Talking Heads

I only play "Sand in the Vaseline" these days. The very early (1974) demo trax on there are excellent.

i can't believe 'more stories about buildings and food' really exists. it's perfect music.

Does anyone else find their music devoid of emotion?

What's this "emotion"?

i only listen to music with soul

they only have one love song and it's sung to a lamp

Don't know enough to comment, really, except to say that I would agree that "My Life In The Bush" is overrated. It has some cool sounds, and was "ahead of its time" in terms of sampling and so forth, but it just isn't very impressive these days. Flat sound, weak drums, for the most part. But again, no arguing the supposed "historical" importan

-- Mark Richardson, Wednesday, 21 February 2001 01:00

^^^Murdered by post-punk revisionist ninjas before he could finish his sentence.

They were one of the first bands I ever liked; and I am still fond of them. But how many good songs did they write? Maybe not many. Maybe they showed a way of being attractive without having good songs.

the pinefox, exasperation!#@035U05323E3555EESGTFGRAEWE!!!1

Tom was truly ahead of his time.

some of the most retarded things i have ever read in my entire life appear in this thread.

I don't think he shows on this thread that he was ahead of his time.

Some Talking Heads tracks that I like a lot include

Burning Down The House - always loved the edgy drums and keyboards on its long slow fade

Girlfriend Is Better - maybe I was just sucked in by Speaking In Tongues at that impressionable age

This Must Be The Place - I think this is quite wise, in a US-pragmatism sort of way: 'I'm just an animal looking for a home'

And She Was - and I think the video still looks good

Wild Wild Life - maybe just for contingent reasons

Memories Can't Wait - drama in its chorus

Found A Job - always liked this a lot, and the lyric is probably very prescient

Nothing But Flowers, and maybe more of Naked: jungle lushness, probably long underrated

-- but most of the early work, as for instance heard live on The Name of this Band is Talking Heads, doesn't do that much for me (though that record did revive 'Memories Can't Wait' for me)

I have to admit, my favourite Talking Heads list has the look of a fairly banal Talking Heads: The Hits collection. But that's not how I came to like those songs. I just did come to like them, more than the others I heard.

wtf, the name of this band is talking heads is unfuckingtouchable. the first half of the first disc is them at their tightest and the reason i prefer the '77 tracks on there to the album versions. when eno's producing for the next three it's a different story

and anyone who dismisses 'more stories...' out of hand is no friend of mine, uh figuratively speaking since we're talking about music you know

Memories Can't Wait - drama in its chorus

Almost everything on Fear Of Music is good. Having said that, I have almost no interest in hearing it or most any other Talking Heads song again. I have The Name Of This Band Is . . .; it was hard to track down at the time, and I was thrilled to get it. But these days I can't even get excited enough about the disc to load it onto my iPod.

what are peoples opinion on "look into the eyeball", byrne's recent album? its by no means his best thing ever but it's quite pretty and orchestral in places.

"Like Humans Do" is great - I find I end up loving about 1 song off all his later albums ("Miss America" and "Glass Concrete and Stone" being 2 from 2 more 'recent' full-lengths).

Frankly I just find it difficult to listen to Bryne at all anymore. Maybe in a few years I'll be able to come back and appreciate his recent stuff, but now just his voice makes me cringe.

Listening to SPEAKING IN TONGUES again on spotify, and wondering in what sense TH were 'intelligent' music, if such a thing has ever existed.

I just read my post about my favourite TH songs and thought, wow, that's still very accurate considering it dates from c.2002; then saw that it dated from a year ago.

Born Under Punches in the "09-Byrne tour" arrangement is really fucking great. Beautiful.

http://www.openculture.com/2012/06/live_in_rome_1980_the_talking_heads_concert_film_you_havent_seen.html

This is nice. With Adrian Belew

Plus Bernie Worrell,Dolette Mcdonald, Busta Jones and the others

whole lotta great/rare heads bootleg-type things over here: http://mywalloftapes.blogspot.com/

been knocking around for a while that Rome gig on You Tube etc, Belew on amazing form though aye. crazy they let him go although Alex Weir still does the biz on SMS.

