This was cutting edge video technology in 1981, before Mtv even launched. A consistently innovative and influential band. Their full concert film “Stop Making Sense” is considered widely as one of the best concert films ever. Keep exploring.
Talking Heads were a breath of fresh air when they came along around the time of disco and then continuing into the 80s. They made the best rock concert movie ever, called Stop Making Sense, directed by Oscar winner, Jonathon Demme. Any song from that movie is fire.
@@lindalee5866 Tina Weymouth could damn sure lay it down! (still does, too) Lil' Sista didn't got the props she deserved until recently -- took a long time for peeps to buy into the idea of a wee woman playin' such monster fuggin' bass! Five-foot-two, could play like she was twelve-foot-five!
Based on his reaction to this video, I don't know if he'll respond any different to that movie's performances, as they're all the same idea & level of artistic innovation & uniqueness as the video. Comparing it to Disney style tv & laughing is interesting, lol.
Talking Heads graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. They were considered very avant-garde. They were very creative and you need to watch David Byrne to appreciate the artistry of the band. If you think it bizarre then you are actually getting it. They had so many great songs, pick one.
It was the weird video that caused you to see it as you did. Without it, the song’s virtues would have shone through more strongly. Look further into their work. Excellent band, majorly talented front man/songwriter. You will understand them the more you experience them.
It's interesting that he keeps saying the delivery is what is throwing him off when it's almost certainly the avant-garde dancing in the video that threw him, had he only heard the audio he probably wouldn't have made much note of the vocals at all.
You have to understand that, when this was made, there was no such thing as music videos. Nowadays, people seem to think music is a visual medium, but for thousands of years, it was about the sound. The 80s New Wave was one of the first music movements that started to incorporate film-making elements in some presentations. But the main venue for music was concerts, vinyl albums, and radio. Prior to that, the greatest bands in history would show up to concert performances in jeans and t-shirts and hardly even look at the audience while tearing the place up with amazing sounds. Talking Heads helped revolutionize concerts by designing fully operatic combinations of set, dance, video, and music. Talking Heads and David Byrne together are a rabbit hole that will take you on a long, diverse journey. Fair Warning: They were all broke-ass NYC art students, so... buckle up. As to the style of the video and the song, the Talking Heads were revolutionary there, too, but they established a style that defined the 80s. Maybe it didn't age well, but we liked it. And if you listen to bands and watch videos and movies since then, you'll see it's not entirely gone to this day. The blue screen that looked like water was supposed to represent water, following the lyric that talks about letting oneself be carried by the water, i.e. the flow of life. Do give Talking Heads more listens - Burning Down the House, Take Me to the River, Life During Wartime, Girlfriend is Better, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody). I mean, I like all their stuff. I absolutely love their rendition of I Zimbra, a non-lingual surrealist sound poem written in the 1920s, which they set to an amazing beat, but it's maybe not beginner material because there ain't no lyrics in that one, even though there are definitely lyrics that you could sing too. It's a surrealist thing. Other bands that could give you a good entry to the new wave sound include Human League, Boy George, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, The B-52s, Devo, Elvis Costello, Pet Shop Boys, Blondie, Sousxie and the Banshees, Spandau Ballet, Cyndi Lauper, Eurythmics, The Police. The new wave was an eclectic, international movement that experimented with both new sounds and new moods, breaking out of the defined genres of disco, rock, and pop, so a lot of stuff fits into the bucket.
Byrne is genius. Brilliant! So glad you took that dive to find out the deeper meaning of this video! On surface, it's just spastic! I would like to recommend Born Under Punches, the choreography is very cool! Thanks!
Sire Records was the U.S. record label for Madonna, Ice-T, The Cure, The Smiths, The Replacements, The Tragically Hip, Bruce Hornsby, Cyndi Lauper, Barenaked Ladies, Boney M, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Dinosaur Jr., Echo & The Bunnymen, k.d. lang, My Bloody Valentine, My Chemical Romance, The Pretenders, Ramones, Seal, Soft Cell, Soul Asylum, Uncle Tupelo, and Wilco. Madonna was their biggest STAR, for sure, but a LOT of "alternative" acts were signed to Sire.
