Customer Reviews

The Name of This Band is Talking Heads

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This is one of the greatest live rock albums ever released, which always made me wonder: why the hell wasn't it ever released on CD? Fortunately, that omission has been corrected and then some.

I, like most of the other reviewers here, bought this on cassette in the early 80s, and listened to it over and over and over on my Walkman. Once CDs became the dominant form, it seemed like this release was just going to fade away and I started cautiously eyeballing the extra-long cassette with its extra-thin tape to allow for 40 minutes per side. I found the double-LP set in a used record store, cued up an XLII and made a safety copy.

But now not only is that no longer necessary, but the CD is almost double the length of the original set. Great remastered barebones live Talking Heads from 77, 78, 79, 80 and some other rarities. It charts the early evolution of the band from Izod-wearing art schoolies to rhythmic world beat hipsters, dropping off just before the "Stop Making Sense" period began.

The new version sounds amazing (maybe I'm just used to my muddy old dubs) and it's almost box-set-like in its set list and packaging. It's a record to make your day.

Took them long enough. 22 years after its vinyl release, one of the best live albums finally sees the light of day on CD. For years I had to listen myself to the CDR copy I made from vinyl (and that was tweaked by an engineer for CD). Late last year frustrated with not seeing this great album on CD, I wrote Rhino Handmade a email (I'm sure I'm not the only one)asking them to considering bulking up the original and re-releasing it on CD. Evidently my email and many others from other Talking Heads fans connected with someone as we finally have this terrific live document available on CD. TNOTBITH sounds better than ever and with 15 rare/previously unreleased tracks to boot!This was always my favorite Talking Heads album just behind "Remain in Light". Why? To be truly appreciated TH had to be seen and heard live. It's a pity there's no visual documentation of this version of the band available.

Charting the rise of the band from an early live recording in 1977 when the band was still a three piece to the legendary 10 piece featuring guitar great Adrian Belew. While "Stop Making Sense" gained more notice because it was after the band broke through (and because of Jonathan Demme's marvelous film), this album features some of the best shows/live versions of classic Talking Heads songs. The original album had 17 tracks (the cassette release had 18 including "Cities"). Rhino has added tracks recorded for radio shows, a rare Warner promo album and shows previously not represented on the vinyl or cassette versions. Now spread out over two CDs, there's a total of 33 tracks roughly doubling the original album.

The booklet basically reproduces the original packaging for the album with additional notes on the new material. There's no involved liner notes but that's OK as the music speaks for itself.

The Name of this Band is Talking Heads is one of my all-time favorite live records. All through high school & college it was an album I always returned to (on cassette) when I wanted something great & energetic to listen to in the studio or on the road.
But there was never a CD release. I have the vinyl for home & the tape for travel...but there was no CD version.
Now, after a long wait, Rhino has released this amazing expanded version of the classic 2 lp set. After buying my copy last night & listening to it during the olympics I had to write a review...because it's amazing. Even if they had just released the original version it would have been great, but this 2 cd set with 16 brand spanking new tracks (and three from the Promo live record) is unreal.
Even though the Heads never changed their songs much, the jammy live versions added here of Animals, Who Is It?, and Born Under Punches add so much to the original album that it makes purchasing this new release worth it and then some. If you've been craving some additional Heads stuff to add to your collection, this 2cd set is the fix...combined, the 33 traks make for a great listen, and show the gap left in music since the demise of this amazing band.
Thanks to Rhino for doing it best yet again!

The Talking Heads may have evolved from the same petrii dish that fermented into the Ramones, Blondie, New York Dolls and a host of others, but they were as far musically from that crowd as a wall street exec stumbling through the Bowery. Far more into precision than noise, The Heads mixed their arty pop with quirky bubblegum sensibilities into songs like "New Feeling" and "Psycho Killer" long before Blondie took their pop sense and strode forth with "Heart Of Glass." While many may remember the denser and more rhythmic Talking Heads that began to emerge around "Fear Of Music," then ultimately immortalized on "Stop Making Sense," the first disc of this newly reconstructed double live set shows just how powerful the original four piece band was. Sounding solid and tentative both at the same time, the original 1977 material underscores the creative energy the Talking Heads were a part of during that relatively -- no pun intended -- heady late seventies NYC music period.

