If you consider solo and side projects of a particular artist or band, you can trace their lineage much as you can a family tree.
One of the strongest would be Talking Heads. The sheer quality of output amongst band members, offshoots, and associates – especially during their peak period of 1979-82, rivals that of anything put against it.
And I have the facts to back it up.
1979s dark and paranoid Fear of Music, Talking Heads’ third long player, shifted the band’s path towards the extraordinary. Produced by Brian Eno, the album would feature Robert Fripp’s guitar work on the opening track, ‘I Zimbra’. Interestingly enough, the same track – in addition to ‘Life During Wartime’, highlights both Ari Up of The Slits and actor Gene Wilder on congas.
That’s right! Gene Wilder.
The Beatles never had Wily Wonka on congas, now did they?
[Note: I am focusing on the ’79-82 period of the band because it was not until 1979 that Talking Heads progressed beyond sounding like New York legends, Come On.
Everyone knows that.]
Eno would once again take the helm and contribute heavily to Talking Heads’ fourth and arguably greatest album, 1980’s polyrhythmic masterpiece Remain in Light. The album would include former Frank Zappa and David Bowie guitar virtuoso Adrian Belew, former Labelle powerhouse Nona Hendryx on backing vocals, and future Power Station frontman Robert Palmer on percussion.
To realize the complexity of the music on the album for the supporting tour, the band would expand its line-up to include Belew, Hendryx, former Parliament-Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell, bassist Busta Jones, backing vocalist Dolette McDonald, and percussionist Steve Scales – all very highly skilled musicians in their own right.
This line-up, as well as the early 4-piece band, was featured on 1982’s double live album, The Name of This Band is Talking Heads. Like a majority of the Talking Heads discography, the album did not chart as well as it should have. It did, however, receive stunning accolades – many hailing it as the greatest ‘official’ live album ever produced.
During the layoff between 1980’s ‘Remain in Light’ and 1983’s ‘Speaking in Tongues’ studio albums, each of these musicians – in addition to tragically forgotten R&B drummer and session hero Yogi Horton, would strongly contribute to the various Talking Heads’ solo material:
* David Byrne would score Twyla Tharp’s avant-dance production, The Catherine Wheel (Byrne, Worrell, Belew, Frantz, Eno, Harrison, Scales, McDonald, Horton). He would then partner with Eno for the brilliant My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Jones, Scales). Both stunningly good albums.
* Jerry Harrison would release the terribly underrated The Red and The Black (Harrison, Belew, Worrell, Scales, Hendryx, McDonald, Horton). At the time, the more ridiculous of criticisms of the album was that it was nothing more than a Remain in Light rehash. Hogwash. Considering how involved Harrison was in the creative process of Talking Heads, it makes complete sense that his solo material would incorporate similar soundscapes.
And while it is slightly out of the focused-upon time period, in 1984 Harrison would collaborate with funkalicious bassist Bootsy Collins for the superb ‘5 Minutes’ EP as Bonzo Goes to Washington.
* Husband and wife rhythm section Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth would form Tom Tom Club, releasing their self-titled debut LP (Frantz, Weymouth, Belew) in 1981. The album would spawn one of the more sampled tracks in all of hip-hop history, Genius of Love.
* Adrian Belew would spin his work with the Talking Heads into a ride with Robert Fripp’s King Crimson, who would release the excellent (and Talking Heads-like) Discipline. Afterwards Belew would release his acclaimed (and Talking Heads-like) debut, Lone Rhino.
* And in keeping with the spirit of the post, we’ve also got Nona Hendryx’s 1983 second album, Nona (Scales, Worrell, Weymouth). As with Bonzo Goes to Washington, it does tip-toe out of the time frame. However, the middle-of-the-road 80s R&B on Nona puts a deserved spotlight on a truly wonderful singer.
Enjoy.
If do hope this takes you, dear reader, down a wondrous musical hole. And if you are lucky enough to be unfamiliar, you are in for a treat. The artistic joy that these discoveries gave me in my most formatives has never been matched. Each album opened doors that have stayed open to this very day.
Power to the Imagination.