This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century (Paperback)

~ (Author) "In the summer of 1973, Chris Frantz was trimming Tina Weymouth's hair..." (more)
Key Phrases: melody attack, lifetime piling, piss paintings, David Byrne, New York, Tom Tom Club (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Who better than a novelist-cum-music journalist to depict "a group that was completely of its time and totally outside of it"? From the Talking Heads' individual roots to their electrifying collaboration and breakup, Bowman (Bunny Modern) portrays brilliant odd-bird David Byrne, even-keeled and Harvard-educated Jerry Harrison, happy-go-lucky Chris Frantz and enigmatic Tina Weymouth, who told Bowman: "I have to rewrite your book for you.... You know nothing about us." Or maybe he knows more than she'd like? Bowman interviewed them (and 50 others) and studied their every mention e.g., New York Times writeups, Andy Warhol's diary to understand how they got the nation singing "Psycho killer/ Qu'est que c'est/ fa fa fa.... " While their dysfunctions intrigue, their unconventionality, hilarity and creative synergy fascinate. David, Chris and Tina met in art school in the 1970s and later shared a New York City loft. Months after Tina learned bass, the trio opened for the Ramones at CBGB, where a record exec pounced. Rounded out by Jerry's keyboard, they shook underground and mainstream audiences, tempering curious lyrics about religion and politics with infectious melodies. They experimented with African polyrhythms and funk while maintaining New Wave followers. They split up in 1991 while "still sound[ing] like the Next New Thing." Bowman's funny, astute book tells how they pulled it off and why they pulled the plug. Bibliography, discography and filmography included; photos not seen by PW. (Apr.) Forecast: No other Talking Head-ography covers the breakup or beyond. Byrne's forthcoming album will boost reader interest. Bowman's cult-crit banter will appeal to New York music and art scene followers.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

A freelance music and culture journalist (New York Times Magazine, SPIN), Bowman here chronicles minimalist funk-rock band Talking Heads with their cooperation. He starts with character sketches of the quartet: the quiet, complex, blue-blooded bassist, Tina Weymouth; her artistic drummer-husband, Chris Frantz; the eccentric, nerdy, performance-artist-turned-singer David Byrne; and the Harvard-educated, ex-Modern Lover Jerry Harrison. Throughout, he places the band which formed at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974 in the context of New York history and contrasts them with their Gotham art-punk contemporaries (e.g., Patti Smith, Television, and the Ramones). His deft analysis of how his subjects intersected with the avant-garde scene of Andy Warhol, composer Philip Glass, dancer Twyla Tharp, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and ambient Dadaist Brian Eno sets his work apart from Jerome Davis's Talking Heads (1986. o.p.) and David Gans's Talking Heads (1985. o.p.). Recommended for all popular music collections and indispensable for Talking Heads fanatics, as this is the only bona fide biography in print. Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: It Books (November 26, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060507314
• ISBN-13: 978-0060507312
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #283,008 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Some interesting things, but you can't trust 'em, July 30, 2003

By	aliled "aliled" (Shawnee, Kansas United States) - See all my reviews

There's some insight here into the origins of David Byrne's lyrics, but it's tough to trust anything beyond that. The author can't spell "The Shaggs" or the German group "Can" or legendary Country singer "Cowboy Copas". He regularly misattributes songs to artists who didn't perform them. He apparently considers the B-52's an all-girl group - whether that's just stupid or some sort of slam against homosexuals is unclear. He makes statements about bands like Fun Boy Three (he doesn't get the name right either) being "obscure", despite the fact that they'd had more hits than the Talking Heads in the UK at that point.

In short, he seems to know very little about music in general. The book concentrates disproportionately on artistic influences on the band rather than musical ones. It's interesting as one rarely gets that point of view.
On the other hand, I suspect his fact-checking relative to artists is as bad as his fact-checking relative to musicians.

Early in the book, he quotes the band members quite heavily, though with a few dozen pages, this disappears entirely. There are hints that the band doesn't like him, with the implication being that all contact with band members is halted relatively early in the process. Much of the book is about the "battle" between Weymouth and Byrne, but it's tough to say whether this was the fundamental crux of the band's problems or not. Despite mentioning it frequently, there's not much substance behind any of it.

In short, this is worth a quick glance, but borrow it from your library like I did. Spend the money on a record instead.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Selective information, bias reporting and mis-information galore - Heads deserve better, May 29, 2006

By	Bill Wikstrom (Long Island, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

I was very excited to pick up this book. Sadly, I was very let down. Most rock biographies tell the explicit story of a band, their history, etc. However I've yet to encounter one that has such a blatantly bias viewpoint, selectively-informs and discredits any band/musician not directly-related to Talking Heads as this dire item.