From

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/06/the-talking-heads-song-that-explains-talking-heads.html

For younger listeners, and for older ones who never shared Lethem’s infatuation, Talking Heads live on principally in one track: the sad, sweet “love song” titled “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody).” When was the last time you heard “Burning Down The House,” the band’s biggest single? Probably not recently. But chances are good you’ve heard “This Must Be The Place” very recently, whether you knew it or not.
Thirty years old this year, the song has slowly but surely embedded itself in the American songbook. You can’t walk into a good bar between Williamsburg and Silver Lake without an even shot that it will come on the stereo in some iteration.

Good Lord, is this really true? It appears in a sizable proportion (but I think a minority) of POX lists here:

POX: Talking Heads

but doesn't appear to have anything like consensus top pick status.

Measuring purely on well-knownness, I would have thought that if people know one Talking Heads song it's "Psycho Killer," and if they know two they're "Psycho Killer" and "Once In a Lifetime," and if they know three they're "Psycho Killer" and "Once in a Lifetime" and either "Life During Wartime" or "Burning Down The House." but in any event not "This Must Be The Place."

once in a lifetime gets way more radio play

It's true that I've heard fans younger than me cite "This Must Be The Place" as their favorite Heads love song or The Best Love Song Ever. The correct answer is "Creatures of Love." Or "I'm Not in Love."

well that new yorker article is describing a subset of people. williamsburg and silver lake are not representative of most of america.

it sorta makes sense that it'd get hipster love, sorta a forefather to 'all my friends'

Byrne was the funkiest white man in pop until Flea showed up.

ok waht

I've always thought it was their best song fwiw

i was skeptical, but on Spotify, four of the top 10 most popular TH tracks are "This Must Be The Place" on various different albums -- the highest at #2 is from the Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps soundtrack

"This Must Be The Place" has been by far one of my favorite Heads songs since the first time i saw Stop Making Sense, though, so i don't really have a problem w/ that

four of the top 11, i should say

it's hard to isolate those numbers from its use in a big hollywood movie, like it's a good song but I'm sure if oliver stone used 'road to nowhere' I'm sure that'd be on top

thank you, New Yorker, for helping me imagine Anthony Kiedis singing "This Must Be The Place."

People who don't know who about Talking Heads, they know that song.

"Road to Nowhere" used prominently in Reality Bites and is even more of the moment in these fraught times than TMBTP but alas.

who

I've heard TMBTP at every wedding I've ever been to

idk. anybody here ever read the thomas m. disch novel _on wings of song_?

Personal note: I spent the first half of my musical life basically doing Heads-esque music in CBGB-esque venues. It mostly worked.

The second half has been focused on acoustic music, and I've discovered that I can't always make it work in those same spaces. I failed spectacularly in a pub once. Once. And i haven't quite recovered.

Ages ago, yeah

― Al Green Explores Your Mind Gardens (James Redd and the Blecchs)

been a long time for me, too. disch is one of those guys who was a big creative influence on me, stuff like _334_ and "descending" and honestly, to me _on wings of song_ is one of the most depressing books i've read. from what i remember it's about someone who grew up in the fascist theocratic midwest who wants to be a fairy, and in the midwest that's the worst thing you can be, that's evil and satanic, and in new york, in new york it's different, but... this is my memory, maybe the book isn't like this... the people who've always been in a more open-minded environment don't necessarily really understand what it's like, to grow up wanting to be a fairy in an environment where fairies are the worst things imaginable. getting to be a fairy is great but basically everything else sucks. it's not a terribly optimistic book.

so anyway disch was raised catholic in des moines and moved to new york city when he was 17 and wrote a bunch of stuff and then his longtime boyfriend/partner died in 2005 and he completely lost his shit and spent a couple of years posting islamophobic shit on livejournal and then he shot himself.

i think "the big country" is kind of a shitty, ignorant song.

It surprises me when friends say they like it. It's long!

It does depend on how you read Byrne's vocal melody and how he sings it. He wouldn't live "there" if they paid him because he doesn't sound like anybody else "there."

xp solo drums would be a tough pub sell

It does depend on how you read Byrne's vocal melody and how he sings it. He wouldn't live "there" if they paid him because he doesn't sound like anybody else "there."

