No Filler Music Podcast - The Planet-Powering Energy of Talking Head's Remain In Light

Episode Date: September 20, 2021

Describing Talking Heads groundbreaking 1980 record Remain In Light after hearing it for the first time can be challenging. Or after hearing it for the 2nd, 5th, or 20th time for that matter. The group almost called it quits after the success of Fear Of Music, but quickly found themselves experimenting with African polyrhythms, funk, and electronics in the idyllic Compass Point Studios in the Bahamas. They began utilizing jam sessions as the jumping off point for songs as opposed to David Byrne's lyrics, and took a more collaborative effort to the songwriting process. The result is the astounding, other-worldly, genre-defying record that solidified the Talking Heads as one of the most remarkable rock bands of the 20th century. Join us as we try to find more ways to describe this incredible record, when we aren't speechless that is. Tracklist: Once In A Lifetime I Zimbra Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) Fela Kuti - Eko Ile The Great Curve + Live In Rome 1980 Seen And Not Seen This show is part of the Pantheon Podcast network. Pantheon is a proud partner of AKG by Harman. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The meeting will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1866533 or visit Comex Ontario.ca. With MX Platinum. You have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.

It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those. Goaltenders, no. But chicken tenders, yes. because those are groceries and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details.

And welcome back to No Filler. The music podcast dedicated to sharing the often overlooked hidden gyms that fill the space between the singles on our favorite records. My name is Travis. I got my brother, Quentin with me today. And that was, of course, once in a lifetime by Talking Hids. The song that everybody has heard, Q? 130 million plus plays on Spotify. That's how big of a single that was. Dude, I could listen to that song, I think every day, multiple times a day for the rest of my life, and I would never tire of it.

It's a great song, no doubt about it. And definitely one of their, like, standout, like signature song. songs, right? There's a handful of Talking Head songs I think everybody's familiar with. Psycho Killer is one of them. This is one of them. Really, if you think about it, those are the two that are standout, right, that I think everybody has some familiarity with. But aside from that, like, you really got to hit play on all of their records to hear all the gems, because there are, it's nothing but gems, dude. Nothing but great songs on every single Talking Hadds record. and today we are talking about Remain in Light, which came out in 1980.

That is the album that once in a lifetime was featured on. And one of the reasons I wanted to play it as our intro song was because it sounds so different than the songs that I'm bringing to the table today. And that's the song that everybody thinks about, right? But like surrounding that song on this record are some of the most like genre blending, like experimental. rhythmic songs that you've ever heard ever. Get ready, man. This is a gray record. Believe it or not, dude, I haven't actually listened to this album at all.

That's, dude, I can't tell you how excited that makes me. I love it when this happens. I know, isn't it great? Yes. So, yeah, I haven't been this excited for an episode in a while. So we covered Talking Hats 77. I don't even remember how long ago that was, dude. It was an early, early episode.

I went back and listened to it. We were young pups, dude. We were young. Still green. Podcasting amateurs and amateurs, you know. And so, so when did that one come out? Came out in 77 Q. Didn't I do that on the episode?

Probably, probably. That was not a joke. I was, yeah. It is called talking heads 77. And that was, so that's what, um, Psycho Killer was on that record. So, you know, that was their first big, big hit, right? And we did our throwback, uh, rewind up. episode on television's Marky Moon last week. And they all came up together with Talking

Heads and the Ramones and Blondie and CBGB in the late 70s. They were all there at the ground floor. Right. And I think I actually said this on the intro last week and I said it on the 77 episode that we did. Talking Head's first show was opening for the Ramones in 1975 at CBGB, which is amazing, right? Just that sentence alone is amazing. It's crazy to think about. But yeah, you know, this is the new wave post-punk group of artists that sort of like introduced the term, or at least let's say that the term was coined to describe this type of stuff that Talking Hedge was doing, the type of stuff that television was doing, right? Where it, it wasn't punk, really, you know, It wasn't the more traditional, like, classic rock type stuff.

So they just called it new wave, you know. Hey, this is the next wave of rock. Right. We don't really know what to call it. Post-punk, I guess, because we're out of the punk era. It was those simple punk sensibilities, but, like, minus the power chords, you know. Like, they introduced more jangly guitar type stuff. Yeah, jangly guitar.