You can also hear them gaining confidence on the 1978 segment of the first disc and also how Byrne was beginning to assert his eccentricities (the early and less complex version of "Electricity"). Also readily in evidence is the band members' mastery of their instruments, including one of the great keyboardists of the era, Jerry Harrison.

Then you get the second disc, when the expanded version of the band was at their pre-"Stop Making Sense" best. The band stretched their arty chops into some white-funk and the Eno-derived sounds of "Remain In Light," and made some of the best music of the decade. They took on ace guitarist Adrian Belew (just before he helped Robert Fripp reform King Crimson) and Nona Hendryx for earthy background vocals. Just listen to how smooth this band sounds compared to the jagged version on disc one! Having the second disc here almost negates the need to own "Stop Making Sense," as it concentrated more on the band's musical strengths than on Byrne's eventual multimedia fascination.

All in all, what the Talking Heads contributed to the early eighties and late seventies cannot be denied. "The Name Of This Band is Talking Heads" is an essential document of the emerging American New Wave scene and the scene at its crest.

In 1982 the original vinyl version of The Name of This Band is Talking Heads was released in 1982. Even though the sound quality was far from perfect it offered a gold mine of great live performance tracks mostly from the early incarnation of the band.

Talking Heads were THE alternative Band for at least a decade, (1977 to 1987). They brought African, Latin American, World rhythms into their music (courtesy of a great collaboration with Brian Eno) before Paul Simon re-invented himself with GraceLand. David Byrne was the hopeless geek who became a spazzing epilectic singer who fell in love with witty nosequiters that became unlikely catch-phrases -- `This is not my beautiful wife!"

The vinyl album was out of print for nearly 20 years. And following Jonathan Demme's super 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense; it became easy to forget about the `other' live collection of music--at least for a while.

However once the band stopped making new albums, fans wanted all of their recordings on CD and the missing one had been this album.

Rhino Records has reissued the album with 12 previously unreleased tracks, a generous booklet of photos and press clippings and a sound quality that is far better then the original album. The downside? A few tracks have been re-shuffled, a minute or two of intro and outro music has been trimmed (most for time reasons but in one case because of sound quality problems). So if you were in love with the original album and are a die-hard purist-- you can still whine about how they have released the album.

I find the album reason to celebrate big time.

Two discs, each one approximately 78 minutes long. Disc 1 covers 1977 to 1979. Disc 2 1980 to 1981. Some of the live tracks sound very close to the studio versions you have heard on Talking Heads. There is still a bit more spontaneity and range in Byrne's vocal, a few more grunts and odd cartoon noises and from the band a little bit more instrumental noodling than on the studio recordings. There's also the previously unreleased song: `A Clean Break (Let's Work)' which is a fine sounding mid-tempo kind or art pop alternative song.


The Talking Heads are nothing at all like The Ramones. David Byrne isn't really Iggy Pop--but they both seem to have at times a manic style. Byrne's was always actually in control, sometimes purposefully too tightly wound and it would explode on demand in glorious artistic pretensioness--that no one was ever supposed to take seriously.

What you hear is a very talented group of musicians wound tightly around the David Byrne show. His vocal style is treated as the lead instrument--but it's a jazz instrument and not put up on a pedestal, instead it represents sounds that the musicians can play with, improvise with. Byrne' grunts, squawks and creates guttural sounds in and around the jittery, just short of strained vocal delivery he gives his lyrics. And the lyrics range from semi-conscious, stream of conscious herky-jerky rants, to eerie imagery and those fascinating lists he comes up with. Sometimes the lyrics are beautifully simplistic, at other times they jump and leap frog from subject to subject and are delivered with tones that vary from blissful naivety to cynical spitefulness--sometimes within 10 seconds.

One of my all-time favorite tracks is #14 -- For Artists Only where we hear the childish rantings of a frustrated artist voicing both his joy and frustration with the creative process teasing and cajoling either his lover or muse (or both), your choice.