The RI band The Fabulous Motels were (pages 32-34) ill-mentioned as The Motels (who did not change their name as much as stated in the book). They later became The Young Adults and Byrne auditioned for both bands not making either. This informantion is pretty well known stuff in RI rock-lore and is not mentioned anywhere in the book. Which strikes me as odd if not questioning how much else of Byrne-related facts were omitted from the book.

Page 244 reads "...an obscure group called Fun Boy 3 (Three). Their music is not important..." Wha? The Fun Boy Three was Terry Hall, Lynval Golding and Neville Staples of the uber-influential ska band The Specials and as stated below had much bigger and more hits in Europe with two albums than the Heads had with five up until then. They were also a racially-integrated outfit.

And of course Bowman makes no attempt to explain exactly why their music is not important. Big surprise - Bowman's wrong.

And it was in fact Andy Partridge of XTC (mentioned briefly on page 118) - not Tina - who had jokingly came up with the Heads sophomore LP title. Asking them when "More Songs About Buildings And Food" was coming out - to which the heads would routinely laugh at. XTC also opened for them at the December 28, 1978 show at The Beacon (as per the Heads request) and Byrne even introduced them on stage.

For some reason Prince (whose name has been printed next to the word "genius" more times than one can count) gets reamed. "David was smarter than Prince" Bowman states matter-of-factly on page 277. Which, anyway you slice it, is just a dumb (if not vaguely ignorant) statement. Bowman feels constantly compelled to put (far more successful to boot) contemporaries like Prince and Sting down in support of Byrne's "genius". I never thought I'd have to say this but Sting is less pretentious than Byrne (and far less insecure) and Prince - who IS a musical genius regardless if you happen to like him or not - had been integrating white musicians with black musicians at least three years before the Heads did such a "revolutionary" thing.

And while mentioning the birth of Jerry and David's children (given full names and birthdays) Tina and Chris's children are listed as "In August Tina gave birth to a second son" (page 306).
Therin lies an example of obvious bias from Bowman. Regardless of what happened in the band amongst band members Bowman feels constantly compelled to discredit Tina at every given chance. This (along with the above complaints) leaves a bad taste in the readers mouth. Whatever happened in the band - it's a book about all four heads not just David Byrne.

I also don't care about what the author thinks about George Bush Sr. and other un-related parties that take up loads of wasted print. While other Head-related items are virtually ignored. For example the Tom Tom Club album Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom. Mentioned not once in the book while Close To The Bone and the s/t debut were documented. It was made while the heads where still a band so this makes no sense. Neither was Byrne's mid-life crisis video for "Make Believe Mambo" and Harrison's equally silly "Flying Under Radar" video (the latter wasn't even listed in the videography section).

No mention of Talking Heads on the cover of Rolling Stone. Title of story: Is America's best band Byrned out? Relevant? Yes!!

There's also no mention of how the singles did in terms of radio play. A fact of some importance I'd imagine - them being a band that released many singles and all.

There's also no mention of the pop musical landscape around the Heads at the time of their popularity and demise. i.e. The U.S. underground (which produced still-relevant bands like The Replacements and Husker Du), the grunge-movement and the popularity of REAL funk and hip-hop.

Having said all of this I can only hope that an authorized account of ALL things Talking Heads will be written someday.
Bowman's book is an over-long failed attempt that was clearly in the wrong hands. The Talking Heads deserve much better!

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Screw "True" Fans--It's All About TTH!, April 17, 2001

By	Kate Conroy "kmfconroy" (Portland, OR United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century (Hardcover)

I'm a big-time Talking Heads fan and I take issue with these messages from the "true" fans. Of course the main issue of the band has always been David and Tina. I remember reading about their fights in Rolling Stone around 1978. Chris was married to Tina. He's going to take her side of course. As for Jerry, Bowman portrays how time after time Jerry and David worked together, independent of the other two Heads. Whether or not you prescribe to Bowman's pro-David view, the pages are mostly about how the Talking Heads created their music in the studio, and that music's relationship to world culture. For example, I take the Walkman for granted, but I laughed when I read that originally it was designed it with two ear phone jacks because they imagined people would listen to the same tape on the street side-by-side? Apparently, no one could imagine Americans isolating themselves by walking down the street wearing headphones! The book is full of these terrifically weird quirky details. I have to say what the book could have used is an in-depth interview with Brian Eno. Eno comes across as a kind of Darth Vader. He's quite the mysterious guy! There are many reasons to read this book, but foremost, to me, is that it is well written and engaging. This is not your average "rock scene" self-indulgent journey. I stopped flagging pages with post-its after using half a stack on this book - it's got that much juicy info.