There you go. Yeah. And that's the kind of stuff that you heard on Talking Hedge early stuff, like their first record. So yeah, if you want to hear us talk about kind of how these guys formed and like their origin story and stuff like that, go back and listen to the Talking Hats 77 episode. We're not going to rehash all that stuff. We're going to talk mainly about this record and what led to them making it and why it sounds so different. And then we're just going to dive into some amazing tunes.

So they put out a record called Fear of Music in 1979. And after that record, the band kind of had a falling out, basically. You know, they basically, you know, Byrne, David Byrne. David Byrne, as if I have to say that first, me, David Byrne went off with Brian Eno and put out this record together called My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. It was kind of like a solo record, but like Brian Eno's name is featured on. the record, right? They actually recorded it and were done with it. It didn't come out until 1991, funny enough, but he had went off and done that. And basically, kind of like Sonic Youth, who we're going to talk about next week here, there was a marriage in the band, Tina and Chris.

So Tina, Weymouth is the bass player, mainly. Chris France is the drummer. They were married. And they were kind of, you know, working on their relationship kind of thing. They went on vacation together, basically. And like they started to, basically, they went to the Bahamas and just kind of stayed there and became involved in Haitian voodoo religious ceremonies. Oh, my. Practicing native percussion instruments and stuff like that. Just in time for the satanic panic of the 80s.

They were, yeah, on the ground floor did. And they got to know this, this, this, basically. basically the rhythm section of this reggae band called Sly and Robbie, who were kind of, you know, playing in the Bahamas and so like that. So they all had other things going on. Yeah, basically. Yeah, basically. ...more exciting and took precedence over the band. Yeah, because they, you know, it seems like David Byrne is kind of a dick.

I don't think that's a new thing for me to say. Like, that's pretty well known about him. Hard to get along with. One of the band members, I don't remember which one, but I read a quote that he was like, David is basically incapable of returning friendship. That kind of person, right? Ouch. Anyway.

So, yeah, basically, David, it was kind of this thing where he was tired of being, of taking on the responsibility of being like a front man, basically. And the band sort of like acknowledged at the time that like, you know, we don't necessarily want to be just David Burns backing. band, you know what I mean? Right. Like the guys that just stand behind David Byrne. Well, it's not like they, it's not like they went by David Byrne and David Byrne and the talking hands. Yeah. And the talking hands. Right. But I guess there's just a way that, you know, I mean, David Byrne is such a charismatic dude. Like he's an amazing front man, obviously. Well, real quick, dude, I'm just curious because I haven't heard this album that he put out with Brian, you know, because Brian, you know, his legacy is his ambient music, right? Was that the kind of stuff they were doing? No, but like,

Like, it was, it was like synth type stuff, electronic type, kind of playing around with early electronic sampling and stuff like that. Or not even sampling, but like, you know, synths and whatnot. Yeah. Which kind of plays into the sound of this record, too. But anyway, so Tina and Chris, they're on vacation in the Bahamas. They're sort of like, you know, experimenting with some, some percussive instruments and stuff like that, doing things at the, they're not used to doing. Obviously, Chris is a drummer. But anyway, they decided to purchase an apartment above this recording studio in the Bahamas. And it's actually the same

studio that they recorded their second album at More Songs About Building and Food. So anyway, Byrne actually joins them at the studio. And they start to like piece together this music and stuff like that. And so basically, it sounds like Byrne was like willing to to come to the table and sort of put aside the issues that they were having. And as he said, he said he was tired of the notion of a singer leading a backup band. So he kind of agreed with them. And the ideal that they were aiming for with this record was sacrificing egos for mutual cooperation.

So there you go. And that's, you know what, I bet every band, every band probably goes through this kind of cycle, Especially when you have a really charismatic front person, right? There's got to be some kind of sit down meeting like that with a lot of bands. Especially when you have a really big ego at the front of it, right? So anyway, he went on to say that he wanted to escape the psychological paranoia and personal torment that he had been writing and feeling while in New York. So like basically he needed to escape New York, right? John Carpenter.