Disc 2 covers performance from 1980 to 1981. This included the tour in support of the brilliant Remain in Light album and the Talking Heads expanded it's original quartet: (singer/guitarist Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz, bassist Tina Weymouth, keyboardist/guitarist Jerry Harrison) to also include Parliament keyboardist Bernie Worrel, guitarist Adrian Belew, percussionist Steve Scales, second bassist Busta Jones and backup singers Nona Hendryx and Dolette McDonald. This resulted in a sound that wasn't just quirky but positively bursting with loud defiant kinetic funk--world pop style. It also made Byrne less odd-ball nerdy and more pretentious--but in the best way possible--with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Three different concert performances in Tokyo (previously available on a bootleg album), Cherry Hill N.J. and Central Park.

There's more melody and fleshed out musical highs when material from the stripped down Fear of Music album is played and that works well in terms of Animals. Sometimes a few bars of a suggestion that was on Remain In Light is fleshed out in the most entertaining way imaginable such as with Houses in Motion and Born Under Punches.

You have three songs that get two versions on these discs. The second disc's version of Psycho Killer is as expected complete with a longer funked out conclusion. The Take Me To the River rendition has a loose gospel feel but not as show-stopping over-the-top as in Stop Making Sense. The version of Cross eyed and Painless on this CD is minus an excellent musical interlude introduction. If you don't know it, you won't miss it, if you do know it, it's the one bit of editing you might find hard to figure. However this collection adds so much richness in terms of more material and much better sound--let's not quibble about that.

If you're a fan of the band, I can't recommend this collection highly enough to you. Over the last few months I've fallen in and out of love with various songs, embracing and rejecting and then embracing again just about every song on these discs. That's why I'm not doing a song by song run through of the entire 33 songs that are listed on this album. Some days I like some songs better than I do on other days. I listen to this one obsessively for a few weeks, than after a month or two return to it again and again.

I first got this double-LP in 1982. I was 14. Saw Talking Heads for the first time that summer. I made a cassette copy of the album -- I listened to that tape on my Walkman until I wore it out. This has been one of my all-time favorite albums ever since. In 1988 I bought a CD player, and have regularly been checking to see if this album had been released on CD since that time. I had just about given up hope.

At last it's out, and with phenomenal sound and a whole slew of great bonus tracks. It's almost twice as long as the original release. We get to track Talking Heads' amazing progress from the lean 77-era band to the full "Remain in Light" band -- and I can't say which version is my favorite. The next album was "Speaking in Tongues" which was amazing but after that I think they became a bit less interesting. This album tracks the most exhilarating part of their journey.

My favorite Talking Heads album, and that's saying a lot.

don't throw out your vinyl copies just yet. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think some of the tracks on the cd might not be the same as those on the old records. I could SWEAR that they're using a different version of "A Clean Break." Either that or when they went to re-master it, they did a lame job of mixing it. The guitars drop out on the cd! I realize that I may be the only person who cares about this, but with the off-chance that I could save just one more person from taking the cd home and being bummed about it, well then... my job is done. I just thought I'd warn you. Other than that, this is one of the best live albums ever. Usually, if I want to hear a band, I'll check out their studio work, but this album proved that those dudes were 100% genuine brilliance.

As a cash-strapped college student having shelled out for the first four Talking Heads albums, I considered this album a "nice to have," but not necessary -- until I heard it. Immediately I considered it the best Talking Heads album to date, and I loved 'em all. It had it all: often-superior versions of faves from the albums, plus a fantastic version of "Love --> Building On Fire," one of two songs not on any Heads album at that point. It was an up-to-the minute overview of the band, and could've served admirably as the one TH album to get, if you could afford only one.

The early material (sides 1&2, on disc 1) was particularly beguiling; the clear and intimate recording made it sound like they were indeed in your living room, just like the picture on the cover. And while I thought "Fear of Music" bordered on over-produced, the tunes from that album were delivered just right: clean, economical, edgy. So, 22 years later, here it all comes rushing back, only with more songs, each one glorious and beguiling. Every song and performance is great -- but fans might particularly swoon over "Found a Job" and "Mind." Among others.