I haven't started it yet, but I've been watching you for a really long time and I'm blown away that you haven't done any Talking Heads yet? I am speechless. It's definitely a rabbit hole, and they were so influential to the way music was changing. The 1978 album fear of Music not only was an iconic album in so many ways, but it was produced by Brian Eno, and he and David Byrne and Robert Fripp and Harold Budd and others did all kinds of amazing collaborations around that time. So experimental but with an incredible lyrical sense and rhythmic feel as well, and really cutting-edge in so many ways for the time.
If you've never heard the Talking Heads before, I would definitely start with their Live concert songs from the "Stop Making Sense" concert film. You can really appreciate them more than on these odd 80's videos, IMO!
So, a lot of folks are recommending their live performances for a very good reason. During their Stop Making Sense tour they added two fantastic funk musicians and two wonderful backup singers and really elevated their already great music. To make the recording of Stop Making Sense good, they asked Jonathan Demme to direct their concert footage. He’s better known for directing some great movies like Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia. He watched them perform for several nights, figured out exactly what cuts he would want and where the cameras should be, and absolutely nailed recording this concert. Byrne and the band are really on. They’re having fun and sounding better than ever. Basically, it’s the perfect concert film.
My definition of New Wave, as someone who was a teen and young adult during this period. Rock music had gotten sort of stale and repetitive, as it was driven by more corporate interests. To me New Wave was a catch all of rock/pop/punk that did not sound like what you were hearing on most rock radio stations. More back to basics (Ramones, Pretenders, Go-Gos, early U2) exploration of synths (Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode), with a lot of UK influence. It ranged from raw to arty, with genre blending as well (Blondie, Talking Heads).
“Once In A Lifetime” may not have made an impact on the Billboard music charts, but the music video got extensive airplay on MTV, due to Toni Basil’s unique choreography work.
Sire Records were a big label in the 70's and 80's promoting new wave and new progressive artists including Madonna, Depeche Mode, Cyndi Lauper, The Pretenders, The Cure and rapper Ice-T. They were acquired by Warner Bros. in 1994. Check out Talking Heads concert movie.
You really should watch "Life During Wartime" from the Stop Making Sense live performance. It's amazing and will show you why Talking Heads was so iconic of the times and so influential.
Whenever I see a “first time hearing” Reaction to this song. I always think. Please let it NOT be the VIDEO! 🤣 It’s so distracting. It’s better to watch the video after hearing the audio first, imo. But great song though.
"Talking heads" is a term that was fairly commonly used to refer to pundits or newscasters or similar folks on television. (You would rarely see their entire bodies, just their "talking heads.") As others have noted, this band is called Talking Heads, not _The_ Talking Heads. They made a live concert film directed by Jonathan Demme called "Stop Making Sense" that is one of the best concert films of all time. Look for "Life During Wartime" from that film. It's superb.
David wrote this inspired by Gospel music. Excellent song, and the version on their live video release ‘Stop Making Sense’ is brilliant. That video is considered by many to be a #2 must have behind The Band’s ‘The Last Waltz’. Great show that includes members of Parliament Funkadelic.
6:58 Gotta tell ya. I think you’re letting the video influence your opinion of the lyrics with your criticism of his delivery. Byrne and Talking Heads have always incorporated avant-garde and interpretive dance.
Man, what a great idea about the final shot without the glasses, and you're saying that it ends with a focus on the Consciousness as opposed to so much of the song really does deal with the subconscious. Or the unconscious. That's a great observation.