And so he, he. he well what better place to do that than the Bahamas right so anyway they start they start kind of jamming together basically and that's what this record is all about it it all stems from jam sessions which is really cool I think it's cool I noticed that they all get credited for percussion on this one right exactly that's right cue let me let me let me finish up the roster here because I said three of the four members Jerry Harrison uh is is the guitar player where, like you said, every single one of these members are credited as keyboards, percussion, backing vocals. Burn has a bass guitar credit.

But that was the whole idea behind this. It was more of a collaborative effort and stuff like that. And one of the key, key parts about this is that a lot of them, they were sort of listening to this very well-known Afrobeat musicians, particularly this guy named Fila Kuti, which that name rings a bell. We may have mentioned him on the podcast before, but, um, but anyway, so let's listen to a song here. This is not the first song from the record, but this is kind of a cool, a cool story here. So while they were starting to like piece this record together and stuff like that, they had a song that they used as like a jumping off point for jam sessions and stuff like that. It's actually a song from their last record, Fear of Music.

So we're going to play a song called I Zimbra. And again, this was off their 1979 record Fear of Music. Just a little taste, dude. Yeah, but that's all you really need to hear. And I, forgive me, I was not paying attention. So did these recordings kind of happen around the same time as Remain Enlightened? So they were already kind of flirting with the idea of doing this more cooperative kind of effort. Yeah, and they started doing that in that studio.

It's called Compass Point Studios in Nassau in the Bahamas. So they started putting together demo tapes and stuff like that. And they wanted it to be this like this jam session type collaborative effort. And so they used Iizimbra as a starting point because it's got that sort of like rhythmic sort of percussive type template to go off of right. It's almost got like that reggae rhythm. Right, exactly. And so the interesting thing about this, I mentioned Brian, you know, before, he was actually

ready to move on and not produce the next record because he, I don't know, I guess he, you know, I think they had similar falling out type moments with him too. But Byrne showed him some of the demo tapes that they were putting together from this new sort of like mentality that they had an approach. And suddenly he was interested again. So basically he liked hearing, he liked what he heard so much on the demo tapes. He was like, you know what? Maybe I can do another talk on his record, you know? That sounds like it could be kind of fun because it's a whole different approach to the way they wrote music and stuff like that.

So they get Brian Eno back in, and the way that they put it, he's basically the fifth member of the band for this record. Like he was such a contributing factor to it. That's really cool, dude. And some of his techniques and his approach and stuff like that were key to the success of this record and like the sound of the record and stuff like that. But yeah, so, you know, he compared the creative process for this record as looking out to the world and saying, what a fantastic place we live in. Let's celebrate it. All right, so let's jump into the first song here, Q.

Hopefully I painted a picture because it's about to go to 10. So strap in. You're not cranking it to 11, dude? The second pick is when we go to 11. Okay. All right, so I'm going to play the very first track off the record here. And I really like the way this guy put it.

This was an article that this guy named Jeff Terrick wrote for this publication called Treble Media. He said, the energy of this song feels like it could power the planet for days. All right. The song, Q, is called Born Under Punches, the Heat Goes On. There's no words, dude. It is hard to know where to begin. And you can just like picture them. I wonder if they recorded it live, you know, because it very much feels like they're all in one room playing off of each other during this.

And I love how how David Byrne kind of seems like he backs away during the chorus and just kind of like chimes in every now and then. Yeah. Just kind of adds to the chorus a little bit. Yeah. So he's, you know, he's taken on this persona of this government band that he's talking about. And so, like, you're hearing that person, that person's perspective, right? And it sounds like he's very, like, exasperated and kind of, like, frustrated with his lot in life. Like, from the way he's sort of, like, grunting, but, like, yelling.

Like, like I said, it sounds kind of like he's exasperated, you know. I love that line where he's, like, said, don't you miss it? Some of you people just about missed it. I love that line. the way he delivers it. It's just great. But yeah, so apparently the testimony of the Watergate scandal, conspirator John Dean, was one of several inspirations for the lyrics on this record, probably this song Born Under Punches.

This is also a callback to a song from the first record called Don't Worry About the Government. So yeah, like you're, you know, and you're also kind of hearing this, this delivery that, That isn't entirely new for Byrne, but he's kind of like talking the lyrics, right? And he, yeah, he didn't do that before. Like I said, it's not, it's not new to him, but like you hear that 100% in once in a lifetime. That was one of the new, like, kind of the cool new things that he did in months in a lifetime that he started doing on this record more like prominently. Because they were inspired by what was happening with like early rap music and stuff like that. Amazing.

