Talking Heads side projects -- Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew -- why not quite right?

Sounds more like Talking Heads than it does like King Crimson; even King Crimson when they were doing their best to sound like Talking Heads.

But couldn't the same thing have been said about Tina and Chris, before "Genius of Love" made the Tom Tom Club album platinum before any Talking Heads record?

I don't think it's this simple.

I was also interested if anybody knew how many Talking Heads-ish musicians were involved in Jerry Harrison's project? I feel like the band was very fractious at that time.

I had the cassingle of Adrian Belew's "Oh, Daddy."

Yep.

Great tune!

is there really not a Jerry Harrison thread?

'Slink' sounds like Chaz Jankel.

"Rev It Up" sounds good this Sunday afternoon

Adrian Belew talks about Jerry Harrison quite a bit in this podcast:

https://www.caropop.com/caropopcast/episode/d476e076/adrian-belew

He gives Harrison a lot of credit, calling him the glue because he got things done in the band, especially when Byrne was out-of-town.

Now see, a lot of that stuff just affirms what we discussed on the other thread. Jerry Harrison might not get the credit that David Byrne got, but he played a prominent role in the studio and, predictably, parlayed that into his own long, lucrative production career. But Franz and Weymouth followed up the band with pretty much a whole lotta nothing but complaints, which somewhat undercuts their claims of being unsung heroes.

Yeah, Belew says it's no surprise that Harrison produces because it's kind of reflected in what he did for Talking Heads, at least in terms of getting things done or getting things to come together.

All four of the Talking Heads made each other’s writing and playing better. It sucks that the personalities involved couldn’t value that enough to continue playing in various formations over the decades, but you can see why both Byrne and Frantz/Weymouth legitimately feel disrespected by the other faction.

It’s also fine and good that they stopped being Talking Heads before making a bunch of bad records, and that they’ve all made music for appreciative audiences for a long time afterwards. (Also that Harrison seems to be chill about the situation & about his colleagues personally.)

Didn't know Franz had a heart attack a couple of years back. Anyway, what has Franz/Weymouth done in the decades since the TH broke up? A couple Ziggy Marley albums produced, bad Happy Mondays album produced ... very bad Heads? That's it, right?

Several TTC albums, and probably lots of fun shows.

I bet they did their best with the Mondays record under the circumstances; it still managed to get one of the band's best songs out of them, and invent Black Grape.

Jerry has been on the last couple of Jonathan Richman albums! Half a Modern Lovers reunion!

Wait, what?

In that Tape Op interview he's pretty complimentary about their (Franz/Weymouth) playing though, and Franz' ear. Don't blame a great rhythm section for not making enough great records on their own.

The Marc Maron interview with Jerry from a little while back is terrific: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6LtMeiQ_Hg

I picked up Lone Rhino for a couple of bucks and I’m just giving it a spin - it is good fun! Lots of Belew making guitars sound absolutely thrilling which is a trick he seemed to lose sometime in the mid-80s? Oh it just went a bit Laughing Clowns.

Also, his singing is a lot less annoying than on the contemporaneous Crimson LPs? Or am I just getting used to it?

Anyway I don’t know if I really need it but it’s definitely a cool “art rock” record by a guy who was hanging out with cool “art rockers” like David Bowie and Robert Fripp and the Talking Heads.

Harrison and Belew and some other folks are doing a Remain in Light tour in the US now into March

https://www.remaininlight.net/

I enjoyed that Caropop interview, and it made me watch the TH Live in Rome '80 set on youtube today.

I always forget that's him on 'You Can Call Me Al', jeez

"Lots of Belew making guitars sound absolutely thrilling which is a trick he seemed to lose sometime in the mid-80s" I dunno, that's really his entire thing and he does that on all of his albums, the vast majority of which have a lot to offer, i think. I mean I like something on all of them, pretty much. Desire Caught by the Tail still my favorite though.

that's fair, I'm hardly an expert - I guess I got to know him mainly through Bowie and he sounds amazing on that Isolar II tour and the Talking Heads live stuff - where he rules - but then when he rejoins Bowie for that Sound and Vision tour his playing doesn't feel nearly as exciting

speaking of which...

guitarist scrote