What does it sound like?:
No-one thumps a drumkit as robustly as Chris Frantz. The highlight of this 3 CD + 1 Blu-Ray is a live recording at CBGBs on 10th October 1977. It sounds fantastic and features Frantz walloping away with gusto, the missing link between the weedy production of the debut album and the power unleashed on More Songs About Buildings And Food. His battering introduction to the opening song, Love -> Building On Fire, is both deafening and gasp-inducing. Martina Weymouth, as she is credited on Talking Heads 77, a keen student of Bootsy Collins’s basslines for James Brown, sounds equally beefy, providing the core strength of Take Me To The River, already fully constructed well before Brian Eno added his adjustments. Thank You For Sending Me Angel is present and fully formed, but Stay Hungry is yet to lose a few extra parts. The boys on guitars, +/- keyboards, are wonderful, too. David Byrne’s vocals are as quirky and dynamic as they ever were. It’s great to hear his introductions, always the same for every song; “This name of this song is…” Disc Three is a familiar experience for those of us lucky enough to witness them first hand as a four piece in the late seventies. Our mind’s can picture Byrne’s gawky physical presence, Weymouth wielding her bass, Harrison cool and calm behind a rudimentary keyboard, and Frantz thundering away. It’s the best Talking Heads live disc ever released. Yes, better than that one. A thrilling hidden treasure.
Talking Heads arrived in Sundragon Recording Studios, New York, thoroughly prepared. They had spent two years practising, writing songs, honing their act, and only signed a record deal when they felt ready. They were a tight unit who exploited the peculiarities of their frontman and main songwriter. The songs marry catchy Pop with Art Rock and R&B rhythms. Stiff staccato time changes are discombobulating, guitars frantic and unsettling, the voice stretched beyond its range, resorting frequently to yelps and squeals, all adding up to a sense of stress. The lyrics capture the otherness of a neurodiverse mind, both bewildered and fascinated interacting with humans, but taking solace in the reliable functionality of inanimate objects and comfort in concrete thinking and the minutiae of routine. Nevertheless, when Talking Heads 77 was released, it stood out as unique in a remarkable year for Rock music, shining brightly with an abundance of whistleable ditties, upbeat and danceable, subversive in a way no-one else could match, though XTC came close. They pulled off the trick of converting the adrenaline of tension into a rush of joy.
Tony Bongiovi had just produced two albums for their Sire stable mates, The Ramones, and he made Talking Heads sound like dweebs in comparison, as though he gave them thinner guitar strings. It seemed entirely appropriate at the time, shiny, poppy, nerdy, but hindsight tells us that the production is 77’s weakest aspect. The 2005 remaster addressed the issue by adding more to the bottom end. This remaster adds a bit more muscle, enhancing the album’s position in the Talking Heads pantheon. It is, after all, the album most packed with tunes.
The second disc consists of singles, rarities, outtakes and alternative versions, all of which are as good as any of the tracks that made the cut. Only two haven’t previously been released, an “alternative Pop version” of Pulled Up and an acoustic Psycho Killer featuring Arthur Russell on cello. Being popped up generally means a softening of the vocal serrated edges and the addition of bubblegum horns. The Blu-Ray has an Atmos mix, a 5.1 mix and a Hi-Resolution Stereo of the album. It’s all encased in a hardback eighty page book with new notes from all four members of the group. The first two discs are available as a 2 LP set.
This well presented collection proves that Talking Heads were ready to change the musical world as soon as they stepped into a recording studio and the live set is revelatory, demonstrating they were a formidable force from the very beginning. The only concern is the strain on fans’ bank accounts. If all seven remaining albums follow the same high standard, it will all add up to a considerable wedge.
What does it all *mean*?
It’s the flaws and irritations that give this music its edge.
Goes well with…
A CD player and Blu-Ray
Release Date:
8th November 2024
Might suit people who like…
Quirky, glorious Pop music.
Pulled Up (alternative pop version)
The 2LP is AAA cut, for those who care about such things.
I’m up for this, but already have everything except the live CD3 and the Atmos mix. I will bite when the price is right – it was £80 on pre-order and is £100 now, halve that and I might be interested.
Paul at SDE has done an unboxing video and was underwhelmed by the package.
Yeah, this is definitely ridiculously overpriced. Book looks underwhelming and the audio content too. The 2 disc version from about 15 years ago or so was a much better buy, but not any more as it is hard to find. I think I have it somewhere as I have most of those releases. They have excellent surround sound mixes and also video content which this lacks. The Hoffmanites are also complaining that the new version is dynamically compromised and has poorer sound quality
It’s a good album, but for me they really got going with the next one.