And that's just the first disc. As for disc 2, well... hey, are you still reading this? Time's a-wasting. If you liked this album back in the day, you've been pining for the CD for 22 years. Buy it this instant. Put it on and spend the near future with a rapturous smile on your face.

I have been writing to Warner Brothers for years wondering why TNOTBITH had not been releaed with the rest of the catalog. Turns out my patience was greatly rewarded. Not just has this been remastered, but it's loaded with bonus and previously unreleased tracks.

And you may ask yourself, why another live album? Unlike many live albums which capture a single night or tour, this album actually features the evolution of a band. Disc 1 captures the band from 1977-79 where they are essentially the four man band. The music is fairly stripped down and comparable to the songs they recorded on the first three albums (TH 77, More Songs About Buildings & Food, & Fear Of Music). You hear them in small clubs and gradually larger audiences. Then of disc 2, they tackle the material of Remain In Light with more complex African rhythms and funk beats. Here, the band is forced to double its size with the amazing Steve Scales on percussion and Adrian Belew adding fantastic guitar solos. Some may wonder why some songs are repeated on the album. The early version called Electricity which is more rock later becomes Drugs, the ambient version featured more like on Fear Of Music. There are other repeats here, Psycho Killer and Stay Hungry. Again we see how the songs evolve over time and the difference with a small and big band. All featuring great sound and remastering.

Another bonus is the booklet. It barely fits in the jewel box as it's stuffed with photos, liner notes, and several reviews of the various shows. This recording is as much an autobiography of a band on the rise as an essential live album. It's a great bookend to Stop Making Sense. Pick this up!

Back in the early `70's there was a popular bumper sticker that said, "There is NOTHING in the world like a Grateful Dead concert." And it was true enough for a long, long time. But from 1977 to 1983 the Talking Heads were tearing it up live and this cd is the best all-in-one sampling of what it was like back in the day. (Yes, I'm aware of the CBGB shows going back to 1975 that featured just David, Tina and Chris. They were great but in their infancy then and still learning; not quite ready to take on The Dead as worlds greatest live band at that point...)

This 2-cd set nearly doubles the number of songs from the original vinyl release making it the most important (and cost effective) collection of "new" Talking Heads material available in almost 20 years. All of it is worthy, not one song should be looked at as filler.

The most interesting thing about TNOTBITH is the progression of the bands live performances over time. The 1977 shows are quirky and small, but the brilliance is evident as is the solid musicianship. Sometimes lost behind David Byrne's one-of-a-kind vocal performances was the tight, talented band the Heads had become. Most people have only seen the big expanded band performances of the Stop Making Sense and Adrian Belew eras. But concerts from `78/'79 were high-energy experiences that were not to be missed. (My sister put herself in the hospital from dancing too hard at a '78 show at Emerald City...) By 1979 the band was so together on stage and Byrne was so confident up front it was hard to believe that the same 4 musicians were playing basically the same instruments as just a couple years prior.

Yet despite the fact that they were growing as musicians and performers, the band transformed in 1980 with the release of Remain in Light. It was an incredible risk that could have alienated a growing stable of loyal fans but instead brought the band to a new level of success in the studio and on tour. For those who were used to seeing 4 preppy art school types on stage, the expanded lineup and larger venues came as a bit of a shock at first. It was kind like a modern equivalent of Dylan going electric. But it paid off.

The second cd contains the complete 14-song repertoire--in exact setlist order--that the group performed at each concert. The show would start with older songs familiar enough to get everyone going and it wouldn't be until the 9th song that the fully funktified songs from Remain in Light came in. Sitting still was not an option.

It was an incredible and important period for the band and it would take something as over the top as the Stop Making Sense tour to outdo these legendary shows from '80-'81.

It took Rhino 20 years to re-release this live collection and we should all be thankful that they took the time to do it right. Even the liner notes, complete with original reviews of the concerts and detailed information about the live dates and venues was much appreciated. (I had forgotten that I was at the Central Park concert that concludes the 2nd cd. According to the liner notes it was only the 2nd show to feature the new 10-piece lineup. As good as that show was, they were still working out some kinks, and by 1981 there was truly NOTHING in the world like a Talking Heads concert... )

I really miss that time.