Artist Biography by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

At the start of their career, Talking Heads were all nervous energy, detached
emotion, and subdued minimalism. When they released their last album about
12 years later, the band had recorded everything from art-funk to polyrhythmic
worldbeat explorations and simple, melodic guitar pop. Between their first album
in 1977 and their last in 1988, Talking Heads became one of the most critically
acclaimed bands of the '80s, while managing to earn several pop hits. While
some of their music can seem too self-consciously experimental, clever, and
intellectual for its own good, at their best Talking Heads represent everything
good about art-school punks.

And they were literally art-school punks. Guitarist/vocalist David Byrne,

drummer Chris Frantz, and bassist Tina Weymouth met at the Rhode Island
School of Design in the early '70s; they decided to move to New York in 1974 to
concentrate on making music. The next year, the band won a spot opening
for the Ramones at the seminal New York punk club CBGB. In 1976,
keyboardist Jerry Harrison, a former member of Jonathan Richman's Modern
Lovers, was added to the lineup. By 1977, the band had signed to Sire Records
and released its first album, Talking Heads: 77. It received a considerable
amount of acclaim for its stripped-down rock & roll, particularly Byrne's geeky,
overly intellectual lyrics and uncomfortable, jerky vocals.

For their next album, 1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food, the
band worked with producer Brian Eno, recording a set of carefully constructed,
arty pop songs, distinguished by extensive experimenting with combined
acoustic and electronic instruments, as well as touches of surprisingly credible
funk. On their next album, the Eno-produced Fear of Music, Talking
Heads began to rely heavily on their rhythm section, adding flourishes of
African-styled polyrhythms. This approach came to a full fruition with
1980's Remain in Light, which was again produced by Eno. Talking
Heads added several sidemen, including a horn section, leaving them free to
explore their dense amalgam of African percussion, funk bass and keyboards,
pop songs, and electronics.

After a long tour, the band concentrated on solo projects for a couple of years.
By the time of 1983's Speaking in Tongues, the band had severed its ties
with Eno; the result was an album that still relied on the rhythmic innovations
of Remain in Light, except within a more rigid pop-song structure. After its
release, Talking Heads embarked on another extensive tour, which was
captured on the Jonathan Demme-directed concert film Stop Making Sense.
After releasing the straightforward pop album Little Creatures in
1985, Byrnedirected his first movie, True Stories, the following year; the band's
next album featured songs from the film. Two years later, Talking
Heads released Naked, which marked a return to their worldbeat explorations,
although it sometimes suffered from Byrne's lyrical pretensions.

After its release, Talking Heads were put on "hiatus"; Byrnepursued some solo
projects, as did Harrison, and Frantz and Weymouth continued with their side
project, Tom Tom Club. In 1991, the band issued an announcement that they
had broken up. Shortly thereafter, Harrison's production took off with successful
albums by Live and Crash Test Dummies. In 1996, the original lineup
minus Byrne reunited for the album No Talking Just
Head; Byrne sued Frantz, Weymouth, and Harrison for attempting to record
and perform as Talking Heads, so the trio went by the Heads. In 1999, all four
worked together to promote a 15th-anniversary edition of Stop Making Sense,
and they also performed at the 2002 induction ceremony for their entrance into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Through the 2010s, Byrne released a number
of solo and collaborative projects. Tom Tom Club continued to tour,
while Harrison produced albums for the likes of No Doubt, the Von Bondies,
and Hockey.