― poppers fueled buttsex crescendo (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

i looked it up and you're right. genius says this about the song:

In an interview with Marc Maron in 2015, however, David Byrne claimed that the song is a satire of popular culture’s image of him: i.e. as a snobby city kid. However, in reality, he says that he has a deep respect for the smaller parts of the U.S.

well, i _don't_ have a deep respect for the smaller parts of the US. i wouldn't fucking live in indiana if you paid me to! a lot of these places will fucking kill your soul. that's why i left the big country, that's why i came out here, because indiana was killing my soul and because i had $100,000 burning a hole in my pocket.

i don't blame byrne and frantz and weymouth for moving to manhattan when they graduated art school. i think it was a good thing that they did! talking heads are a great band and the east village was an important part of making them the band they were. a lot of people don't have that option, or have that option but it takes a hell of a toll on you, doing that.

it's... this is kind of the insidious thing, particularly in people who belong to "marked" communities. like yeah i've envied certain trans women. it's not helpful or productive to do that but i have. sometimes i've envied, like, abigail thorn, who's younger than me and brilliant and gorgeous and successful and _lives on god-damn TERF island, for christ's sake_, what's to _envy_ about that? it is completely _fucked_ that i'd feel that way about her. or that i'd envy, say, hannah baer, whose book is literally called _trans girl suicide museum_. i don't know if any of y'all have read that book, but goddamn, the idea that anybody on earth would envy hannah baer...

but people feel how they feel. there are no wrong feelings. the challenge is just to act, i guess, wise-mindedly while acknowledging those feelings.

idk. i guess that maybe gets a little far afield from talking heads, but it's just interesting to think about.

have i ever mentioned how personally relatable i find "seen and not seen"?

xxxxp Billy Corgan in that Smashing Pumpkins "Once in a Lifetime" looks like the guy in Robocop who drives into a vat of toxic waste and then stumbles out of his car and his face melts off, but just at the very second his face starts melting off

also v bad version of the song of course

I thought it was like Chris Elliot doing his impersonation of Marlon Brando, cribbing Byrne for the climax of Apocalypse Now

Dobly Atmos Spatial Audio!

https://x.com/highdefdiscnews/status/1753951689936126111?s=46&t=bJOqpCuQneT7ju08y55VSA

Hot off the presses.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A73voVPhMfY-

that's...fine, though musically a note-for-note recreation

I've seen that one coming up a lot on "social" over the past few days (I guess just cuz Paramore are particularly popular)

The remastered Stop Making Sense is now streaming on Max, and holy fuck it just looks and sounds incredible.

I hadn't been interested to click that Paramore cover until now - nearly note for note as you say akm, but Hayley sings the absolute fuck out of it, made it twice as fun for me!

I really like the Paramore cover! It's not EXACTLY a note-for-note recreation, but it's certainly built on a chassis of showing they CAN do a note-for-note recreation.

Dang, I wish I still had HBO. Hopefully they'll still have it when I eventually rotate back.

I don't wanna be that guy but the Stop Making Sense remaster is something I actually dragged my ass to a movie theater to see and I think it deserves and needs that

i don't wanna be that girl but i wish they'd done the bonus tracks as well :)

i drove 180 miles each way to the last theater in the state playing it to watch it, so now i have taken the "that guy" pressure off you eephus. maybe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w3srlMKdSU

Harrison/Belew "Remain in Light" show with good sound.

Thela Hun Ginjeet is cool, No Talking Just Head vibe is inescapable though

they don't even do the whole album, though? also, why the fuck would you go to this to just yammer through the entire thing?

I wonder if anyone will come see my Byrne/Eno tribute band...My Life In The Bush Of Hosts'...I'll get my coat...

only if you do a live exorcism during The Jezebel Spirit

OK, I knew about their "Slippery People" cover, but holy shit I didn't know the Staple Singers also did "Life During Wartime"!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAXZ1wqI8zk

Love it!

that's great!