Talking Heads are brilliant. David made a wonderful movie called True Stories with John Goodman which is a work of art. Burning Down the House is fantastic ❤🎉
It's all really good. The video is really good. It's one of the videos that paved the way for music videos that came after it. Most music videos to this time were either shots of the band playing the song, or more literal to what is going on in the song. The Beatles pushed farther in their movies, but those are movies. Early 80s videos were very experimental trying to push forward and figure out what works. My favorites videos are from the 80s because they were open to doing anything.
Great review - love how you didn't let first impressions get in the way of discovering something to appreciate. If you listen to more by them, the best place to look is basically any track from their live "Stop Making Sense" performance. One of the greatest rock concerts in history.
This is ART music. Every song means something very deep and the delivery is how you FEEL while you are experiencing the things he's singing about. This song is about how you are kind of on auto pilot and half awake living life and then you realize that you don't even know how you ended up where you are in the end. It's not a funny song, it's actually kinda sad.
No one EVER knew what to expect from a Talking Heads song! All we know are they were brilliant and fun. PLEASE look into 'Stop Making Sense'- A great concert movie made by Jonathan Demme that is mesmerizing and includes some of their best work!
The more I see & hear this the deeper it gets. Existential & spiritual. Tater, like water, flows deep beneath everything, whether we know it or not, whether we exist or not.
I was a kid in the early 80s, a teen in the later 80s. Talking Heads were SO FAR above my head in the early 80s I thought all the big kids were nuts if they liked that music; it seemed idiotic to me. I sat in my bedroom and listened to The Beatles until the 90s hit. I then was happy to forget all about all that "strange music" for 15-20 years... until my artsy teenage daughter started bringing it into our lives and I was absolutely... idk, like, dismayed? that she was picking all this ridicuous stuff out of the vaults to listen to? But she was a kid who knew herself very well at a young age, and she insisted it was important stuff and she led me through where it came from & where it had gone, culrurally & politically, from there, and.. ... uh... ... tonight I found myself dancing exuberantly around my kitchen singing along to Once In a Lifetime, missing her so much it hurts, cuz she's grown up and living far away, forging her own life in exciting ways that I'm always so grateful she lets me in on when we talk. ❤ 15:48 - yuppie = corporate-ladder-minded baby boomers (and boomers interested to splice the corporate world to the political structure) who "won" the 60s/70s cultural struggle (by the 80s) vs the baby boomers who were hippies. (and yes, there were plenty of hippies who ended up as yuppies, too).
I'd have to say the Talking Heads are probably one of the most popular and more quintessential New Wave bands of the 80s. Byrne and the Talking Heads are all about performance art, and he's a lyrical genius. Two of my other favorites you should check out are "Burning Down The House" and "This Must Be The Place". Actually, "Burning Down The House" is probably their most popular song, and would've been a better introduction for you, and talk about an insane beat! You will love it! Thanks for a great reaction! I'm a new subscriber and am really enjoying your channel! ✌💙✌
This guy doesn't seem to realize what a genius David Byrne was! For further elucidation, watch their video of "Life During Wartime" from the Stop Making Sense tour!
