Talking Heads- Classic or Dud?

Now, back to the topic...

The point being that playing funky stuff every so often doesn't make you a funk band.

― Wewlay Bewlay (Tom D.), Wednesday, September 13, 2017 5:47 PM (forty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

In Talking Heads' case, this is more than "every so often" ...

is there something wrong with saying tina weymouth is a funky bass player? i don't get ilx sometimes....

it's just music christ

No, I just thought it was funny that, at the same time, other people were defending Talking Heads by arguing that it's crazy and wrong to call them funk.

Talking Heads = Music Christ. it is settled law.

Amen!

The album wasn't called Fear of Funk after all.

No, I just thought it was funny that, at the same time, other people were defending Talking Heads by arguing that it's crazy and wrong to call them funk.

You have to put that in the context of the original post that kicked all this off:

I'm often left with the impression that they're a white funk band for people who perhaps consider themselves a little too artsy and deep to listen to the real deal

And then all manner of further nonsense from the same poster thereafter.

Who considers themselves too artsy to listen to real funk anyway? Hasn't that been cool for decades?

Or am I reading it wrong and does 'the real deal' mean that somehow Jamiriqoi is where it's at?

"This song started from a jam," says bassist Tina Weymouth in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "Chris [Frantz, drummer] had just been to see Parliament-Funkadelic in its full glory at Madison Square Garden, and he was really hyped. During the jam, he kept yelling 'Burn down the house!' which was a P-Funk audience chant, and David dug the line, changing it to the finished version, 'Burning down the house'." (Bernie Worrell of Parliament-Funkadelic joined Talking Heads' live incarnation.)

hmm, so there does appear to be a connection between talking heads and funk

very interesting

boy did this become tedious

mission accomplished Turrican

Didn't they work with that guy what's his face from Roxy Music? So they're clearly glam rock!

Yeah, sorry, this is tedious. I'll fap myself out.

they are actually a white rap group cf David Byrne's rapping on Crosseyed and Painless

let's change the topic. how about this one: all of sgt pepper's is totally overrated. and after that: that thing your grandma told you on your 6th birthday party that stuck with you your entire life? it wasn't that insightful, and you didn't even remember it correctly. final topic: that thing you like? no, wrong.

except for those times they used a pedal steel guitar, then they were a white country group

xp

xp i liked that post up until your final topic explained very clearly how it was wrong to do so

lol
well, at least david byrne might appreciate the contradiction

Y'know. I've really been thinking today. About a lot of things. Talking Heads. Can. What funk is and is not. How to form an argument. And I just want to say to Turrican: Thank You. Because you make me a better person. I mean, you don't really 'better' anything, you're an awful piece of shit, who clearly couldn't construct a cohesive argument if you're life depended on it, clearly hasn't heard an appropriate amount of funk music, and you seem to have some deep rooted issues related to masturbation, which is a good and natural thing. I guess what I mean to say is this: You're lowering the bar. And you do that for all of us. And the way my life has been going these last few months, I really needed that. So Thank You.

Also, I guess I should really stop watching BoJack Horseman at this point.

I'm often left with the impression that Bojack Horseman is the horse cartoon for people who perhaps consider themselves a little too artsy and deep to watch the real deal, my little pony

roflz

Holy shit

It was in front of us all along

Turrican is fred b

ps talking heads are a really shit band, like they're bad at music and sound bad.

Also yanks note the 'are a shit band' not 'is a shit band' it's little things like this that make ye stand out as not native speakers

Thanks for clarifying that Sund4r :)

So did we figure out if Talking Heads are a funk band or what?

No, we found out that people are in denial about it and Frederik B is a middle aged divorcee with an anger problem, who seems to enjoy re-using the exact wording of his personal correspondence.

(with some words changed obviously)

I LOVE TALKING HEADS

No, we found out that people are in denial about it
- everyone is in denial
and Frederik B is a middle aged
- who cares how old he is
divorcee
- who cares
with an anger problem
- I'M GONNA PUNCH A WALL
, who seems to enjoy re-using the exact wording of his personal correspondence.
-

-

0
i love talking heads

Now now, there's no need to start going and punching walls.

clearly ilm is going through a golden era

what's the cutoff for a "golden era"? anything under two?

Animal think...they're pretty smart
Shit on the ground...see in the dark.

What about Houston?
What about Detroit?

WHAT ABOUT PITTSBURGH P-A?

Some TH playing in Morrisons when I was doing my shopping last evening, very deep and artsy.

All the fans of real funk fled

I've never been too crazy about them, don't dislike them really either, just ambivalent I guess. However, On the strength of this thread, I decided to DL Fear of Music and the live thingy. Will live with them for a week or so and see if they click. Off topic but the Liam Gallagher pre-covers thing is wonderful. Nice work everybody.

Much of early Heads, like say, Name of This Band is spiky art-punky, with the uber trebly sound and intentionally naïve/awkward vibe.

Late Heads could be funky, like Popsicle of Love, or world-musicky like I Zimbra.

In between, I think, is both their creative and popular peak - Little Creatures, Stop Making Sense.

Tangentially, I liked how Byrne's book (and TED Talk) discusses the extent to which spaces CBGBs - narrow and live - complemented and enhanced the sounds they happened to be making. Short delays, hard surfaces. Just as Gregorian chants and 18th-century chamber music worked well in the spaces those musics were performed in. Characteristically, he leaves open whether it's chicken or egg.

spaces LIKE

For me, Fear of Music is 50% peak Heads and 50% awkward murkiness that doesn't push my buttons. The live albums (and vids of course) are the best intro to the band.

otm

fear of music is their best album

I actually really, really like Little Creatures. It's quality cheerfulness. I don't know the first two albums but LC is my fave out of albums 3 to 8.

Can't get enough of this Rome, 1980 version of "Born Under Punches"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO7N2tFb0X8

hell yeah

that version is great, creepier in a different way than the studio version. this show/era was great. i love the super slow languorous intros to Crosseyed and Painless

That is really good. At points the groove got real Lagos and the dual basses is a bit Miles Davis, that's a real good take.

I don't think I've ever heard that. Straight fire.

Tina.

Wow.