Revisiting that deluxe edition of '77 mentioned upthread, I guess an announcement should be coming soon. Someone found this image somewhere on Amazon:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61Fmz5GztEL.jpg

Super Deluxe Edition of the 1977 groundbreaking debut by Talking Heads, including the original album, outtakes, rarities and an 80 page hardcover book with new liner notes written by Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison. The book includes photos and images from the band's archive and photographers from the era.

craptastic perspective unwrap of those discs:
https://i.imgur.com/Y0j1ytj.jpeg

That's the only TH album I've never heard---in his book, Byrne says he was embarrassed by the horns, added at insistence o producer (lots of good stuff in there about how music works in the studio: "Oh you can't do it that way; this is what works. " Years later"Oh you're still doing it that way---this is what's cool.")
xpost That about music being shaped by the space it's made in--cathedrals, arenas, CBGC---does incl. the ending of the essay-to-chapter on making a scene, when he says that a number of places similar to CB, incl. acoustics, kind of bands and audiences, never did become much of a Scene.

CBGB

I like the horns, although I get why Byrne isn't a fan.

I'm pretty stoked about this series! I hope it does a good job of rounding things up.

GIVE ME MY POPSICLE OF LOVE REMASTERED IN SURROUND SOUND

Just kidding, I have no surround sound.

If you've been a Heads collector, it doesn't look like there's much of anything new on the rarities disc. They've pretty much just rounded up the non-LP and alternate versions from early singles, plus the new tracks from the comps Sand in the Vaseline, the Once in a Lifetime box, and the download-only Bonuses, Rarities and Outtakes set. I want more!

The CBS Demos would have been a nice extra, but I'm not really surprised they aren't here.

Jason Jones posted this:

I can finally talk about this one. All analog cut of the original album (overseen by the team at Sterling; Yes, Joe cut the lacquers). The rarities disc is an opportunity to compile all the disparate elements from those sessions that have dribbled out on various comps over the years as one definitive piece. Don't grumble about there only two previously unreleased tracks from those sessions as those are literally all that is left from those sessions. I will say that the alt of Psycho Killer is incredible (more aligned in approach with the OGWT performance) and the alt of Pulled Up is a nice curio into how it would have sounded had Tony Bongiovi had complete control (horns!). The previously unreleased live show from CBGB is fantastic. A perfect companion to the WCOZ piece from earlier this year. A completely frantic set.

I wanted to give the band their roses and demanded that a hardbound book be a part of the set. The fact that all of the band (plus Ed Stasium) contributed liner notes to the project was just icing on the cake. Rare photos of the band at the very beginning and a ton of ephemera. Ed's Atmos mix is on the blu-ray plus Jerry and ET's 5.1 Mix and Sterling's hi-res stereo transfer from the original master tape.

I've seen questions on here about how and why certain items weren't included (CBS demos, etc.). Here's what I will say: I put together the most definitive version of their debut with all of the tapes we have access to and I think everyone will be very happy with what I've put together.

He added elsewhere that the live disc is "a complete multi-track recording of the last show the band ever played at the legendary NYC club CBGB. It truly is the definitive document of the band in the early stages of their career. If you know and love this record, you won’t be disappointed. If you don’t know this record, this might be a good opportunity to immerse yourself in one of the defining bands of the last 50 years. They don’t make them like this anymore. Tons of formats are available for your preferred price point. If you’re looking to go all out, there is an all vinyl version available with exclusive represses of the original 7” singles from the album in their original picture sleeves."

How much is this thing? I’ll guess $300

$100 retail, but I'd just wait for a sale or a coupon code. (It'll be out before Black Friday)

Underpriced

The group is reading the video clues in a Heads/Stop Making Sense category on today's episode of Jeopardy.

Talking Heads Live on Tour '78 is being released on CD on April 11. Recorded at Cleveland's Agora Ballroom at the end of 1978, on the tour supporting More Songs About Buildings and Food, it was released on vinyl a few months later as part of Warner Bros.' Live on Tour promotional series. The CD version adds a previously unreleased version of "Thank You for Sending Me An Angel."

