Toronto, 1978, and the venerable Horseshoe Tavern at Queen St. W. and Spadina Ave. is packed to the gills. Old-timers wouldn't recognise it as the place where Stomping Tom Connors shot his movie a few years back. Oh there might be a few ducktails still around, and there is definitely a lot of black leather, but the patrons aren't here to hear Hank Snow, or any of the other Country and Western favourites who have graced the old stage.
Nope, tonight they're all here to check out the latest hot band to come up from New York City via the Mudd Clubb and C.B.G.B. A change of management meant a change of format, and the Horseshoe has become a Mecca for punk and new wave bands from both Toronto and afar.
After a warm-up set from a local group that's left the audience's ears bleeding from the noise, anticipation is high, and so when three rather normal-looking guys and a girl walk out on to stage, nobody pays them much mind until they pick up their instruments and approach the microphones. When the first words out of the lead singer's mouth are: "Can we get the volume turned down" they know they're in for something different than the usual three-chord punk assault on the senses.
That was the Talking Heads; different from the word go. From gawky, geeky-looking David Byrne on lead vocals and guitar, normal-looking Jerry Harrison on guitar and keyboards, Chris Franz on drums, and a rarity in the rock world a woman, Tina Weymouth, on bass, they hardly looked like a rock band, let alone the writers of songs like "Psycho Killer" and "Life During War Time"
Throughout their life as a band, the Talking Heads continually defied expectations. Whether in the stripped-down, minimalist four-piece band of the earliest incarnations, or in the nine-piece funk band from mid-career, they were always a couple of steps ahead of both their audience and the music industry. You knew it was only a matter of time that the creative energy that fuelled that innovation would become constrained by popular music and need to move on.
But technology is a wonderful thing, and Rhino records have done the world a great service by re-releasing some of their best albums on dual disc CD/DVDs. One side features the original CD plus some bonus tracks, and the other side is the music remixed in 5.1 surround sound for audio DVD players. Each DVD also includes copies of the original music videos that were released with the albums.
Article comments
1 - Doug
Good review. This set of dual discs needs more publicity.
Do you have a 5.1 setup? You make no mention of the surround sound in the meat of your review, which is a little unfortunate, given that these albums (especially "Speaking in Tongues") gain an exciting new life in hi-res 5.1. Jerry Harrison's surround mix is a swirl of mind-altering polyrhythms that should not be missed. That era of Talking Heads material, from "Fear of Music", through to "Speaking in Tongues" feels like it was always intended to be heard in the hi-res surround format.
2 - Steven Hart
You're right, "Mr. Jones" is definitely an answer song to "Ballad of a Thin Man." Dylan's tune spends five or six minutes grinding Jones into the floor; Byrne's song sounds like he met Jones in a tiki bar and offered to buy him a drink.