When Talking Heads released their 1980 album “Remain in Light,” critics and fans praised its sonic experimentation as it merged new wave with afro funk and recording loops.
Talking Heads guitarist and keyboardist Jerry Harrison and guitarist Adrian Belew, who played with Talking Heads on tour, are revisiting the album in a new show. NHPR’s Morning Edition host Rick Ganley spoke with Harrison about the band’s musical legacy ahead of his June 23 performance at the Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom.
Transcript
Why do you think the Talking Heads, in particular this album, endures so much?
Because we were great.
That's the proper answer.
I mean, there have been a lot of people influenced by us, but there's no one who quite does what we have. We have a unique style that still seems modern.
Somehow the conversation was going back to what a delight [the “Remain in Light”] tour was. And [guitarist Adrian Belew] says people just constantly [say it] was the most joyful, wonderful tour. [We thought], “Is there any way that we could, sort of recreate this?”
I had produced this band Turkuaz, and by joining forces with them we found a way to do it. We really think we've done something special, and they have a fabulous horn section. So it's a delight to have a new element and not just try to capture what we had done in the past but adding something and thinking of it in new ways.
So it's just so much fun to play them again. Adrian’s solo on “The Great Curve” to me is one of the greatest solos he's done. I've always found that to be one of the most exciting and cool songs we've ever done.
What sticks in your mind most from the process of actually putting the album together? It was a very different-sounding record for the time.
I think one of the things that, for instance, really separates an album like “Graceland” from “Remain in Light” is Paul Simon went and sang along with a bunch of African musicians playing their music. Whereas we tried to play in the mode of them, but we did it with our own clumsiness or our own sensibility.
And the other thing about it is that we went into the studio deliberately not having pre-written songs because we wanted to capture the moment of creation. It was kind of a risky idea if you think about it from a financial point of view because you could get stuck. And there were moments when we did get stuck, but in the beginning it just was flowing. It was so much fun.
You come from a visual arts background, like other Talking Heads members. Do you think that gave you a different perspective on making music?
Yes, I think one of the things that people did in abstract art at that time was to deliberately have an edge where you had very discordant images as a way to be dramatic. And I think that we did that in music. How we came to music, our approach to music, our art school background, David [Byrne]’s unique way of writing lyrics and singing – I always knew that we were going to have an influence on the world and on music. I had no idea what kind of commercial success we would have.
I thought it was very possible we would be an underground act for our entire career. And fortunately, it was really through our hard work and touring, and then our videos when MTV came along, that were drivers of us reaching a larger audience.
