Author: E. Baker

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.

* Talking Heads’ 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.

Richie Warwick; The House of Warwick

Mayfly Records continues to shine a well-deserved spotlight on those associated with it in some form or another. In WordPress form.

This is the Big Time, my friends… writ very, very small.

Today’s interview is with someone I personally find to be a shining beacon; one of the few of the modern independents that my wife and I can agree on – Richie Warwick of The House of Warwick! 

Mr. Warwick, as I forever address him, contributed an original, unnamed piece to the Mayfly Radio Vol. 1 compilation released earlier in the year. He did so without a second thought – and was one of the first to champion the concept.

Much respect all around. 

Video: House of Warwick: Stuff: Mayfly Radio Vol. One

 

Mayfly:  For those that might be unaware, please tell us a little about yourself.

Warwick: I’m a solo artist that records from home. I’m from North Georgia U.S. 

Played in and out of live bands for over two decades and started recording from home in 2017. 

What are some of the things that have shaped you?

I like vintage horror comics, Classic Sifi and every day is Halloween. lyrically I’m influenced by these things, but like any artist I’m influenced by everything. Hope, despair, and all that stuff in between that makes human. I like a wide range of music. If it catches me, I don’t care what genre it is really. 

Who are some of your favorite artists?

Favorite artists? Type O Negative, Björk, Talking Heads, Marvin Gaye, The Cramps, Sonic Youth, Iron Maiden, Portishead, I could keep going. But Type O and Björk I guess are my favorites, I think they’re a good mental balance for me. 

What are some of your favorite books?   

Clive Barker‘s, ‘The Great and Secret Show’, Dostoyevsky’s, ‘Crime and Punishment’ come to mind. Big Stephen King fan too.

Our societies have become a sports rivalry Writ Large: My Team vs. Your Team; in politics, in theatre, and even in polite conversation. Who or what do you inevitably cheer for? Who or what do you inevitably hiss? 

My team vs yours? Stars upon Thars, ridiculous envy. I consider myself an independent, I believe in individuality. I think social media has stripped that away to a degree. People judge one another by their memes and what have you. I still believe most strangers can sit down and after a good conversation, realize they have more in common than not. Extreme ideology, no matter what it is, is not for me. If people aren’t hurting one another, then I don’t care what they do. I hope for a day that the cultural war in this country fades away, and people become confident enough in themselves and their own beliefs to appreciate the differences of others. 

I commend and appreciate that answer. Thank you for it!

When was it that you decided that music was a passion? Is it a passion? 

Why? 

I grew up around music, several people on my dad’s side and my mom’s side were musicians. My dad was a drummer, sometimes he would take me to help set up before a show. As a small kid, if my head wasn’t wrapped up in Star Wars, I was running around, beating on pots and pans and playing air guitar. My Aunt had a great 8 track collection. I fell in love with the motion picture soundtrack to Heavy Metal at a very young age. Every time I went to see her I would continuously play it. I don’t think I saw that movie until I was probably 12 or 13. It was kinda of a disappointment, but I still like the soundtrack. 

My mom was a big fan of ELO, so I have a deep appreciation for them. My first cassette was Mötley Crüe’s Shout at the Devil. A kid in the fourth grade brought it to school, and I immediately went home and asked for it. But it wasn’t until I saw The Return of the Living Dead when it came out on VHS, that I wanted to be a musician. It sparked something. My dad bought me a guitar at 14 and I found some friends to form a Garage Band, the Ramones became a big inspiration so anything we wrote came out like that, only not good. 

I’ve played in industrial bands, metal bands, punk bands, stoner rock,  throughout the years. 

What is it that you are trying to get across to the many listeners you have managed to snare – and to those you’ve not yet?  

With House of Warwick, I don’t know what I’m trying to get across to listeners. I don’t think about it. If people dig what I do, that’s cool: I sincerely thank you. 

If they don’t, that’s cool too. 

If I release a song and it goes over well, the worst possible thing I could think of is to dwell on that and try to out perform it with the next. I try and stay in a state of mind to just write whatever comes out and let it do its thing. 

Many claim that we do this artistic song and dance for ourselves – but if that were truly the case, we’d all pull an Emily Dickinson.

From where have you gained the confidence to put yourself out there (musically or otherwise)? 

I’ve been doing this for a very long time. I’m cool with criticism, I appreciate when someone is honest and tells me, that song sucked. 

Have you anything currently in the works?

I’m currently working on some new videos to put to older songs, and I’ve got a few new ones I’m tinkering around with. But I’m also in the midst of some collaborations, so when I get the time, I’m focusing on that 1st. 

This is lifted directly off Deb LeMotta’s line of interview questioning: If you could go back and give your younger self a piece of needed advice, what would it be?

If I could go back and talk to my younger self? I would tell them to stop compromising, write the music you want to write. I think I held myself back creatively for decades in bands. I spent a very long time, just writing lyrics and laying down vocals, never really giving a lot of input in the structure of songs. In my area, if you wanted to be in a band, it was either country, rock, metal, every now and then a punk band. I would’ve told my younger self, have patience and don’t join any bands until it’s exactly what you’re looking for.

Now, I don’t care anything about forming a band. I have no desire to deal with all the stuff that revolves around it.

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to ramble on. Much love and respect! 

The pleasure, indeed was all mine. You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in the many independent music communities that could say anything bad about the man. And if they did, I wouldn’t believe them. 

As always: Power to the Imagination