Posted on Nov 2, 2023
For David Byrne, Talking Heads was about making emotional sense — not literal sense
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https://www.npr.org/2023/11/01/ [login to see] /david-byrne-talking-heads-stop-making-sense
Talking Heads founding member David Byrne says the first song he heard that really hooked him on music was The Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man."
"This jangly guitar and these really kind of lush harmonies mixed with that — I'd never heard any sound like that," Byrne says. He remembers thinking to himself: "There's a whole 'nother world out there."
Byrne bought himself a few songbooks — Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Smokey Robinson — and set about teaching himself to play the guitar and to sing along. His voice wasn't great; "it sounded better to me in my head than what I heard on recordings," he acknowledges. He was even asked to leave the school choir for singing off-key, but he wasn't discouraged.
Talking Heads founding member David Byrne says the first song he heard that really hooked him on music was The Byrds' version of "Mr. Tambourine Man."
"This jangly guitar and these really kind of lush harmonies mixed with that — I'd never heard any sound like that," Byrne says. He remembers thinking to himself: "There's a whole 'nother world out there."
Byrne bought himself a few songbooks — Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Smokey Robinson — and set about teaching himself to play the guitar and to sing along. His voice wasn't great; "it sounded better to me in my head than what I heard on recordings," he acknowledges. He was even asked to leave the school choir for singing off-key, but he wasn't discouraged.
For David Byrne, Talking Heads was about making emotional sense — not literal sense
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Posted 6 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."Byrne bought himself a few songbooks — Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Smokey Robinson — and set about teaching himself to play the guitar and to sing along. His voice wasn't great; "it sounded better to me in my head than what I heard on recordings," he acknowledges. He was even asked to leave the school choir for singing off-key, but he wasn't discouraged.
"Why is it that people don't give up? That's a real puzzle to me," he says. "I just thought, 'No, I love this. I'm going to keep doing it myself. I'll just do it in my bedroom or to a smaller group.'"
But Byrne did, in fact, go on to find a broader audience. When he was in his 20s, he co-founded Talking Heads. The group, which specialized in what he calls "twitchy, angsty songs," would become one of the seminal bands of the punk new-wave period of the 1970s — despite the fact that they weren't exactly punk."...
..."Byrne bought himself a few songbooks — Bob Dylan, The Beatles, Smokey Robinson — and set about teaching himself to play the guitar and to sing along. His voice wasn't great; "it sounded better to me in my head than what I heard on recordings," he acknowledges. He was even asked to leave the school choir for singing off-key, but he wasn't discouraged.
"Why is it that people don't give up? That's a real puzzle to me," he says. "I just thought, 'No, I love this. I'm going to keep doing it myself. I'll just do it in my bedroom or to a smaller group.'"
But Byrne did, in fact, go on to find a broader audience. When he was in his 20s, he co-founded Talking Heads. The group, which specialized in what he calls "twitchy, angsty songs," would become one of the seminal bands of the punk new-wave period of the 1970s — despite the fact that they weren't exactly punk."...
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