Which was happening around this time, right? And in the same place, too. And around the same place, right, in New York. So, you know, they were taking on all these new sounds. They were trying to incorporate, like, sort of like these African polyrhythms and stuff like that, which you don't necessarily hear in this song, where you'll definitely hear in the next song that I'm going to play. But yeah, so what's interesting, the sections, right, and the rhythms and the melodies and stuff like that you hear in the background that feels like they're looped, right? Mm-hmm. So is that Eno it?

work? Yeah. But basically the recording process for the bass instrumentals, right, like what you're hearing in the background stuff like that, was long overlapping loops of repetitive rhythms long before, like, there were tools around to do that kind of thing, right? What we refer to now is sampling, right? Right. And so the way that David even referred to it as, like, they were human samplers. So they would just kind of play these rhythms and stuff like that over and over again to create. these loops and then they would just sort of play them back. Those are really interesting, like, time signatures and stuff too. So that's, that's impressive, man. Yeah, and that's one of the things that stood out about this record is the really complex song structures and stuff, right? So let me

just pick it up again real quick. I'm going to play it because I wanted to get to the guitar solo. There's a really cool guitar solo in the song. So I'm going to play another clip here from Born Under Punches. Here we go. So anyway, that guitar solo is pretty dope. Yeah, man. That's actually this guy named Adrian Bellew that they brought in to the recording sessions. And that was a roll into guitar synthesizer that he did that solo on. What? So Adrian Bellu went on to join King Crimson as their guitar player shortly after he was done with this.

He also went on and toured with them too. But anyway, that's pretty cool, right? You'll hear him in the next song too. That explains a lot. Yeah, but I love kind of like you were saying, like the melody and the singing, comes from the background vocalist on this drag and David is just either sort of telling this story from the perspective of this government

or he just chimes in or he's just making weird noises in the background too like you heard it at the end of that second clip there I'm sure they all are contributing to that dude no that's all David that's all David making those weird noises with his mouth yeah you can tell dude I'm not certain you're a bigger fan than I am so yeah you can tell

you can tell but yeah like he's it almost sounds like he's just like kind of losing it, right? Like in the background, like he's, he's making like almost like hiccuping sounds and stuff like that. Like he's this drunk beaten down like government man, right? Anyway, I just love it. What a great song. What an awesome opener for an album too. Yeah. No kidding, man. Can you imagine putting this on back in 1980? You know, like it probably changed your entire life. Yeah. That's probably a good way to put it, dude. Like, I mean, this, this album is so significant that, um, the Library of Congress,

added it to the National Registry in 2016. Cool. And they interviewed David. And so I actually have a quote here from that interview. He says, we were listening to African pop music such that was available, like Filakuti and King Sunny Ade and some field recordings, but we didn't set out to imitate those.

We deconstructed everything as we began to use the process described above. And then as the music evolved, we began to realize we were in effect reinventing the wheel. Our process led us to something with some affinity to Afrofunk, but we got there the long way round, and of course our version sounded slightly off. We didn't get it quite right, but in missing, we ended up with something new. So I wanted to play a Felicuti song

before we played this next song off the record, because it's just so obvious, right? once you hear the two. Awesome. So anyway, I'm going to play a song here from the record Afrodisiac. It came out in 1973 by Fila Kuti. And this song is called Echo Ale. It's fucking awesome, dude.

That reminded me a lot of that band Amines that we featured on this show a while back is that Zamrock. Yeah. It was happening in Zimbabwe. And like, yeah, the same time, dude. So this is like more the funky side of that. But yeah, dude, really cool. And also, another band, if you like that kind of stuff, we talked about them, and I featured

a track from them too as a sidetracker or a watcher heard or something like that. But it was the band that was featured on the Foll's Antidote Record, Antibalus. Oh, the horn section. Antibolus, yeah. So that's the Antibolus Afrobeat Orchestra. Also puts out stuff that is this, right? Anyway, let's take a quick break. So, hearing that, let's go to the next track here that when I say that this song blew my mind, Q, the first time I heard it, I'm not kidding.