21:20 “Life In Wartime” that’s the next one to listen to. If you’d like to hear some good influential punk; I’d really like to drop a few suggestions. Death - “Let The World Turn” (proto-punk funky goodness) Ramones - “Sedated” (you’ve seen the T-shirts) Dead Kennedys - “Kill The Poor” (weaponized sarcasm!) The Misfits - “Astro Zombies” (Elvis sings about B-movies and it’s kinda scary) Joan Jett - “Bad Reputation” (Gets a lot of praise and is still criminally underrated) Bad Religion - “Do What You Want” (Suffer is on the most important punk albums of all time) NoFX - “Linoleum” (Clowns have feelings too) Dead Milkmen - “Punk Rock Girl” (long honored tradition of good musicians playing bad music) Violent Femmes - “Kiss Off” (Folk punk is its own thing)
He took this from a revivalist sermon I think? Also he and Chris and Tina met at art school. David has always been into performance art. And no there's no one quite like them. I HIGHLY recommend their concert film Stop Making Sense directed by Jonathan Demme. Brilliant. Starts with just David by himself on an empty stage and adds new players with every successive song. Great hop around, sing at the top of your lungs, party band
Supposedly, the term "New Wave" was first used in reference to Talking Heads, when they were playing at CBGB's, an "underground music" club in New York City. "Psycho Killer" and "Take Me to the River" are two of their early hits from '77 and '78. 🤙😎
"New Wave" is the anglicized name for the French genre of cinema - Nouvelle Vague - popular in the late 50s and 60s. It was the reaction against established French cinema at the time for more artistic and stylized films where Art was more important than profit. Initially, it was used as a way of saying "there is a new wave of artists or genres becoming popular. Then, cut down to just "New Wave" as a genre itself. Much of that transferred to Art Rock/Glam Rock groups like Roxy Music headed by Bryan Ferry and David Bowie in the early 70s. Synthesizer player Brian Eno was a major creative force with Roxy Music as well as producing a huge number of LPs including for David Bowie and Talking Heads. He has worked with Robert Fripp (King Crimson), UltraVox, Devo, U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois, Grace Jones and Laurie Anderson, among others. Once In A Lifetime follows the religious thread of baptism by water established on their 1978 album More Songs About Buildings and Food's cover of Al Green's "Take Me To The River" Take me to the river and wash me down. won't you cleanse my soul? Put my feet on the ground. I wanna know Take me to the river I wanna know Want you to dip me in the water I wanna know Won't you wash me in the water Wash me in the water Wash me in the water Won't you wash me in the water? Feeling good.
There's a concert video from Rome (1980 I think) where you can see them do most of this album live with a huge supporting band, I think you'll enjoy that
The blue screen that look like water coincided with the repetitive lyrics in those chanting parts to the rhythm. Just read the lyrics again and you'll see where he's combining this idea of our subconscious is like water running underground, and then they were young when they were doing this right? And it's that feeling of suddenly you're on your own, and it can be so intimidating and sometimes you just literally run out of resources to keep going so that's when you grow up a little bit and try a few different things and work a little harder. But it's very visual as well, and that's got to be at least part of why they chose that for the graphical background in those segments. They kind of match up with the lyrics.
"New Wave" is a tag everyone in the USA put to all the music from the last 70 and, especially, to the whole eighties: synth pop, post punk, electro pop, new romantics, etc.
Evanescence came years and years after New Wave. In terms of categories, there is one called NuMetal, but even that is not Evanescence, although they are probably closer to that than they are to actual New Wave. At some point man listen to this with just the audio, like we originally heard it, although the video exploded in popularity and we loved it for how creative it was at the time, but just listen to the audio and crank it really loud, and think about people on the dance floor at a club, but a really cool club, dancing their asses off to this. Basically everything on this revolutionary album Remain In Light could be listened to that way, but the thing is, on so many other levels as well it was incredibly groundbreaking. But really all of their albums were groundbreaking leading up to this and to some degree after this. Psycho Killer, the audio track from their very first album, would give you an idea of the range that they went through in just a few albums and a few years to get to the point of this Once in a Lifetime video and song. Not to be confused with their performance of it years later as part of their incredibly important live concert movie Stop Making Sense, that came out just after this Remain In Light album that the song we're listening to came from. And the concert movie is fantastic, and I have watched lots of reactors react to a handful of performances from that, it's pretty mind-blowing. The movie theaters would crank the volume up loud and we danced to it in the aisles and down in the front in that area at the very bottom of the huge movie screen.
That's quite a song to break into Talking heads with. What I would really recommend, is to watch the movie 'Stop Making Sense'. Oprah was using 'Naive melody' for awhile. They're right up there with my favorite bands really.
