Talking Heads box set 11/11

Still no single disc comp or CD of The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads, but a CD/DVD box set is on the way.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=18645&afl=mnew


Talking Heads Box "Lifetime"

Three-CD, one-DVD set due this fall

The Talking Heads will release Once in a Lifetime, a fifty-four-track career-spanning box set, on November 11th. The three discs feature album tracks and previously unreleased material, as well as an expanded DVD version of the band's 1988 video anthology Storytelling Giant.

Among the rarities is an early take of "Sugar on My Tongue," recorded in sessions before the band was completely formed. "It was before Jerry [keyboardist Harrison] joined," says drummer Chris Frantz. "A young A&R guy by the name of Mark Spector took us into the CBS studios. We had two hours of studio time and we banged out every song we knew at that time, which I think was fifteen. We set up in the middle of the room, he miked us up quickly and we let it rip."

Singer David Byrne, Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth formed the Talking Heads after meeting at the Rhode Island School of Design. After adding Harrison, the band's quirky amalgam of styles first flowed into the mainstream with a cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" on 1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food.

"As punky as we were, we were always into R&B, soul and funk," Weymouth says. "'Take Me to the River,' had never been a big hit for Al and we thought, 'Why don't we do this.' And as we were doing it we decided to slow it down. It helped us get over because it wasn't one of our weird songs, it was one of Al Green's weird songs, and it was hilarious to us to have David singing it and us playing it."

Buildings and Food marked the beginning of the Talking Heads' partnership with producer Brian Eno (David Bowie, U2), a pairing that would spawn three albums in three years. "We thought the studio was a place where you could delve deeper and experiment," Weymouth says, "and we knew Brian Eno was about that. He was a wonderful collaborator. He wasn't really a genius smarty-man like everybody thought, and neither were we. Together we created something that may have been smarty-pants . . . but you can dance to it."

Once in a Lifetime track listing:

Disc One:

Sugar on My Tongue
Love -- Building On Fire
I Wish You Wouldn't Say That
Don't Worry About the Government
Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town (Alternate Version)
New Feeling (Alternate Version)
Pulled Up
Psycho Killer
Warning Sign
Artists Only
Tentative Decisions
No Compassion
Stay Hungry
I'm Not In Love
The Book I Read
Thank You for Sending Me An Angel
Found a Job
A Clean Break (Live)
Take Me to the River
The Big Country
Heaven

Disc Two:

I Zimbra
Cities (Alternate Version)
Life During Wartime
Air
Memories Can't Wait
Drugs (Alternate Version)
Once in a Lifetime
Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
Listening Wind
Houses in Motion
Crosseyed and Painless
Burning Down the House
Making Flippy Floppy
Girlfriend Is Better
Slippery People
Swamp
This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)

Disc Three:

And She Was
Stay Up Late
Creatures of Love
The Lady Don't Mind
Road to Nowhere
Wild Wild Life
Love for Sale
People Like Us
Puzzlin' Evidence
City of Dreams
Blind
Mr. Jones
The Democratic Circus
(Nothing but) Flowers
In Asking Land (Alternate Take)
Sax and Violins
Lifetime Piling Up

Storytelling Giant DVD:

Once in a Lifetime
Wild Wild Life
Stay Up Late
Blind
Crosseyed and Painless
Burning Down the House
And She Was
Sax and Violins
This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
The Lady Don't Mind
Love for Sale
(Nothing But) Flowers
Road to Nowhere

COLIN DEVENISH
(September 8, 2003)

 

Great...

 

Where the hell is Name of the Band is Talking Heads?

 

No "Cities"?

Nevermind: I see there's an alt version.

 

As I read the list, I was thinking the same thing. Where's "Thank You For Sending Me An Angel" (version). Track listing looks good. Too bad it's not a 4 CD set. They could have then added more unreleased, 7 inch mixes, 12 inch mixes and alternate takes, similar to the last XTC box set.

Glad I kept all my Talking Heads 45s.

 

There's always hope for them to appear on the album upgrades...

 

As casual listener of The Talking Heads... I'm happy with this collection. I never was a big fan, but I do like very much some of their songs.

 

I'm sure Rhino will upgrade the backkatalog with alternate takes, like Yes, Grateful Dead and others.

 

I still wish that they had released a version of the True Stories songs with the movie artists doing them. The kids doing Hey Now and the old man doing Papa Legba are amazing.
Damn I wish that the dvd was done right, in OAR and DTS... Byrne was robbed!
Anyone else love that movie?

 

Me too, I have that 7" also - another good one that comes to mind is the extended 12' mix of I Zimbra. I think I have every domestic and UK import 12" from Speaking in Tongues and Little Creatures.

Ken

 

Some of the movie performances were used as b-sides for 45s. I agree, though, a full CD of all the movie takes would be a great idea.

 

What I want to know is Who Is Mastering This Thing? If it's maximized and no noised, I'm Not Interested. But if it's mastered thoughtfully, I'll buy two copies. I love TH.

 

Holy ****, and I just started buying the regular cee-dees!

Well, so far I have only More Songs and Fear of Music, and I'm planning to buy Remain In Light and '77 soon. At least I will have the "classic" Talking Heads' albums by the time the box comes out.

Good tracklisting however.

 

What about the rerecording of Once In A Lifetime for the movie Down & Out in Beverly Hills? Always liked that version.

Brian

 

I have been waiting for years to see the video clip of the Heads play ''Take Me to the River'' live with Eno in the band. I had the audio of it on cassette but it was stolen.

They were one of my favourite new wave bands - I'm sure that there is plenty of unreleased stuff somewhere which should see the light of day!

 

For those that are interested, extended mixes are available via import on a collection called 12 X 12.

 

No, you don't wanna do that. Talking Heads on CD have been terrible. You could get a turntable for the money the Heads' discography would cost you. Or perhaps SACD soon.

 

Yes, I'm another huge fan of this movie. Didn't they come out with an LP of the movie version of the songs? That's one I regret passing up. I always thought it would come out on CD, so I haven't tried to track it down on LP, but maybe I should...

- Joe

 

This is a case, of where, waiting for the album remasters, is a better deal.

There's nothing here to justify, at least, a $40 to $50.00 purchase. Even the DVD isn't enticing, enough, for the cost. "Stop Making Sense" will do.

They should go "back to the drawing board", on this one, and put in more rarities, and less "intro"/primer songs.

 

I'm not too excited about this one, either. The full albums would be much better than another collection from these guys. And "The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads" was my introduction to them. The live versions of the "Remain In Light" songs on that album were killer; it also includes their BEST version of "Take Me To The River".

"Storytelling Giant" is a gem, not only for the music videos, but for all those (sometimes strange" people interviewed between the clips. But I already have it on a laserdisc.

 

Maybe they should model an album remasters series after the Elvis Costello remasters ?

Stick the DVD video, into one of the sets, like Clapton did, for his last live album set, and you have something interesting.