Inspired by a mini-debate in the Cool Pass thread, I’d like to toss this query into the Hall.
A few ground rules:
1) Eno most certainly does not count.
2) No Talking, Just Head, by The Heads, the Byrne-less incarnation of the band, is completely irrelevant.
3) Much as I kind of want to, we should not hold Jerry Harrison‘s production credits for cheesy ’90s alt-rockers like Live and Big Head Todd and the Monsters against him.
4) At the same time, I resolve to not let my undying love for “Genius of Love” by the Tom Tom Club color my opinion.
Tina Weymouth is an obvious choice, even from a purely musical basis. The bass lines to “Psycho Killer” and “Once in a Lifetime” are iconic pop hooks in and of themselves. Me, I’ve always loved a lesser-known one, “Found a Job.” But does her constant head-butting with Byrne add or subtract points?
I feel bad for Harrison, the utility player. People probably credit other people (Byrne, Eno, Adrian Belew) for the best guitar and/or keyboard bits on Talking Heads songs. But they could get pretty atmospheric, and a subtle player like him might have had something to do with that, right? Plus, he co-wrote “Heaven”; that’s got to count for something.
Chris Franz is not the most versatile musician in the world, but I think he was the perfect drummer for this band. He was especially good at keeping the beat grounded, as they got more and more polyrhythmic. Plus, he seems like the most agreeable band member, a personality type they obviously so desperately needed to keep things from totally melting down. Maybe he should’ve joined The Ramones too.
So right now I want to give the edge to Weymouth, but I can be convinced otherwise.
Oats, when people outside the Halls of Rock question our mission, THIS is the kind of hard-hitting question I would tell them is what sets us apart from thousands of snarky or fanboy blogs. Bravo!
I’d go with Weymouth if I were convinced she played bass on a lot of their records following the first two. Isn’t that Busta Jones guy or some other hip studio cat often listed as the bassist when you look closely?
I’m gonna say Franz was the second-most crucial member because he kept the beat moving forward in the simplest of ways and allowed for all the weird, atmospheric stuff to do their thing without taking away from the danceability of the music.
I’d say it was either Seth or Frankie, becau….Oh, Wait! The TALKING Heads. Right. I was thinking of another “Head”
band (Hey, I just wrote “head band”. HA!).
Hmmm, in that case I’m gonna go with Jerry Harrison. I think he probably contributed more musically than we’re ever going to know from reading liner notes, which, as we should have learned by now (from the cases of The Beatles, The Stones, The Clash, etc.), are NOT always true representations of exactly who played or wrote what on any given album.
As Homer Jay once put it, “The first rule of the music business is; don’t trust anyone in the music business.”
I would go along w/Jerry Harrison since his addition, along w/the cred he had being in the original Modern Lovers fleshed out what was originally a three-piece band.
I agree with bb about Harrison. I think a lot of the sounds we hear on a heads album were produced by him. Byrne had ideas, but as an instrumentalist I’m not sure he had much at his command, at least in the early days, besides that choked-string Strat sound.
There is no musical second banana to Byrne. It was all Byrne.
The second most important member is clearly Tina as she’s hot as fire.
Chris and Jerry are just “the other guys.” Although Chris gets an importance boost as being “Tina’s squeeze.”
Mod, there are three albums before Busta’s involvement, and I don’t think it comes until the tour in support of Remain in Light (which may or may not feature Tina on bass, since it has a lot of bass loops).
And even on that 82 tour, I think Tina plays, though not all the songs.
I thought Busta played on Remain in Light, and I thought he also played on Fear of Music. If I’m wrong, so be it! I love Tina for all the reasons anyone else does, but this is a really hard question with no satisfactory answer that I can see. Just wanted to be different, OK? If I had it to do again I’d follow Diskojoe’s lead and bring in the Modern Lovers’ cred for Harrison. That’s the next best thing to BEING Eno and more significant, for me, than Tom Tom Club.
Busta played on the Remain in Light Tour. He wasn’t on the album, but others had their hands on the bass for that record. I’d say she played on most of the other stuff. I was privy to a rumor from a well placed source that the producers of ’77 replaced her bass tracks with better executed versions of the same lines. I believe it but I don’t think it was a good idea. It eliminated a sonic personality that makes the second record that much more effective.
OK, I stand corrected re: Busta. Maybe it is Tina. If one were to try to write their own “Talking Heads” song, following Byrne’s stylistic tendencies the next thing you’d have to account for are the cool, stilted bass parts. Tina’s now got my vote.
my word isn’t good enough around here? we need geo’s authority, too?
kidding, of course. geo’s way more of a head head than i am.
all you have to do is listen to tina’s playing on the early era tracks from “the name of this band is” to know that she was capable of playing those early songs.
I didn’t say she wasn’t “capable,” Sat, just that I thought that Byrne and Eno were already bringing in the pod people to push the original band members out the door:) I apologize profusely for not taking your word on this matter.
Tina gets my vote in part per live she was simply more interesting to watch then the other two group members.
Ah to go back in time to the 79 Guthrie show…
no problem, mod…of course i was kidding about whether or not i’ve got cred regarding the heads.
and i was really responding to geo’s comment about her bass tracks on ’77, agreeing that having someone else play them was probably a bad idea.
i knew you weren’t questioning her capabilities.
Well, as I am not swayed by Tina’s hotness, I will vote for Jerry. The rhythmic groove on these records is undeniably important, but I’m not sure these were difficult bass lines to play. However, the organ fills really added post-mod texture to those spare early TH tracks. Once Byrne discovered he had a pelvis and got seduced by African polyrhythms (and possibly kidnapped by aliens too), Harrison’s organ lines helped to ground that increasingly cacophonic sound.
hollyh, I realize this is WELL after the fact, but I’m glad you’re back, & agree that Tina’s “hotness” shouldn’t really be part the discussion. Glad you appreciate the Harrison angle I was promoting. PLEASE post more often! WE NEED YOU!
But, put some shoes on, girl. It’s winter, you’ll catch your death!