Well, my mind has already been blown, dude. Well, get ready, dude. This song is amazing. And it's something that you read over and over again when you read reviews. They even talked about this and the entry into the Library of Congress is that, like, there's so many things happening on this record that, You know, each time you listen to it, you're going to hear something new. So I can tell you right now, dude, this song that I'm about to play, you got to listen to it like over and over again to keep appreciating how amazing it is. Because there's a lot that comes at you right at the beginning.

And it's, you're like, whoa, what do I listen to here? What do I focus on? All right. So anyway, here we go. So this song is called The Great Curve. It's been, what, 31 years? I still don't think music has caught up to them, dude. That's how far ahead they were.

Yeah, and like I was actually reading, I'm going to quote that dude again if I could find it. He wrote that retrospective on the record. But this guy kind of makes the point about like record labels just don't, they won't take risks like this nowadays. They won't give a band the money and the time and like the. the ability to experiment and come out with something like this. Like, they just won't do it. Yeah, they won't allow that creativity. Yeah, because it is a risk to let a band do something like this.

But, like, you know, we're missing out. We're missing out on great, great stuff like this if you don't give. And that's why, you know, indie record labels exist, right, to do stuff like that. People can put out music independently themselves, right? but yeah the level of musicianship required to do this is you know it's it's hard to match that right with like the cascading kind of uh it's just layers and layers yeah they were all singing different parts right exactly exactly and you heard a bunch of stuff right a lot of instruments beyond just the uh the main players right even though like like i said earlier like they all they all played keyboards

and percussion on this record but they brought in a bunch of other musicians so that was Drew Bellew again on guitar with that badass guitar solo like that. You want to talk about like an underrated guitar solo, you know? Yeah, that was out of nowhere. That was awesome too, man. This is a Ripper. Right. So one of the backing vocalists, Nona Hendricks is probably who you heard there.

And let's see, Robert Palmer, Josie or Jose Rossi, two percussionists brought in. And then John Hassel on trumpets and horns. You probably heard him on that track. So, Q, I got treats, dude. I got a treat for you. So we're going to listen and watch. You won't be able to watch this at home here. But we're going to watch a clip from, we're going to pick up right after the guitar solo.

But we're going to play a live recording from this very well-known concert that they did in Rome, Italy, in 1980. That is considered like one of the best live rock performances ever filmed. like it's known for that so anyway you're going to see what's cool about this is that um you know you can't you can't pull this off on a stage without some additional musicians right just like with the studio so they brought these these other musicians on the road with them uh one of them was a funkadelic keyboardist bernie warrell bassist bust a cherry jones uh ask hang on dude hang on Bust a Cherry. Come on now.

That's how you know, I didn't, I didn't come up with that nickname. Go ahead. But his name is Busta Cherry Jones. Oh my God. He probably just goes by Cherry. But yeah, Busta Cherry. And it's the same thing. Okay.

Sorry, go ahead. Ashford and Simpson percussionist Stephen Scales and my favorite, you'll see why. Backing vocalist, Dallette McDonald. So let's pick this up. right where we left off here with the guitar solo. And, like, just, we'll post a video either on Instagram or Twitter or something because you need to watch it. Dude, I love this performance, man. It's amazing.

Unbelievable. Yeah, it's something to behold, dude. And you can just feel the energy in this arena, man. Like, everybody's, like, floating around, basically. Just the buzz, man. All right. So let's pick this up again. Like, this is, if you're going to listen to this song, this is the way to do it.

All right, here we go. This, again, this is Talking Hands live in 19. 1980 in Rome, Italy at the Palior Arena. I got the biggest booms of the old goose, dude. It's hard not to just be completely entranced by that. Big time chills, dude, at the beginning of that clip, man. Yeah, it's amazing. Just like taking it all in.

Yeah, it's one of those things where, like, you think about just a moment in time, you know what I mean? Right. This was happening on the planet in 1980. 1980, December 18th, 1980 in Rome, Italy. And like, those people together, you know what I mean, and all the people in the, in the room, too, you don't forget them, because they're just as much, you know, part of the energy and stuff. They're part of that energy. Yeah. It's amazing, man. I've had some of those quite a few special moments like that at concerts. At concerts, yeah. Yeah, where everything is just, like, we're all in sync together. Yes. And that's, that's what I mean,

like when you watch this video, you can hear it too. You can hear the crowd if you, if you, listen, but like just the energy, man, the buzz that's that's just happening in that arena, you know, I'm going to, you know, quote that guy again, like they could have like powered the sun or whatever for decades. Powered the whole world. Yeah. Yeah, man. But yeah, what an amazing performance.

