I like some of Dylan but IMHO this is one of the best concert recordings ever.
Posted on 11/20/2022 3:11:41 PM PST by nickcarraway
Bob Dylan recently released a new art of songwriting book/collection of essays, The Philosophy Of Modern Song, and he doesn’t always speak flatteringly about some fellow musicians within its pages. Drummer Chris Frantz of Talking Heads in particular felt taken aback by Dylan’s second essay, on Elvis Costello’s “Pump It Up,” which said: “Elvis Costello And The Attractions were a better band than any of their contemporaries. Light years better.” Apparently Frantz really did not appreciate Dylan’s total disregard of “any of their contemporaries,” which includes fellow new wavers Talking Heads.
“I love Bob Dylan’s new book The Philosophy Of Modern Song,” Frantz wrote on Facebook on November 11. “But I have one little bone to pick with the author when he writes ‘Elvis Costello And The Attractions were a better band than any of their contemporaries. Light years better.’ With all due respect to the Attractions and to drummer Pete Thomas in particular, I’d like to say to Bob something he once said to a buddy of mine. ‘Suck a (deleted).'”
On the other hand, as Rolling Stone lays out, Dylan might have also been a fan of Talking Heads? As Frantz tells Rolling Stone, Dylan was in the audience when Talking Heads played a show in St. Paul, Minnesota, in the ’80s, and the band was invited to his house for an afterparty.
“We said, ‘Great!’” Frantz says. “They gave us directions to a house somewhere in the suburbs of Minneapolis. This is before GPS, so it took us a while to find it. We knocked and this woman came to the door and said, ‘Hello?’ We said, “Bob invited us to come. We’re Talking Heads.’ And she said, ‘Oh, Bob’s already gone to bed.’”
“I’m not trying to pit the Heads against any of the bands of that era,” Frantz continues. “There were so many good bands then, and I spent many nights at CBGB and saw a lot of superior performances. But I would say to Bob, ‘How are you make such a sweeping generalization?’ I think it’s a very good book — despite that one chapter.”
If you liked Talking Heads, great. I didn’t think they were the be-all and end-all, that’s for sure. They were a somewhat better-than-average punk rock band. Big deal.
They have one good song, one. A driving beat but worthless lyrics. Life during wartime, and their women are ugly.
Whose women are ugly?
The best things going on (in hindsight) were in disco. Rod Temperton was coming into his own. Earth, Wind and Fire, The Commodores, The Doobie Brothers, Dire Straits, a few others were pretty good. And of course the band that I took my screen name from.
But Talking Heads? Devo was better and more clever.
They started heading toward "world music" territory which was sad, but they had some great songs, and that concert video is definitely worth a view.
They were never punk.
LOL - nah
Gosh, what a boring story!
Thought rock stars had more going on.
I agree, disco was great. But music appreciation is subjective. We can criticize all we want and it will change no one’s mind. I love foreign music, songs you never hear anywhere. middle eastern music with their complex melodies and fabulous arrangements are terrific.
I think Chris Frantz is being hyper-sensitive. I haven’t read the new Dylan book, but plan to. I’m guessing this is praise of Elvis Costello, and not criticism of any of the many other bands playing at that time.
FWIW, while Talking Heads became big around the same time as punk, of course they were not a punk band. In addition, while I have never listened to Elvis Costello’s music, in the early 1980s he had a reputation as a complete jackass live, playing 35-minute shows and then to make sure the fans left turning up the volume on the recorded music to persuade them not to wait for an encore.
Pete Thomas is such a badass drummer.
Only an insecure person would see the praise of a peer as an insult to them.
Talking Heads were sort of a niche, “art school” band, weren’t they? Not that there’s anything wrong with that. It’s just that you might not think of them as being in the same competition with other bands.
And is there actually somebody combing through old rockers’ Facebook posts to find “stories” like this one?
New Wave but not Punk, no way.
Also extremely well filmed. They had a hotshot film guy — I can’t remember who — do the cinematography. He shot it on big format celluloid so the quality is excellent and he did a great job setting up the shots.
I had that concert film on VHS and I must have watched it a hundred times back in the 1980s. I really liked the way David came out with a boombox and a guitar to play “Psycho Killer” solo on a completely bare stage and then with each subsequent song, additional equipment and performers got rolled onto the stage.
OK, I give up, who was the author? You never know with Bob Zimmerman
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