Talking Heads didn’t align themselves with punk-rock just to be trendy. They’d been at CBGB at the very beginning of punk. In fact, by the time groups were flooding New York City from the outer state and calling themselves “punk rockers,” David Byrne and his group were running away from the genre like it was a house on fire.
This pushed the band into unfamiliar territory. It was just where they were most comfortable. Their music’s artsy ideals and near-constant tension led to “Remain in Light.” Many critics see it as Talking Heads’ finest hour. Does it deserve the status it’s been built through every music review? Now, I am examining and revisiting the album that turned the NYC group into unlikely pop stars of the 1980s.
Talking Heads Journey to Making “Remain in Light”
Before, it was a good thing to be different; it was a terrible, terrible thing to be different. There was none of that on the radio, except maybe comedy songs like the ones by Doctor Demento. Otherwise, there seemed to be no point in starting a rock band unless you looked and sounded like Robert Plant when you sang or could play Jimi Hendrix-style guitar solos.
Sure, there’d been groups like The Velvet Underground or Big Star. They’d done things differently. But where had that got them? Ignored by the mainstream, unemployable for bar gigs and ready-to-be-loved a few generations too late.
Even in the burgeoning punk scene, Talking Heads were different. Ramones dressed and tried to sound like tough guys riding bikes. Blondie pretended to be prep kids at a rally. Meanwhile, Television and Patti Smith were poets who’d put a beat behind their punk poems.
They’d all been inspired by The New York Dolls, amateurish musicians possessing plenty of excitement. They vamped Rolling Stones-style riffs, dressed in drag and had hundreds attending their club gigs every night.
Talking Heads was the one band that didn’t seem to enjoy the whole business of being on stage. Certainly, singer David Byrne didn’t. Their music was a contorted mess of R&B played under near-permanent tension. This had been the one thing that they got from punk-rock, a long with the knowledge that musical proficiency was no longer a requirement.
Ramones may have been stuck in their leather jackets, playing 2-minute songs forever. But Talking Heads escaped their own sound quickly. By 1979’s “Fear of Music,” the group was treating recoding songs like a scientific experiment.
They were interested, like The Clash or Blondie, in the sounds of New York streets – hip hop and Latin beats. But they’d also begun experimenting with African grooves courtesy of husband and wife section, Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. Meanwhile, Byrne and guitarist Herry Harrison worked to create sound textures that were not unlike David Bowie‘s pretentious but much-loved Berlin-made albums.
In fact, they had Bowie’s most cherished collaborator, Brian Eno, producing, co-writing and pushing the band further into the stream. Who could’ve predicted they were working on one of the definitive pop sounds of the 1980s?
“Remain in Light” Review
Is “Remain in Light” really that good? For the majority of iconic “alternative/indie rock albums,” context is important.
Yes, the sound is intriguing, and the band dares to push past their comfort zone. It’s true that, at times, the sound is otherworldly. But this collection of songs is best appreciated once you consider that there were few albums like this and few successful groups taking these kinds of risks.
Like Bowie or Eno on his solo records, Talking Heads announce from the album’s opener, “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On),” they are done with the whole rock n’ roll thing. What do they like instead? Dance music, American or African, and taking art classes.
The band sounds like a group playing funk music over a recording of African drums. And Byrne is no longer trying to sing. No, his words are delivered like paranoid speeches. But they have a cadence that fits the music, not unlike the early rap coming out of New York.
Next, “Crosseyed and Painless” announces that the opener was no one-time thing. This is another dance song, essentially. But if going to Studio 54 should have helped relax you, Byrne sings about “feeling like an accident.”
The African drums swimming in an ocean Brian Eno-powered synths can also be found on the album’s most famous track, “Once in a Lifetime.” Notoriously, this was meant as the record’s single. It didn’t perform well in the charts at first.
But the song then benefitted from one of the most memorable music videos of the 1980s, making Talking Heads early to the MTV party and ready to become a gigantically successful band.
Good timing, too, because it’s in the nervous dance-rock that Byrne and the band can truly share their character with the world.
“Houses in Motion” sounds like a therapy session recorded and put to a beat. And, “Listening Wind”, with its exotic groove, is a song about a foreign village suffering under the influence of the Americans.
Legacy of Talking Heads and “Remain in Light”
The success of “Remain in Light” was something of a miracle. The album produced no immediate hit single, and the material was much more complex than on previous outings.
However, the audience of Talking Heads chose to continue to follow their artistic growth. Besides that, the music video for “Once in a Lifetime” managed to translate the band’s quirkiness to a generation of musical fans who also demanded visual stimulation.
The album cracked the Top 20 in the U.S. and nearly did the same in the U.K. Music critics loved the record. The profile of “Remain in Light” has only been raised with each passing year.
Rolling Stone magazine placed it forth on their top albums of the 1980s. Pitchfork had it at number two on a similar list, and Q Magazine at number 27. It also routinely makes the lists, counting down the very best albums of all time. I’ve named it the 40th best alternative-rock album of all time.
Most importantly, however, “Remain in Light” showed artsy, creative types that popular music still offered them an avenue for expression beyond writing pop hits or producing loud, guitar-based rock music.