The whole, the whole, you can watch the entire concert online. It's out there. But yeah, man, amazing. So there was two, two bass players up there because, I mean, Tina's up there playing bass. And she's basically doing the really, that she just has this sort of like this, this, this snaky sort of like, baseline that she's just picking the entire time. And then you've got Busta, Kew's favorite new musician Bustachary was also on stage. You could see him bouncing and hopping and hopping.

And then that was hopping and squirman. And then, of course, that was Adrian on the guitar solos that you heard there. But yeah, just everything about it, man. And the prominent female vocalist that was featured there, and you saw her right next to David, basically, on stage. Her name is Dallette McDonald. And it's pretty interesting how she got involved. Basically, you know, Busta was into the new wave scene, which is interesting because he was like this disco bass player guy for this band called The Bombers. and she got involved, I think, like, musically with him, I think as a background singer or something like that.

And he basically vouched for her to David. I mean, they were looking for musicians to join them on tour. And this interview that I read, this Rolling Stone interview, they go, did you know about their music at all, talking hands? And she's like, hell now. I didn't know a damn thing. That's what she said. She's like, what the hell is a talking head? But she basically says that the first time that she met the talking heads was at the rehearsal, right?

So they basically like, she says, like, they met me like sight unseen, right? And like... How cool, man. And then she, you know, auditioned and basically, they basically took Busta's word for it, that she was legit. And then she goes on and is, like I said, she's standing right next to David and sharing the stage, which is another point of like what they were trying to. to do with this record was not make it about frontman David and his giant suits, you know, on stage.

Well, and dude, and you can see her excitement and her enjoyment, dude. Yeah. Like, in every frame. Yeah. Because she's like, I can't believe I'm doing this right now. Yeah. On stage with this post-punkming wave fan. Yeah, what is this new wave stuff?

Because she's like a, she was like a disco singer, you know. Yeah, man. How exciting. But yeah, really cool. I just, I love everything about the story behind this record, like how. came together. Like they were saying, it's like, it's, it sounds like Afro funk adjacent, but it's not, it's like, it's, it's, it's interesting because they said they didn't want to imitate it,

but they were sort of using it as like the template and they ended up making this whole new sound, right? Right. Where it's pulling in pieces of it, like the polyrhythms and stuff like that. Well, like how he said, it was something like, you know, we didn't pull it off, but we ended up making something completely different. Yeah, which is what made it so great, you know. All right.

I got one more track. So those two tracks that I played, high, high energy, right? So this record was split kind of in that way. Side one was born under punches, a single called Crossside and Painless, and then the Great Curve. Everything else was on side, too. Oh, and they're all about the same length, too. So that was obviously a choice they made.

Well, yeah, and, you know, it's clearly a side A, side B. The vibes are totally different, yeah. Okay, cool. Because cross-eyed and painless. Like, basically these three songs on side A are just one after the other. Like, they're amazing. They're all coming at you with that high, high energy and stuff like that. And then side two starts with once in a lifetime, right?

Which has kind of this different vibe. So anyway, we're going to play another song here from Side B. and this song is interesting, dude. I'm curious to hear your thoughts on it. So this song is called Seen and Not Seen. Sometimes I like to wonder, dude, like what music might sound like in 10 years? I hope it sounds like Remain in Light, dude. For real.

Yeah. And that's kind of what made them, this is why the record was added to the National Registry, right? the way that they put it here was that I'm just going to quote the write-up that was included with it in the National Registry said it has been almost 40 years

since remaining light was recorded and showed the world how its many music genres could be merged and complement each other its odd rhythms and overpowering beats always seem to reveal something new to the listener no matter how many times you have heard it before the album continues to hold up under scrutiny by each passing generation and still serves as a roadmap on how to meld the

