Random Rules Playlist 033: Talking Heads Family Tree
Following the musical footprint of the four members of Talking Heads, from 1976 to today
I recently had the good fortune to get a last minute ticket to a screening of Stop Making Sense (4K Restoration) at the venue it was filmed at 40 years ago, the Pantages Theater, followed by a Q&A with all four original members of the band.
When I’m out and about, I’m always on the lookout for Random Rules content. As I was watching SMS, which I have seen several times before, when it got to the Tom Tom Club portion of the set, I started thinking of how Talking Heads would make for a great Family Tree feature, with all their related projects and solo work. Did a quick check on my phone to see if anyone else had already made a similar playlist and could not find anything close to being a thorough look at the vast musical output of Byrne, Weymouth, Harrison and Frantz. (Seriously, do you know HOW many solo albums Byrne released? It’s a LOT, sever of which I had never even bothered listening to before).
My first thought was to include every musician who was a part of the Stop Making Sense band, highlighting players like Steve Scales and Bernie Worrell, and the incredible backing vocalists Ednah Holt and Lynn Mabry. I started looking up everyone’s credits and this idea quickly became impossible, and would likely yield a 20+ hour playlist that would take weeks or months to assemble properly. So, I went back to the idea of doing a Family Tree feature just based on the four original members of the band who cut their teeth at CBGB’s in the 70s - David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison. The final playlist, which only features my personal favorite picks from Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Byrne and Harrison’s solo careers and various collaborations, is still almost EIGHT hours long. The main thing to remember when listening to this playlist is that each song has at least one original member of Talking Heads playing on it, and it is roughly in chronological order, based on the original release date of each release:
RANDOM RULES PLAYLIST 033: TALKING HEADS FAMILY TREE
The Modern Lovers - “Roadrunner” - feat. Jerry Harrison
The Modern Lovers - “Pablo Picasso” - feat. Jerry Harrison
The Modern Lovers - “Someone I Care About” - feat. Jerry Harrison
Elliott Murphy - “Diamonds By The Yard” - feat. Jerry Harrison
Talking Heads - “Uh-Oh, Love Comes To Town”
Talking Heads - “New Feeling”
Talking Heads - “Don’t Worry About The Government”
Talking Heads - “Psycho Killer”
Talking Heads - “Love —> Building On Fire”
Dinosaur - “Kiss Me Again” - feat. David Byrne
Talking Heads - “The Good Thing”
Talking Heads - “Artists Only”
Talking Heads - “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel”
Talking Heads - “The Girl Wants To Be With The Girls”
Talking Heads - “Take Me To The River”
Talking Heads - “I Zimbra”
Talking Heads - “Life During Wartime”
Talking Heads - “Air”
Talking Heads - “Heaven”
Talking Heads - “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)”
Talking Heads - “Once In A Lifetime”
Talking Heads - “Crosseyed and Painless”
Holly & The Italians - “Tell That Girl To Shut Up” feat. Jerry Harrison
Jerry Harrison - “Things Fall Apart”
Jerry Harrison - “Slink”
Robert Palmer - “Looking For Clues” feat. Jerry Harrison
Tom Tom Club - “Genius of Love” (Long Version) feat. Tina Weymouth & Chris Frantz
Tom Tom Club - “Wordy Rappinghood”
Tom Tom Club - “Lorelei”
Tom Tom Club - “On, On, On, On…”
Tom Tom Club - “L’Elephant”
Brian Eno & David Byrne - “Regiment”
Brian Eno & David Byrne - “The Jezebel Spirit”
Brian Eno & David Byrne - “America Is Waiting”
David Byrne - “Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open)”
Talking Heads - “Burning Down The House”
Talking Heads - “Making Flippy Floppy”
Talking Heads - “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)”
Talking Heads - “Moon Rocks”
Talking Heads - “Pull up the Roots”
Nona Hendryx - “Design For Living” feat. Tina Weymouth