I have a few faves: 'And She Was', 'This Must Be the Place', and 'Life During Wartime' or anything from 'Stop Making Sense', their concert film. Enjoy! 😊❤
Great reaction .I love the song. I grew up with this video. Please watch and listen to the same song from the movie.(Stop Making Sense) I think you’ll really like it. It’ll help you understand. if you haven’t asked yourself the same questions you probably should. Especially how did I get here? The only answer should be letting the days go by. you should also listen to psycho killer and burning down the house.❤️✌️🌼
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IN THE 80s UPTOWN/BRONX YOU HAD RAP, BUT DOWNTOWN BELOW 14 TH STREET YOU HAD A WORLD ITS OWN...
If you literally want to be blown away, check out “Life During Wartime” from the Stop Making Sense concert movie. In fact the entire show is a life changing revelation
13:16 Okay young’n back in the day that was what happened when a TV was turned on but there wasn’t a station. You’d get static. That was zoomed in analog static.
The album Fear of Music is a belter with every track a dance killer. Check out I Zimbra and Cities from the same album,you’ll be bobbing about in no time.
New Wave is the style of music that appeared post-punk. It maintains some punk elements, but is more pop-oriented and often incorporates a lot of performance art (hence, the "delivery" you found weird). It's usually characterized by use of synths, and jerky/eccentric delivery of lyrics or musical phrases. Some of the bands considered New Wave in the early 80's also incorporated reggae and ska into their repertoires. The terms "Punk" and "New Wave" are often used interchangeably. There was a heavy rebellion against the disco craze of the 70's there, too. Bands that were considered New Wave back in my day would have been the Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Gary Newman, The Police, Devo, Blondie, The Specials, The Ramones, The Clash, Duran Duran. My introduction came when I was 13 and fell in love with Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders). Damn! I forgot Squeeze! The movement came from a desire to escape what was then called "Commercial Rock" while still trying to appeal to pop and rock sensibilities. It was different from Progressive Rock in that Progressive Rock was all about masterful musicianship and New Wave was a little bit more about a visual artistic expression, and often discarding the political sentiments often found in punk.
Radio play kept us from focusing on the wild video. Yeah back in those days we of course had the video (on mtv) but that's at your friends house cuz maybe your dad couldn't afford cable. So you'd hear it on the radio and buy the record. The primary enjoyment was not the video which i think can distract from what a genuine bop this song is
Think you confused Nu Metal with New Wave. New Wave is like pop/punk synth music. I am a huge Metal head and love Talking Heads. The video is weird but keep going they are fantastic. Try Soft Cell track Tainted Love, Flock of Seagulls track I Ran So far Away, Culture Club track Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and XTC track Complicated Game.
David Byrnes is a musical genius. He and Brian Eno have really shaped music. Check out his more recent live performances but also his older pieces like "Blind" and "I zimbra" which has a great beat, Byrne's vocals are shit but damn it is still great. Love your channel! ❤❤
This was cutting edge video technology in 1981, before Mtv even launched. A consistently innovative and influential band. Their full concert film “Stop Making Sense” is considered widely as one of the best concert films ever. Keep exploring.
Talking Heads were a breath of fresh air when they came along around the time of disco and then continuing into the 80s. They made the best rock concert movie ever, called Stop Making Sense, directed by Oscar winner, Jonathon Demme. Any song from that movie is fire.
Life During Wartime, the live version next!
Definitely!!
Yes, a recent live one! Love this tune, especially the bass line!
ooh I 2nd this!
@@lindalee5866 Tina Weymouth could damn sure lay it down!
(still does, too)
Lil' Sista didn't got the props she deserved until recently -- took a long time for peeps to buy into the idea of a wee woman playin' such monster fuggin' bass!
Five-foot-two, could play like she was twelve-foot-five!
Yes, a must!
Do the live version of Life During Wartime next. Or all of Stop Making Sense. Best concert movie ever.
Based on his reaction to this video, I don't know if he'll respond any different to that movie's performances, as they're all the same idea & level of artistic innovation & uniqueness as the video. Comparing it to Disney style tv & laughing is interesting, lol.
