skeletal and dubby. Thanks again!

Cluttering up the Heads thread with just a bit more B's, the other four songs that were to be part of the Byrne-produced album are:

Queen of Las Vegas (that outtake is now on the Nude on the Moon comp)
Big Bird
Butterbean (above 2 both reworked for the Whammy! album; I've never seen/heard Byrne versions)
Adios Desconocida (a ballad by Fred!) I think I have this somewhere.

Aha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjHJcji686k

o shit this is so f'n tite thank you thx dp

I have this: https://www.discogs.com/The-B-52s-Party-Mix-Mesopotamia/release/76869

but I guess these are remixes, different from Byrne's originals?

There are three mixes, afaik. The US Warner Brothers is the standard mix, the UK Island label contains the Byrne mixes (only on the very first copies? I think the Island release was fixed to include the standard mix shortly after release.) WB tweaked the mix again for the twofer release; I've seen this referred to as a "rock" mix. I own both US releases, but I've never really done a compare and contrast.

hey after basking in the glory of those fold-down mixes for a while, I have realized that for some reason I am missing "Life During Wartime", guess it failed to extract? if anyone happens to have that a PM would be great, it bugs the completist in me to have a track missing esp on one of my fave albums.

DLing the downmix of Remain in Light; seems like perfect hot-day music.

yeah the downmixes are just a work of genius. the final minute or so of Seen And Not Seen where you hear Byrne scatting and mumbling stuff that is literally unheard in the final mix (i'm sure he says "Brian?.." at one point). does make the originals sound very flat by comparison.

I'm gonna go contrarian on this - the magic of Remain for me is the intricate melange of parts simmering away in a fugue. You can focus on and isolate an element while you listen, or you can lose yourself in the ocean. The downmixes sound like worktapes to me, where the mix is not bedded in and the rough edges are showing. Fascinating, but not fully realised and in no way superior to the released mixes.

Did anyone watch the Documentary Now! parody of 'Stop Making Sense'? It was so lovingly done.

While this thread is active, my uh version of the downmixes discussed above failed to properly extract "Life During Wartime" ( the regular album version), if anyone has this plz ILXmail me.

yeah that was good (the documentary now episode).

any more to the rumors that they were in rehearsals?

I'm probably going to get lynched for this but...

...*deep breath*...

...Dud.

if you say so

They're no GENESIS...

so wrong Turrican, most of the time you are OTM. not even close on this one.

I deeply love Remain in Light but not too jazzed about anything else.

i like todd edwards' remix of "burning down the house"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M_BpfEOd9U

incredibly overrated but not dud. i love so many of his songs but i find david byrne to be really insufferable

ha, let me just say - i love the talking heads. but for so many people i know, they're foundational. Remain in Light is the only record I like front to back.

oh yeah, I went to a screening of Stop Making Sense last month and the movie was missing most of the soundtrack. bass, vocals, drums, guitar. nothing else. they'd cut to the backup singers, keyboard players - nothing. we left once tina weymouth started singing genius of love, it was like watching a st. sanders shreds video. i was pissed at the time but now it's just funny. p sure i posted this already on ilx

later talking heads is good too, fools.

wtf flappy explain...

when we left I asked the employees what happened (obviously wasn't their fault) - apparently it was an issue with the copy they got from the distributor. I'm not exactly sure how DCP works, but it wasn't just the movie, the theater's "Don't talk" ad that played when the lights went down had the same sound issues - muffled & missing layers. It was bizarre & disappointing but what are you gonna do. they gave us passes for a free movie & I used them to see It last night.

Super classic c'mon