Author Jonathan Gould, who has expertly written about the Beatles and Otis Redding turns his attention to a transformative time in music that transpired across the boroughs of New York City in the early to mid-seventies through the lens and history of one of its most enigmatic and popular bands, Talking Heads. Burning Down the House is Gould’s storytelling and insights at its best, framing the context and purpose of the music and environment, the people making it, and its eventual and lasting influence.
Burning Down the House frames Talking Heads in the confluence of the downtown punk movement of CBGB’s wherein the band, like so many new acts at the time, Patti Smith, the Ramones, Television, Blondie, etc, had launched careers, but rightly concentrates on how they were distinct in their conservative dress and the tensed demeanor of lead singer and songwriter, David Byrne’s insular affectations. This is something Gould also delves into with great care and research, which he eventually interprets as Aspergers, which not only informs Talking Heads music but their strained if not productive camaraderie.
Gould also superbly separates the band from their contemporaries as a less white, 70s punk/new wave outfit and more in the lineage of the Black Stax/R&B sounds as funneled through their upper-middle-class Caucasian prism. The ensuing evolution of Byrne’s compositions within the band and without (most prevalent with producer and composer, Brian Eno) came to first separate Talking Heads further from any band of its time but carved out a place for them to become a major if not unlikely force in popular music – much of it thanks to MTV showcasing the primacy of the band as a visual as well as sonic excursion.
Recent Comments
Categories