Just watch the entire Stop Making Sense concert. It’s phenomenal
Talking Heads graduated from Rhode Island School of Design. They were considered very avant-garde. They were very creative and you need to watch David Byrne to appreciate the artistry of the band. If you think it bizarre then you are actually getting it. They had so many great songs, pick one.
Right over your head! One of a kind artist. AWESOME! Enjoy.
Their performances are another whole set of skills. They set the bar high. So fun and smart. Brain and soul smart.
Psyco Killer !!!!!
Qu'est-ce que c'est?
💯
David Byrne is also a genius. Actually tested over 200 IQ. Def a musical genius. Check out his movie......🎶🔥💯✌️
It was the weird video that caused you to see it as you did. Without it, the song’s virtues would have shone through more strongly. Look further into their work. Excellent band, majorly talented front man/songwriter. You will understand them the more you experience them.
It's interesting that he keeps saying the delivery is what is throwing him off when it's almost certainly the avant-garde dancing in the video that threw him, had he only heard the audio he probably wouldn't have made much note of the vocals at all.
You have to understand that, when this was made, there was no such thing as music videos. Nowadays, people seem to think music is a visual medium, but for thousands of years, it was about the sound. The 80s New Wave was one of the first music movements that started to incorporate film-making elements in some presentations. But the main venue for music was concerts, vinyl albums, and radio. Prior to that, the greatest bands in history would show up to concert performances in jeans and t-shirts and hardly even look at the audience while tearing the place up with amazing sounds. Talking Heads helped revolutionize concerts by designing fully operatic combinations of set, dance, video, and music. Talking Heads and David Byrne together are a rabbit hole that will take you on a long, diverse journey. Fair Warning: They were all broke-ass NYC art students, so... buckle up.
As to the style of the video and the song, the Talking Heads were revolutionary there, too, but they established a style that defined the 80s. Maybe it didn't age well, but we liked it. And if you listen to bands and watch videos and movies since then, you'll see it's not entirely gone to this day.
The blue screen that looked like water was supposed to represent water, following the lyric that talks about letting oneself be carried by the water, i.e. the flow of life.
Do give Talking Heads more listens - Burning Down the House, Take Me to the River, Life During Wartime, Girlfriend is Better, This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody). I mean, I like all their stuff. I absolutely love their rendition of I Zimbra, a non-lingual surrealist sound poem written in the 1920s, which they set to an amazing beat, but it's maybe not beginner material because there ain't no lyrics in that one, even though there are definitely lyrics that you could sing too. It's a surrealist thing.
Other bands that could give you a good entry to the new wave sound include Human League, Boy George, Thompson Twins, Tears for Fears, The B-52s, Devo, Elvis Costello, Pet Shop Boys, Blondie, Sousxie and the Banshees, Spandau Ballet, Cyndi Lauper, Eurythmics, The Police. The new wave was an eclectic, international movement that experimented with both new sounds and new moods, breaking out of the defined genres of disco, rock, and pop, so a lot of stuff fits into the bucket.
Best way to appreciate Talking Heads is to see them perform live.
"my God, what have I done!"
0:17
Talking Heads is what people used to call desk reporters on TV back in the day.
Byrne is genius. Brilliant! So glad you took that dive to find out the deeper meaning of this video! On surface, it's just spastic! I would like to recommend Born Under Punches, the choreography is very cool! Thanks!
Sire Records was the U.S. record label for Madonna, Ice-T, The Cure, The Smiths, The Replacements, The Tragically Hip, Bruce Hornsby, Cyndi Lauper, Barenaked Ladies, Boney M, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Dinosaur Jr., Echo & The Bunnymen, k.d. lang, My Bloody Valentine, My Chemical Romance, The Pretenders, Ramones, Seal, Soft Cell, Soul Asylum, Uncle Tupelo, and Wilco.
