Showing posts with label talking heads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label talking heads. Show all posts

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Music in NYC 1972-1977


I am reading a fascinating book about the NYC music scene from 1972-1977--Love Goes to Buildings on Fire: Five Years in New York That Changed Music Forever.  I arrived in NYC in '77.  The book details the emergence of hip hop and rap, the loft jazz scene, salsa, punk, the new serious music a/k/a/ classical of Steven Reich and Phillip Glass, and the new wave.  

It was pretty cool to be there and catch the tail end of it.  Anyhow, this reminded me of one night in 1977 when Kev Francis Aloysius Curran and I went to the opening of Hilly Crystal's new club in the East Village, CBGB 2nd Avenue, in an old Yiddish theater on 2nd Avenue between 3rd and 4th Streets.  On the bill that night: The Talking Heads, The Ramones, Television, and Blondie.  The Hell's Angels, who lived across 3rd street from my future brother in law Colin, were out front of the theatre selling acid and nickel bags. The theater was almost 2,000 seats...way bigger than CBGBs proper.   Looking at who was playing, it's just stunning that it wasn't a sell out.  OK, rambling now. 

One of the most interesting facts in the book I'm reading is that the Talking Heads lived three doors up from our loft at 181 Chrystie Street in the East Village.  Keelin and I sublet a place there for three or four months.  I never saw any signs of the Heads, but we saw a lot of other weird stuff.   I still often listen to the Heads, Ramones, Blondie, and other bands from back then, but tonight I went back and listened to a couple of my Television CDs.  I'd forgotten just how good these guys were. . .

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Saturday, March 21, 2009

Video: Mind by The Talking Heads

A music video culled from a strange documentary on The Talking Heads. It's worth watching--despite the somewhat muddy sound--for the opening religious bit, and for David Byrne's always awesomely bizarre dancing. Mind is one of my favorite TH songs.




Mind
by The Talking Heads

Time won't change you
Money won't change you
I haven't got the faintest idea
Everything seems to be up in the air at this time
I need something you change your mind
Drugs won't change you
Religion won't change you
Science won't change you
Looks like I can't change you
I try to talk to you, to make things clear
but you're not even listening to me...
And it comes directly from my heart to you...
I need something to change your mind.
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Thursday, February 26, 2009

Friday, February 20, 2009

Talking Heads and Laurel & Hardy mash up Slippery People

This is an incredible mashup of the Talking Heads playing Slippery People, mashed with video clips of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy dancing. Who'd have thunk?

The Tom Tom Club play Genius of Love

The Tom Tom Club (Tina and Chris from Talking Heads, and friends and family) play Genius of Love at a Talking Heads show (this may well be from Demme's Stop Making Sense film). When I lived in NYC, we saw the Talking Heads many times at CBGB, at the short lived CBGB Second Avenue, and in Central Park. I always loved watching Tina play bass. And she had great legs.


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