I want to make a comic book version of Psycho starring Talking Heads. David Byrne as Norman Bates, Tina Weymouth as Lila Crane, Chris Frantz as Sam Loomis, Jerry Harrison as Arbogast, with a special guest appearance by Debby Harry as Marion Crane.

But that would take a long time to do.

Jay Cocks - Time Magazine, October 27, 1987

“Oh,” David Byrne said, “you want to see the African fire ants?” It was deep night out on a Texas plain flat as a pan bottom and just about burned through. A recent rain had slaked the land a little but brought forth legions of ants to infest the ground and pester a nearby film set. Exterminators were summoned, ants dispatched, but one actor, arriving late, felt he had missed out on some fun.

“Follow me,” said Byrne sympathetically, as he grabbed a flashlight and walked into the dark. This is a man whose first great song was called Psycho Killer. A man who is the formative force behind Talking Heads, one of the decade’s most formidable bands, a group responsible for the sweetest, strangest, funniest rock to roll over the ’70s and nestle into the ’80s. A man who should be hanging close to the set, seeing to the details of directing his first feature film, not striking out on some weird nocturnal expedition in search of hymenopterous marauders.

He may not resemble the manic murderer in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, but he will never be mistaken for Mark Trail either. Is this a man to follow into the night?

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By Christopher Connelly
October 27, 1983

David Byrne? Uh, lemme think … Talking Heads? Yeah, yeah, I know: “This ain’t no party,” right? “Psycho Killer”? Yeah, that guy. I know who you mean. He’s a little … weird, isn’t he? Sorta not playing with a full deck, if you get my drift. Or the deck he’s playing with has, like, the Ace of Cups in it or something. Kinda looped, a little on the psychotic side, am I right? Yeah, Talking Heads … great band, saw ‘em live once, terrific. Don’t sell many records, though, do they? Too bad. Boy, that Byrne sure is weird, you know what I mean? Is he normal, or what?

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I bought Uh-Oh a long time ago. I think while I was in middle school or very early high school. I didn’t think much of it at first. It was so weird. One of the things I loved about David Byrne was his weirdness, but this weird was different. It took a couple of listens before I warmed up to it, and eventually loved it as much as any of his other records.

Sonically, it’s a funny, funky, goofy kind of sound. There’s kazoos and whistles, and weird sound effects. That makes it sound obnoxious, but it isn’t. They’re used appropriately in context, I think. But the overall sound is very cheery and upbeat. It wasn’t until this past week while I was listening to it on the bus, not having listened to it for a while, I realized something I had missed all these years; how bitterly angry the album actually is.

Of course I had picked up on some of the darker, more cynical lines in some songs, but I never really thought about it with too much depth. While half asleep on the bus, listening to the album, it suddenly hit me. “Holy shit.”

I think for me, the emotional part of this album was overshadowed by David’s succeeding self-titled album, which is more obviously dark and emotive. davidenryb is a very raw, sad, angry, and frustrated album, both in lyrics and sound. I think it had eclipsed the emotional impact of Uh-Oh for me.

When I think about it, the anger, bitterness, and frustration in Uh-Oh makes a lot of sense. The album was released in 1992. David Byrne was going through a lot of personal shit in ‘92. This was just after Talking Heads had “officially” broken up in 1991. By officially, I mean David got sick of interviewers only question being “when is Talking Heads gonna tour again,” and David saying, “fuck off, we’re not.” Not smooth. In January of ‘92, his sister-in-law, Tina Chow, had died of AIDS. David and his daughter are still close to Tina’s daughter, China (though David is not technically her uncle anymore, after his and his wife’s divorce).

The cover of the album confused me for a while. But as I started to think about some of the lyrics on the record, its meaning came into a little more focus. David is not a religious person, specifically, though he has been fascinated by religion and religious experiences. In Uh-Oh though, it seems clear he’s frustrated with the bullshit that comes along with it. The cover of a choir of angels worshiping a derpy looking cartoon dog on a throne seems to say, “look at how fucking ridiculous you people look. It’s all bullshit!”

Some Meditation on Individual Songs

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qqkachoo asked: Have you ever watched a film that changed your life? If so, what was it, and what did it do to you?

Stop Making Sense, the Talking Heads concert video. That sounds like kind of a weird answer, but my introduction to Talking Heads really did change my life, or at least my entire perspective.

I first saw the movie when I was 14, which is a developmentally significant time for everyone. Until then, music had been rather incidental to me. I loved music. I mostly listened to classic rock, because that’s what my parents listened to, and I loved it. But there wasn’t anything that really blew my mind. Talking Heads blew my mind. It was so different, and David Byrne was SO different from any of the rock star type personalities that I was aware of. This skinny, nerdy, nervous, bug eyed man yelping out his equally nerdy songs.

Talking Heads was the first band I could claim as my favourite. I became obsessed with them, and especially with David Byrne. I’d read everything about him, all of his interviews… and it is an understatement to say that he’s a VERY smart man. His perspective on the world, on music, on learning, and just being open to every new experience really kind of helped form my own perspective. He’s been a real inspiration to me over the past decade. I don’t know that one single thing (outside my family) has made such a significant impact on me as watching Stop Making Sense for the first time has.