Track listing:

The Big Country
Warning Sign
The Good Thing
Artists Only
The Girls Want to Be with the Girls
Electricity (Drugs)
New Feeling
Found a Job
Thank You for Sending Me An Angel
Psycho Killer
Take Me to the River

I didn't know that there was a full promo album of that Agora show. About 15 years ago, I made one of my best garage sale vinyl scores, topped off by a Warner Music Show 12-inch EP with IIRC six tracks from that show: the three that got reissued on the expanded The Name of This Band...; an extended workout of "Psycho Killer"; and I forget the other two. I still have it in storage somewhere, but I can only find the full album on Discogs...maybe I got a bootleg?

Thinking harder, the other two cuts might have been "Warning Sign" and "Take Me To The River"

it's a famous bootleg that has been floating around torrent sites for decades, same reason it's hard for me to get excited about a lot of similar "deluxe" bonuses

it was an FM show iirc, so the quality is A+

Nice that there's a CD release this time, since the RSD vinyl of last year's live release got scarce and unaffordable fast.

Super deluxe reissue for More Songs About Buildings and Food is coming this summer.

The non-vinyl edition.

The full scoop here, although the press release seems to be cut off at the end.

Talking Heads’ groundbreaking second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, returns July 25 as a Super Deluxe Edition from Rhino. Released as the band celebrates its 50th anniversary, the collection captures a pivotal moment in their evolution and marks the first of three albums produced with Brian Eno.

The 3CD/1Blu-ray Super Deluxe Edition features the remastered album alongside 11 rarities, including four previously unreleased alternate versions of album tracks. One of those, “Found A Job,” is available digitally today ahead of the full release.

The set also includes a live recording of the band’s August 1978 show at New York’s Entermedia Theatre. Footage from that show and another at Sproul Plaza at the University of California, Berkeley, both appear on the Blu-ray. Additionally, there are Dolby ATMOS and 5.1 surround sound mixes by E.T. Thorngren and group member Jerry Harrison, plus a high-resolution stereo version of the album. A 60-page hardcover book rounds out the package, with previously unseen photos and new liner notes with recollections from Tina Weymouth, David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Harrison.

A 4LP vinyl version of the Super Deluxe Edition, also available July 25, features the remastered album, rarities, and the New York concert recordings. A second version—available exclusively at TalkingHeadsOfficial.com—includes reissues of four international 7” singles: U.S., U.K., and Japanese versions of “Take Me To The River,” plus “The Good Thing,” from the Netherlands. Each comes in a reproduction picture sleeve, all packaged alongside the 4LP set in a custom die-cut folio.

Additional Deluxe Editions will be available on 2LP black vinyl with a red vinyl pressing offered at TakingHeadsOfficial.com and select indie retailers. Both feature the remastered album and a selection of rarities.

The seeds for More Songs About Buildings and Food were planted in London in 1977, when the band met producer Brian Eno while touring behind their debut album. “When we went over to his flat, there was the immediacy of recognizing in his library books [and records] from our own collections,” recalls Harrison. “There was both mutual respect and a sense of shared sensibilities—all harbingers of a comfortable and successful collaboration.” Soon after, plans were made to record together.

Sessions began in March 1978, when the band traded their drafty Long Island City lofts for the Bahamas’ sunny beaches. They set up shop for several weeks at Chris Blackwell’s newly built Compass Point Studios, becoming the first band to record there.

Having been road-tested over a long tour, the new songs were ready to go. “To our great relief, [Eno] realized we were a tight live band at this point, so it made sense to record us all playing together in the studio,” Byrne says. “We weren’t all that comfortable in a recording studio, so this arrangement made us comfortable and put us at ease.”

Frantz recalls Eno’s most significant contribution was to slow the tempo of “Take Me To The River.” “We were used to playing the song at a pretty fast tempo like Al Green’s original, but we gave it a go,” he writes. “After several takes, we got what he was looking for, and everyone loved his treatment of the snare drum. This song became our first radio hit.”

The Polaroid mosaic that gives the album its striking visual identity came together later, back in New York. Byrne suggested the cover concept, says Weymouth. “David took the pictures of Chris, Jerry, and me, while I took the pictures of David. We used a close-up attachment and a red cloth for the backdrop. It was shot on the roof above Chris’s and my Long Island City loft. I still have that camera!”