Talking Heads - “Found A Job” (live)
Talking Heads - “Swamp” (live)
Talking Heads - “Girlfriend is Better” (live)
Bonzo Goes To Washington - “5 Minutes (R-R-R Radio Mix) - feat. David Byrne
Talking Heads - “And She Was”
Talking Heads - “Perfect World”
Talking Heads - “Road To Nowhere”
David Byrne - “The Sound of Business”
Talking Heads - “Love For Sale”
Talking Heads - “Wild Wild Life”
Talking Heads - “Radio Head”
Talking Heads - “People Like Us”
Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers - “New Love” feat. Tina Weymouth & Chris Frantz
Jerry Harrison - “Song of Angels”
Jerry Harrison - “A Perfect Lie”
Talking Heads - “Totally Nude”
Talking Heads - “Ruby Dear”
David Byrne - “Make Believe Mambo”
David Byrne - “Lie To Me”
Marisa Monte & David Byrne - “Waters Of March”
Jerry Harrison - “Confess”
Jerry Harrison - “Big Mouth”
David Byrne - “A Walk In The Dark”
David Byrne - “Angels”
David Byrne - “You & Eye”
The Heads - “Punk Lolita” feat. Tina Weymouth
David Byrne - “The Gates of Paradise”
David Byrne - “Finite=Alright”
David Byrne - “The Great Intoxication”
David Byrne & Cafe Tacvba - “Desconocido Soy”
David Byrne - “Smile”
David Byrne - “Everyone’s In Love With You”
David Byrne - “Seaside Smokes”
David Byrne - “Glass, Concrete & Stone”
David Byrne - “The Man Who Loved Beer”
David Byrne - “The Other Side Of This Life”
Marisa Monte & David Byrne - “Statue of Liberty”
Forro In The Dark & David Byrne - “Asa Branca”
David Byrne - “Wind Rain and Water”
David Byrne - “Maria Lando”
Around this time, in the early aughts, David Byrne became one of the elder statesmen of the NYC indie scene (along with Bowie and Lou Reed). I know I personally spotted Byrne all over the city many times, either riding his bike on the Lower East Side, shopping at Other Music or showing up to shows at the Bowery Ballroom. Everyone from LCD Soundsystem to Dirty Projectors was citing Byrne as a huge influence, and he started showing up on songs w/ Arcade Fire, Dirty Projectors and of course he made a whole album with St. Vincent. This live collab with Sufjan Stevens also happened, although the two never actually recorded or released anything (I was in the audience for this one, as I was working with Sufjan at the time):
David Byrne & Brian Eno - “Home”
David Byrne & Brian Eno - “Everything That Happens”
David Byrne & Brian Eno - “The River”
David Byrne & Brian Eno - “Strange Overtones”
David Byrne & Brian Eno - “Never Thought”
David Byrne & Brian Eno - “Walking Along The River”
Brazilian Girls - “I’m Losing Myself” feat. David Byrne
Dirty Projectors w/ David Byrne - “Knotty Pine”
Arcade Fire w/ David Byrne - “Speaking In Tongues”
David Byrne & Fatboy Slim & Sharon Jones - “Dancing Together”
David Byrne & Fatboy Slim & Santigold - “Please Don’t”
David Byrne & Fatboy Slim - “American Troglodyte”
David Byrne & Fatboy Slim & Shara Nova - “Seven Years”
David Byrne & Caetano Veloso - “Dreamworld: Marco De Canaveses”
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra - “Beginning of the Heartbreak / Don’t Don’t” feat. David Byrne
David Byrne & St. Vincent - “Who”
David Byrne & St. Vincent - “Ice Age”
David Byrne & St. Vincent - “I Should Watch TV”
David Byrne & St. Vincent - “Lazarus”
Tie & David Byrne - “All Around You”
Marisa Monte & David Byrne - “Waters of March”
Republik - “Winter of Love” feat. Tina Weymouth & Chris Frantz
RVSB & Tina Weymouth - “She Always Dance”
Denner - “Stanza” feat. Tina Weymouth & Chris Frantz
David G.A. Stephenson - “Samo” feat. Tina Weymouth & Chris Frantz
David Byrne - “I Dance Like This”
David Byrne - “Every Day Is A Miracle”
David Byrne - “Everybody’s Coming To My House”
Turkuaz & Jerry Harrison & Adrian Belew - “Ophidiophobia”
Son Lux & Mitski & David Byrne - “This Is A Life”
Kevin Johansen & David Byrne - “Last Night I Was Dreaming With You”
Rufus Wainwright & David Byrne - “High On a Rocky Ledge”
David Byrne - “Drownin’”
Paramore & David Byrne - “David Byrne Does Hard Times”
Wow! This is incredibly well-detailed!