world's music together and dare to be different. And if there's anybody that dared to be different, it's David Byron, right? Yeah, man, still to this day. Yeah. Let's go back and talk about that song, dude. Yeah, yeah. I really liked it. So that was another one of those like spoken word type things, right? It's very eerie lyrics. Yeah, like this guy like trying to imagine the face that he wants, you know. Just the ideal. Yeah. face. And if he just thinks hard enough, maybe his face will change. And then he then he steps back and thinks, you know what? I bet there's a lot of people that think these thoughts just like me. But yeah, talk about like a, I don't want to say a whiplash, but like a very, very different sound

and vibe and energy compared to what the first two songs, especially the great curve, right? But that's what makes this album so amazing, right? You go from like, once a lot of in a lifetime is the opener version. I mean, talk about like a tale of two sides. You know what I mean? Like side A of this record is just a banger. Yeah. And then side B starts with once in a lifetime, which is one of the most iconic songs of all time. With very bizarre lyrics as well. Yeah, but like, kind of, he was actually asked about why, why does he think that that song struck a chord with so many people. He goes, the you may ask yourself repetitions and how did I get here, sure struck a nerve with people and became very memorable. They did seem to speak to somewhat

universal feelings and concerns. And then he goes on to say like, but, you know, if I could predict how and why a song becomes popular, then I'd, you know, I'd be a much wiser person than most people in the music biz. But he goes on to say that if one's taste overlaps with that of the public or some part of them, then odds are one will get lucky once in a while. So there you go. David Byrne, 2017, when he was interviewed by the Library of Congress. Awesome, dude. I ask myself questions all the time about how I got here or there. Don't we all? That's kind of part of life, right? Because you wake up one day and you're like, that's not my fancy automobile or whatever. Right. Anyway. Well, that was awesome, dude.

I need to listen to the rest of the album, man. Oh, yeah, but just obviously you don't need me to tell you this. Just push play on track one. Yeah. It's a fucking roller coaster for sure. And there's songs on side B that are a little bit more, I don't know, they don't grab your attention quite as much as side A, but part of the experience, I guess.

You know, not everything can be a great curve, key. Amazing record, dude. But the great curve, dude, holds up every time I hear that song. It's just so amazing. I'm so glad that they decided to sacrifice their egos for mutual cooperation, dude. Well, it sounds like, you know, they may have ended the band prematurely if they hadn't sort of reconciled their differences. I mean, they went out to put on, put out, you know, a few more records after this, but they never,

like this, this record is, is unique and it stands out amongst music in general. But like, they never really made any song that sounded like, any album that sounded like this after this, right? It's just a special moment, man. in time. It really is, especially because if you think about had they not been in, you know, the Bahamas on the vacation, the married couple, Tina and Chris, they may not have started to kind of experiment with this percussive stuff. If hip hop and rap wasn't starting to take off, you know, that happening and then being sort of plugged into that, or at least David Byrne being kind of

interested and like, hey, this is kind of new. All of that stuff just came together to make this amazing, this amazing record, you know. And this is the stuff. And this is the stuff. that we are excited about when it comes to music. You know, like that's that's the whole thing, dude. Like, music is the gift that keeps on giving because the next time some random member of a band goes on vacation, here's something totally different is going to bring it back and incorporate it into their sound and might make something totally new just like this. Happens all the time.

Well, yeah, we talked about, and this is kind of a side track, but we talked about that with, um, Quantic, how he basically is just a world traveler and he just goes and purposely visits local record shops and stuff like that. Yeah, a world traveling record collector who happens to be a really awesome producer. Right. That's going to, yeah, that's going to lead to some really cool sounds. But that's what it's all about. And I don't, I don't think any new wave or post-punk band incorporated, you know, Afrobeat and funk and all that kind of world, worldly percussive stuff quite like talking heads did on this record.

Like it's one of a kind, really. Amazing. All right, man. Well, that was it, dude. What a great record. Check it out. It's called Remain in Light. You won't be disappointed.

It's going to wrap it up here, Q, for our coverage of one of the greatest bands of all time, Talking Heads. And what are we doing next week, Q? Oh, nothing special. Except we've got an amazing guest. Oh, that's right. Something very special. So through just luck of knowing somebody who has connections,

and by connections, I mean, this person is related to somebody who writes for Rolling Stone. And this is a co-worker of mine. shout out to Taylor. We were just talking one day and she's like, hey, you know, my uncle writes for Rolling Stone. In fact, he's a senior writer had Rolling Stone. You know, I basically was like, could you repeat that? Exquise me? Yeah.