It sounds pretty good to me but, you are right, the previous issues are excellent. For me, disc three, the live set, is the must have.
Ok. Will listen via streaming or will download it
I’d give short odds on the live disc being issued on vinyl for next years RSD
If so, I’d be first in the queue to purchase it.
I’m also slightly narked that this leaves out so much that should have been included. The 1975 CBS demo album, for a start.
If they don’t include the 1978 Agora live Warners promo LP in the next box, I’m going to write a stern letter to my MP.
They probably consider that CBS demo to be crap. They improved tremendously from that point and acquired another group member.
Do you think your MP will be interested? I do know a future senator played on Little Feat’s The Last Record Album.
A couple of the CBS demos were on the Sand In The Vaseline compilation, so they weren’t considered so crap in 1992. I have a bootleg LP of the whole lot and they’re definitely worth a listen. It narks me somewhat when expensive “definitive edition” box sets come out missing obvious material. If they expect us to cough up big bucks, we should have some say in it.
I’m still annoyed that New Order missed the live BBC simulcast session from the Low Life box set, and Tears For Fears had to be persuaded to include a non-album single in their Big Chair box (initially left out because they don’t like it). Questions were asked in the House about Oasis tickets, so I don’t see why my MP shouldn’t be interested in this.
And wasn’t the “new” Arthur Russell cello version previously released as a B-side of the Psycho Killer single.
Found my copy, appears to still be sealed (how embarrassing)
So I can’t speak of the sound quality of that version, but I have played 3 or 4 of the other ones and the surround sound mixes were some of the best I have heard. Maybe I will crack it open this weekend
Also note CD track 14, the acoustic Psycho Killer, one of the two “previously unreleased” tracks on this box. I’m sure I’ve heard Pulled Up with the horns, too, but possibly on a bootleg.
That acoustic version is on disc two, but so is an alternative version that is previously unreleased.
Yeah the “hype sticker” gives slightly different information
Great review as always, @Tiggerlion.
Was going to pass on this but will deffo reconsider when the price drops as it surely will
I LOVED that record. Still do. Might have to buy the physical copy for once!
Nice review. Possibly the first ‘cool’ record I ever bought, in 1986 probably, when I was 14. I had a C90 with Stop Making Sense and Little Creatures on it, both of which I loved so I thought I’d try another of theirs. It felt very adventurous buying an old record – the first time I’d done that. Must admit I was a little nonplussed at first – it didn’t sound anything like Little Creatures! – but these days I think it’s my favourite of theirs.
We’re all a bit worried, Tigger…. there is life outside this forum. We’ve booked a nice B&B in Blackpool this weekend for you and the No1 Rule is – no music, no reviews!! Fish & chips then see you on the Big Dipper. Now, take those headphones off and go start packing.
I remember so clearly that OGWT and the nervy nerdy rendition of Psycho Killer, buying the album the next day. For me, this album, together with More Songs About Buildings and Food is the quintessential Byrne experience. As they became so knowingly arty and, then, polyrhythmic global, the gloss was off and they were just another pop group straddling success with ever more glitzy new clothes of an imperial sort. Not necessarily the received wisdom, then, of them getting better and better. The bigger they got so the more bored I became of them, perhaps the reason why the Busby Berkeley Byrne extravaganzas of now leave me cold.
Blimey, – BBB! So Wrong. I have to admit I like old, simple Heads to the big band extravaganza but saying that Stop Making Sense is only bettered as a “rock movie” by Byrne’s American Utopia. Both utterly, utterly magnificent.
Retro and I rarely seem to agree on music – but we are at one on this.
Put Stop Making Sense and American Utopia in one corner; 77 and More Songs…in the other – and I’ll take the nervy, nerdy quartet every time.
For me there is rather too much Byrne on this record. He grates a bit with his mannerisms. He’s too prominent. At the time I thought it was great and fresh. But now I don’t play it so much. MSABAF is a better listen. 77 is a bit too trebly also. The next albums definitely have a better sound. I’m interested in giving it a listen though.
What did you think, Diddley? It’s rather difficult avoiding Byrne on Talking Heads albums. 😄
He gets better I would say and less in your face. By Life During Wartime he’s firing on all cylinders and I can only applaud.