Madonna was their biggest STAR, for sure, but a LOT of "alternative" acts were signed to Sire.
After life during wartime, you need to hear Burning Down The House, The Great Curve, Psycho Killer and so many more.
"Road to Nowhere" and "Burning Down the House" are my favorites.
I haven't started it yet, but I've been watching you for a really long time and I'm blown away that you haven't done any Talking Heads yet? I am speechless. It's definitely a rabbit hole, and they were so influential to the way music was changing. The 1978 album fear of Music not only was an iconic album in so many ways, but it was produced by Brian Eno, and he and David Byrne and Robert Fripp and Harold Budd and others did all kinds of amazing collaborations around that time. So experimental but with an incredible lyrical sense and rhythmic feel as well, and really cutting-edge in so many ways for the time.
If you've never heard the Talking Heads before, I would definitely start with their Live concert songs from the "Stop Making Sense" concert film. You can really appreciate them more than on these odd 80's videos, IMO!
Also, "Take Me to the River" is more funky than New Wave.
So, a lot of folks are recommending their live performances for a very good reason.
During their Stop Making Sense tour they added two fantastic funk musicians and two wonderful backup singers and really elevated their already great music.
To make the recording of Stop Making Sense good, they asked Jonathan Demme to direct their concert footage. He’s better known for directing some great movies like Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia.
He watched them perform for several nights, figured out exactly what cuts he would want and where the cameras should be, and absolutely nailed recording this concert.
Byrne and the band are really on. They’re having fun and sounding better than ever.
Basically, it’s the perfect concert film.
My definition of New Wave, as someone who was a teen and young adult during this period.
Rock music had gotten sort of stale and repetitive, as it was driven by more corporate interests.
To me New Wave was a catch all of rock/pop/punk that did not sound like what you were hearing on most rock radio stations. More back to basics (Ramones, Pretenders, Go-Gos, early U2) exploration of synths (Pet Shop Boys, Depeche Mode), with a lot of UK influence. It ranged from raw to arty, with genre blending as well (Blondie, Talking Heads).
You may not catch their vibe yet, but dive deep my friend. You are in for a f'ing ride!
Imagine him doing a whole concert with that level of energy.
Their concert film "Stop Making Sense" is outstanding!
Their "Stop Making Sense" movie is one of the best concert movies ever.
Talking Heads, where rock and nerd combine.
If you don't know who those people are, then they must be on your listening list.
“Once In A Lifetime” may not have made an impact on the Billboard music charts, but the music video got extensive airplay on MTV, due to Toni Basil’s unique choreography work.
Sire Records were a big label in the 70's and 80's promoting new wave and new progressive artists including Madonna, Depeche Mode, Cyndi Lauper, The Pretenders, The Cure and rapper Ice-T. They were acquired by Warner Bros. in 1994. Check out Talking Heads concert movie.
You really should watch "Life During Wartime" from the Stop Making Sense live performance. It's amazing and will show you why Talking Heads was so iconic of the times and so influential.
A must watch! David Byrne doing Tik Tok dances long before anyone ever thought about it. Performance at its finest.
Whenever I see a “first time hearing” Reaction to this song. I always think. Please let it NOT be the VIDEO! 🤣 It’s so distracting.
It’s better to watch the video after hearing the audio first, imo.
But great song though.
"Talking heads" is a term that was fairly commonly used to refer to pundits or newscasters or similar folks on television. (You would rarely see their entire bodies, just their "talking heads.") As others have noted, this band is called Talking Heads, not _The_ Talking Heads. They made a live concert film directed by Jonathan Demme called "Stop Making Sense" that is one of the best concert films of all time. Look for "Life During Wartime" from that film. It's superb.
Burning down the house next, please.
David wrote this inspired by Gospel music. Excellent song, and the version on their live video release ‘Stop Making Sense’ is brilliant. That video is considered by many to be a #2 must have behind The Band’s ‘The Last Waltz’. Great show that includes members of Parliament Funkadelic.