Could you repeat that, please? So this guy's name is David Brown. He is a writer for Rolling Stone, senior writer for Rolling Stone. He's been in the biz for a long, long time. And he's written several biographies on bands, one of which was, essentially like the definitive biography of Sonic Youth. And that is what we're going to talk with him about next week. We've actually already recorded the interview.

It was amazing. He's like an encyclopedia, basically. I'm excited to get this out, dude. Yeah, so the book is called Goodbye 20th Century. And this book has inspired me to seek out more musical biographies because it was such a fun read. and we cover three albums with him. So we focus on the Geffen years.

So their first major label signage. So we're going to dive into goo, dirty, and experimental jet set. So I can't stress enough how excited we are to share this episode with you all. Man, dude, we got Marky Moon, remain in light. now we're bringing some Sonic youth. And the funny thing is, dude, like we actually talk about with David that exact, like, scene, you know, the New York, CBGB, New Wave, post-punk origins and stuff like that. He was there, man.

So, yeah, I guess I won't give too much away. But, yeah, he was in the East Village of New York City. And he moved there in 1978. So he was there. Yeah, he was there right when it happened. All right, so that's next week. And then I'm not sure what we were going from there. But we'll figure it out.

We are approaching our 300th episode and we do have... Two hundred. Boy. Oops. Are you sure? Yes. We're approaching our 200th episode. And so we got some interesting plans for that.

So be on the lookout. That's another thing I'm really excited about. What is that a couple months from now? Dude, it's, no, it's going to be here before you know it. Well, we got, we can't just let that slip by, dude. Oh, we're notoriously bad. Oh, wait. I think I pinned it to our slack, dude.

smart. I pinned it to our Slack, brother. November 8th. Okay. All right. So we got a little bit, time for that. And we've got another guest planned for that one. So that's going to be a lot of fun too. Oh, and hey, dude, let's give it, let's give a quick shout out. So, uh, I pretty much forgot that we had a Twitter account, dude, since we joined Instagram. Once we went to Instagram, Twitter was just in the rear view, dude. Yeah. And I guess Twitter just decided, you know what? They haven't hopped on here in weeks. I'm not even going to give him a notification because I did not get any notification about this message. But we posted about, hey, we're on my Instagram now. That was the last post we did on Twitter. And about two weeks ago, we got a reply from one of our listeners.

His name's Kenny. Oh, God. I'm sorry, Kenny. His name is Kenny. His name is Kenny. Sorry. You know what, based on your message, Kenny, you know your last name. And it sounds like you're, you've been listening to us for a while. So you know the struggles that we go through trying to pronounce people's last names on here. What am I, a linguist? No, you're not, dude. No. But, so Kenny writes, I'm disappointed at the, at the news that we were leaving Twitter. The twins give positive vibes to Twitter in these perilous times.

You know, we still give positive vibes. on Instagram. Yeah, I don't want to to force you to join Instagram to stay in the loop, Kenny, but we just weren't getting a lot of love on Twitter, you know? Like I just did, I wasn't feeling it. Apparently we were, Q. Apparently, we were sending positive vibes out there. People were digging them. We just didn't hear from any of you, you know? Yeah, I wish that I knew that. So, thank you, Kenny, for those kind of words. Yes. Sorry that we, that we left you love to hang in on Twitter with no more positive vibes. Lesson learned though, give us a shout out and let us know what you think.

That way we don't make this mistake again down the line and just bail on Instagram too. Give us a shout out. Let us know what you think of the show. We'd love to hear from you. Give us suggestions on bands to cover, albums to cover. This is why we do the show, is to interact with and start. dialogues with other music lovers. That's what it's all about. So, yes, follow us on Instagram, Antofilor Podcast. And you can also find us on the Pantheon Podcast Network.

The podcast for music lovers, that is our home, that is our family. We've got dozens upon dozens of awesome music-related podcasts on the network. You can find us there. Pantionpodcasts. com. And as always, big shout out to AKG for supporting the show. Thank you as always. And that's going to do it for us this week. Next week, we are chatting with David Brown. We're talking all things Sonic Youth. Check back with us next week for that. Until then, thank you as always for listening. My name's Quentin. My name is Travis. You all take care.