Well, @tiggerlion , old cock, certainly some broad eclecticism in your last three posts here. Looking forward to the next three. May I suggest a brisk run through a Bill Monroe retrospective, The Unthanks forthcoming Xmas album and the Crass boxset, so as to leave no genre unstoned?
What no “Nose Flutes: a 12CD retrospective charting the history …..”?
Nah, @kaisfatdad is already on that.
No way @retropath2. That measly 12 CD collection is for part-timers
We Flutey Fanatics all go for the magnificent 48 CD Gold Selection.
Please don’t tell you are just a weekend Fluteyfriend.
From about 3 minutes in.
That OK but it would be better on the Flooglehorn by Mattel.
That’s the one! Too work, Hubes
I still can’t believe that Talking Heads were around in 1977.
They sound so modern- ahem.
I might get this from an eel market – I bought it once and if the product wasn’t good enough then, sue me – if the sound is that much improved over the very weedy-sounding original.
Just the original LP mind, I ll never listen to any extras.
It’s always the live shows that interest me in these sets. Alt takes etc get listened to once.
The previous “ muscled up” reissue of 77 passed me by.
What do I look for to find it?
The whole back catalogue was remastered (in hi-res stereo and 5.1) and expanded by/with Chris Frantz and released on “DualDisc” (CD on one side, DVD-Audio on the other) in 2005, but only in the US, in a white plastic case, as ‘Brick’. I got an import for about £100 from a colleague on a US trip. In 2006, the individual albums were released as DualDisc in the US and CD + DVD-A sets in Europe. Fopp used to flog them for a fiver.
At the time Frantz said there was plenty more in the can, but they could only fit on a few bonus tracks due to the limitations of the DualDisc format.
I think the remastering was done by Jerry Harrison, not Chris.
You might well be right, I’ve had nearly 20 to forget!
I’ve just streamed the live set in hi-res, and very good it is, too. I’d be a bit miffed if I’d paid £100 for it, though.
One track (A Clean Break) was previously issued on the (download-only) Bonus Rarities & Outtakes compilation, which is sort of a best of the bits that didn’t fit on Brick.
*phew*
Crikey! What a belter of a live album! That little drummer boy sure knows how to biff and bong…
My work is done!
😘
Is the 5.1 mix the same as the old Brick one?
The blurb says “brand new”.
I remember buying “Talking Heads 77” in late 1977, on the back of rave reviews in the UK music press. It was a really exciting album purchase.
I loved the plain red and green sleeve. I loved the way that David, Jerry, Chris and (Mar)Tina just looked like normal people on the back cover. Not like a rock band.
Listening to the album now, I suppose the production, as Tigger says, is a bit weedy. But that never occurred to me at the time. I just thought that the album was fresh and great, sounding sparse, jerky, clever – like nothing else, really. David Byrne’s voice and lyrics just couldn’t be ignored. I really wanted to see the band live, and I few months later (February 1978) I managed to do that, on their famous tour with Dire Straits supporting. I know that quite a few other Afterworders caught them on that UK tour.
Looking at “77” now, I’d say that 3 tracks are a little on the weak side: “Happy Day”, “Who is it” and “”First Week/Last Week… Carefree”. The other eight tracks are all ace, though.
I won’t be getting this box set, as for me, I don’t think the extra content is worth the money. But what a band. What a band. Reading the Chris Frantz autobiography brought it all back to me. Over eleven years and eight studio albums, almost everything Talking Heads recorded was good. And much of it was simply outstanding.
Absolutely agree with your assessment of the band.
Streaming may be against your religion, duco, but do try the live disc. I first saw them in 1978 and that live set had me dancing round visualising them playing in my front room.
I first bought ’77 on a twofer Chrome tape with MSAB&F on the other side in Woolworths, Stevenage, in 1982 or ’83 for about 50p. I also got Thompson Twins – Quick Step & Side Kick on tape, which had 12″ remixes on the flip side. My cousin Simon bought Speaking In Tongues on tape, which had longer versions of some of the songs than the record.
All were dirt cheap because the inlay sleeves were missing, so the bit of my brain that associates front covers with music had to do a bit of relearning when I bought them all later on LP.
My 2LP copy has just turned up and it sounds fantastic. Compared to my original (a 1978 repress), it sounds as though it is remixed, not just remastered. Guitar and keyboard lines I’d never heard before are in the room, and the drums sound much more lively, such is the increased clarity.
The production is still the limiting factor, however.
Great news!