Released on July 14, 1978, More Songs About Buildings and Food earned the band their first appearance on the Billboard 200. Their reimagining of Green’s “Take Me To The River” cracked the Billboard Hot 100 and became a left-field radio success, helping introduce the band to a wider audience. At the time, critics took note of the album’s sharp songwriting and Eno’s layered production—with The New York Times naming it the “No. 1 disk of 1978” and Vogue calling Talking Heads the “most fascinating experimental rock band in the world.”

The release launches a yearlong celebration of Talking Heads’ 50th anniversary. Formed in 1975, the band became one of the most influential to emerge from New York’s CBGB scene—helping shape modern music and redefine the art of the music video.

MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD (SUPER DELUXE EDITION)

3CD/1BR Track Listing

CD One: Original Album (2025 Remaster)

“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel”

“With Our Love”

“The Good Thing”

“Warning Sign”

“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls”

“Found A Job”

“Artists Only”

“I’m Not In Love”

“Stay Hungry”

“Take Me To The River”

“The Big Country”

CD Two: Rarities

“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” (Alternate Version)

“With Our Love” (Alternate Version) *

“Found A Job” (Alternate Version) *

“The Good Thing” (Alternate Version) *

“Warning Sign” (Alternate Version)

“Electricity” (Instrumental)

“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” (Alternate Version) *

“I’m Not In Love” (Alternate Version)

“Artists Only” (Alternate Version)

“The Big Country” (Alternate Version)

“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” (“Country Angel” Version)

CD Three: Live At Entermedia Theater, New York, NY (August 10, 1978)

“No Compassion” *

“Warning Sign” *

“The Book I Read” *

“Stay Hungry” *

“Artists Only” *

“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” *

“Uh-Oh, Loves Comes To Town” *

“With Our Love” *

“Love Goes To A Building On Fire” *

“Don’t Worry About The Government” *

“The Good Thing” *

“Electricity”*

“The Big Country” *

“New Feeling” *

“Pulled Up” *

“Psycho Killer” *

“Take Me To The River” *

“Found A Job” *

“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” *

Blu-Ray

Audio: Hi-Res Stereo, 5.1 & Atmos Mix of original album (2025 Remaster)

Video: Concert Footage

Live at Entermedia Theater, 1978

“Uh-Oh, Loves Comes To Town” *

“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” *

“The Good Thing” *

“Take Me To The River” *

“Found A Job” *

“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” *

Live At Sproul Plaza (Berkeley), 1978

“The Big Country” *

“Warning Sign” *

“The Book I Read” *

“Stay Hungry” *

“Artists Only” *

“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” *

“The Good Thing” *

“Uh-Oh, Loves Comes To Town” *

“Psycho Killer” *

“I’m Not In Love” *

“Pulled Up” *

MORE SONGS ABOUT BUILDINGS AND FOOD (SUPER DELUXE EDITION)

4LP Track Listing

LP One: Original Album (2025 Remaster)

Side One

“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel”

“With Our Love”

“The Good Thing”

“Warning Sign”

“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls”

“Found A Job”

Side Two

“Artists Only”

“I’m Not In Love”

“Stay Hungry”

“Take Me To The River”

“The Big Country”

LP Two: Rarities

Side One

“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” (Alternate Version)

“With Our Love” (Alternate Version) *

“Found A Job” (Alternate Version) *

“The Good Thing” (Alternate Version) *

“Warning Sign” (Alternate Version)

“Electricity” (Instrumental)

Side Two

“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” (Alternate Version) *

“I’m Not In Love” (Alternate Version)

“Artists Only” (Alternate Version)

“The Big Country” (Alternate Version)

“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” (“Country Angel” Version)

LP Three: Live At Entermedia Theater, New York, NY (August 10, 1978)

Side One

“No Compassion” *

“Warning Sign” *

“The Book I Read” *

“Stay Hungry” *

“Artists Only” *

Side Two

“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” *

“Uh-Oh, Loves Comes To Town” *

“With Our Love” *

“Love Goes To A Building On Fire” *

“Don’t Worry About The Government” *

“The Good Thing” *

LP Four

Side One

“Electricity”*

“The Big Country” *