391 Hello Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime

Chart  entered : 7  February  1981

Chart  peak : 14

Number  of  hits  : 10

These  lot  seem  to  have  gone  out  of  fashion  in  recent  years  with  few  bands  citing  them  as  an  influence  but  I  dare  say  the  critical  wheel  will  turn  round  and  restore  them  to  favour.

The  band  came  together  in  1974. Scottish -born  David  Byrne  ( born  1952 )  and  Chris  Frantz ( born  1951 )  were  students  at  the  Rhode  Island  School  of  Design  where  they  formed  a  short-lived  band  called  The  Artistics. Frantz's  girlfriend Tina  Weymouth  ( born  1954 )  who  was  also  at  the  school  acted  informally  as  their  roadie.  The  trio  relocated  to  New  York  where  they  lived  in  a  communal  loft. As  David  sang  and  played  guitar  and  Chris  was  a  drummer  they  needed  a  bass  player. Chris persuaded  Tina  to  learn  the  instrument  and  join  their  new  band.

The  trio  played  their  first  gig  as  Talking  Heads  supporting  The  Ramones  at  CBGB's  in  Jne  1975  and  quickly  became  part  of  the  punk  scene  though  their  music  was  far  removed  from  the  three  chord  thrashes  of  Joey  and  the  boys. They  were  signed  to  Sire  at  the  beginning  of  1977  and  released  their  first  single  "Love  Goes  To  Building  On  Fire"  in  February  that  year.
It's  a  quirky  art-pop  song  based  on  a  simple  circular  guitar  riff  with  David's  high  vocal  emphasising   a  debt  to  Sparks. Halfway  through  a  trumpet  comes  in  and  David  starts  doig  military  barks  and  repeating  the  word  "tweet". Tina  later  described  David's  modus  operandi  as  always  doing  something  unexpected  when  the  listener  started  to  get  comfortable. Unsurprisingly  the  single  failed  to  sell.

Shortly  afterwards they  added  Jerry  Harrison  ( born  1949 )  to  the  line  up.  Jerry  was  a  former  architecture  student  and  had  been  in  The  Modern  Lovers  with  Jonathan  Richman. He  played  on  their  epochal  debut  album  which  included  the  punk  classic  "Roadrunner"  but  quit  in  1974  when  Richman  wanted  to switch  to  a  more acoustic  sound. Jerry  joined  as  keyboard  player  or  second  guitarist. Some  of  their  debut  album "Talking  Heads  77"  was  recorded  before  Jerry  joined  the  band.

"Talking  Heads : 77" , released  in  September  1977,  is  an  assured  debut  , its  nervy  little  songs  sounding  like  nobody  else  except  occasionally  perhaps  XTC.  Opener  "Uh  Oh  Love  Comes  To  Town"  with  its  unexpected  steel  drums  was  released  as  a  single  in  the  US.  Some  of  the  songs  like  "Who  Is  It "  and  "Happy  Day  " seem  a  bit  underwritten  whereas  "No  Compassion"  staggers  under  the  weight  of  Alanis  Morrisette-like  wordiness. All  of  the  tracks  were  written  by  David  alone  apart  from  standout  track  "Psycho  Killer" whose  tense  pulsing  bassline  and   menace-laden  lyric  make  it  a  new  wave  classic. As  a  single  it  was  a  minor  hit  in  the  US  but  the  album  did  nothing. Over  here  the  single  missed  but  the  album  made  a  respectable  showing  at  number  60. The  jolly  "Puled  Up"  was  belatedly  released  as  a  single  in  May  1978  but  was  ignored.

For  the  second  album  "More  Songs  About  Buildings  And  Food"  Brian  Eno  came  on  board  as  producer  and  additional  musician. Though  David's  songs  remained  as  spiky  and  quixotic  as  before, Eno  concentrated  on  the  rhythm  section  bringing  out  their  funkiness.  The  only  single  was  the  untypical  cover  of  Al  Green's  "Take  Me  To  The  River"  given  a  fairly  conventional  rock  treatment  which  makes  them  sound  like  Argent. It  did  the  trick  in  giving  them  a  big  hit  in the  US  where  it  peaked  at  26. The  album  got  to  29 in  the  States  and  21  over  here  though  we  disdained  the  single  even  after  it  was  re-released  as  a  double  pack in  the  summer  of 1979.

Eno's  services  were  retained  for  their  third  album  "Fear of  Music"  in  1979  which  was  partly  recorded  in  Chris  and  Tina's  apartment  but  it  doesn't  sound  like   it.  With  a  few  more  co-writing  credits  for  the  other  members  and  Eno  the  sound  is  bigger. Some  tracks  like  the  opener  "I  Zimbra"   put  the  funk  out  front  while  the  likes  of  "Air"  and  "Heaven" on  the  second  side  are  more  melodically  accessible  than  their  previous  material. The  album   got  to  21  in  the  US  and  33  over  here. The  singles  were  "Life  During  Wartime"  , a  hard-driving  funk  number  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  paranoid  survivalist  which  got  to  number  80  in  the  US,  "Cities"  a  frantic  funk  number  with  a  great  bassline  and  bafflingly  "I  Zimbra"  which  is  essentially  a  percussion -heavy  chant  with  no  coherent  lyric.

Nevertheless  "I  Zimbra"  pointed  their  way  to  their  fourth  feted  LP  "Remain  in  Light"  released  in  October  1980. Inspired  by  African  music, the  band  and  Eno  built  the  tracks  up  slowly  from  a  rhythmic  base   using  samples  and  loops. Adrian  Belew  was  brought  in  to  add  some  distorted  guitar  then  David  worked  on  the  lyrics  and  melodies  again  turning  to  Africa  for  inspiration. He  and  Eno  had  been  working  on  a  separate  project  incorporating  world  music  styles  "My  Life  in  he  Bush  of  Ghosts"  which  had  been  completed  but  held  up  while  legal  clearance  was  obtained  for all  the  samples  used. The  resulting  album  had  the  critics  drooling  although  it  trod  water  commercially  reaching  19  in  the  US  and  21 here.

"Once  In  A  Lifetime"  was  belatedly  released  as  the  first  single  at  the  same  time  as  "My  Life  in  The  Bush  of  Ghosts".  The  self-proclaimed  saviour  of  Radio  One, the  obnoxious  Trevor  Dann,  claims  credit  for  it  being  a  hit  in  the  UK  through  repeated  plays  on  Dave  Lee  Travis's  afternoon  show  as  part  of  a  doomed  attempt  to  re-position  the  "Hairy  Cornflake"  as  a  serious  taste  maker  ( difficult  as  the  bearded  DJ  famously  didn't  own  a  record  player ).

The  song's  rhythm  track  was  inspired  by  Fela  Kuti's  polyrhythmical  approach, further  distorted  by   Eno  in  the  studio  so  that  all  the  instruments  are  slightly  out  of   kilter  with  each  other  producing  a  lurching  effect. David  yelps  in  the  style  of  a  televangelist  about  questioning  the  facts  of  your  material  existence  and  living  on  autopilot  without  really  considering  where  you'll  end  up. Eno  came  up  with  the  tune  for  the  chorus  which  made  it  the  album's  most   accessible  song. The  single  was  boosted  by  the  groundbreaking  video  which  had  David  as  bespectacled  nerd  doing  strange  dances  party  in  imitation  of  ethnic  styles  ( such  as  doing  hand  chops  across  the  forearm )  and,  more  controversially,  movements  associated  with  epilepsy  as  suggested  by  his  choreographer  Toni  Basil.
 
I   have  to  admit  I  hated  it  when  it  was  in  the  charts  as  it  clearly  didn't  fit within  the  New  Romantic  prism  I  was  viewing  music  through  at  the  time  and  only  came  to  appreciate  it  later.