6:58
Gotta tell ya. I think you’re letting the video influence your opinion of the lyrics with your criticism of his delivery.
Byrne and Talking Heads have always incorporated avant-garde and interpretive dance.
Video indeed killed the radio star.
Man, what a great idea about the final shot without the glasses, and you're saying that it ends with a focus on the Consciousness as opposed to so much of the song really does deal with the subconscious. Or the unconscious. That's a great observation.
Talking Heads are brilliant.
David made a wonderful movie called True Stories with John Goodman which is a work of art. Burning Down the House is fantastic ❤🎉
It's all really good. The video is really good. It's one of the videos that paved the way for music videos that came after it. Most music videos to this time were either shots of the band playing the song, or more literal to what is going on in the song. The Beatles pushed farther in their movies, but those are movies. Early 80s videos were very experimental trying to push forward and figure out what works. My favorites videos are from the 80s because they were open to doing anything.
Great review - love how you didn't let first impressions get in the way of discovering something to appreciate. If you listen to more by them, the best place to look is basically any track from their live "Stop Making Sense" performance. One of the greatest rock concerts in history.
Song makes me so happy. Funky, silly video, nerdy and actually really deep.
David Byrne has been described as Bill Nye the Science Guy on Acid.
That is a grand description. Thanks for sharing.
This is ART music. Every song means something very deep and the delivery is how you FEEL while you are experiencing the things he's singing about. This song is about how you are kind of on auto pilot and half awake living life and then you realize that you don't even know how you ended up where you are in the end.
It's not a funny song, it's actually kinda sad.
One day you have to watch the stop making sense concert. It's available out there. It's just amazing. One hell of a concert performance
There's no particular entry point with them isn't any less jarring. So dive in and float around.
David has an amazing sense of humor
No one EVER knew what to expect from a Talking Heads song! All we know are they were brilliant and fun. PLEASE look into 'Stop Making Sense'- A great concert movie made by Jonathan Demme that is mesmerizing and includes some of their best work!
The more I see & hear this the deeper it gets. Existential & spiritual. Tater, like water, flows deep beneath everything, whether we know it or not, whether we exist or not.
I was a kid in the early 80s, a teen in the later 80s. Talking Heads were SO FAR above my head in the early 80s I thought all the big kids were nuts if they liked that music; it seemed idiotic to me. I sat in my bedroom and listened to The Beatles until the 90s hit.
I then was happy to forget all about all that "strange music" for 15-20 years... until my artsy teenage daughter started bringing it into our lives and I was absolutely... idk, like, dismayed? that she was picking all this ridicuous stuff out of the vaults to listen to?
But she was a kid who knew herself very well at a young age, and she insisted it was important stuff and she led me through where it came from & where it had gone, culrurally & politically, from there, and..
... uh...
... tonight I found myself dancing exuberantly around my kitchen singing along to Once In a Lifetime, missing her so much it hurts, cuz she's grown up and living far away, forging her own life in exciting ways that I'm always so grateful she lets me in on when we talk. ❤
15:48 - yuppie = corporate-ladder-minded baby boomers (and boomers interested to splice the corporate world to the political structure) who "won" the 60s/70s cultural struggle (by the 80s) vs the baby boomers who were hippies.
(and yes, there were plenty of hippies who ended up as yuppies, too).
This was so far ahead. The Stop Making Sense tour is spectacular!
They're called Talking Heads. Not The Talking Heads.
I'd have to say the Talking Heads are probably one of the most popular and more quintessential New Wave bands of the 80s. Byrne and the Talking Heads are all about performance art, and he's a lyrical genius. Two of my other favorites you should check out are "Burning Down The House" and "This Must Be The Place". Actually, "Burning Down The House" is probably their most popular song, and would've been a better introduction for you, and talk about an insane beat! You will love it! Thanks for a great reaction! I'm a new subscriber and am really enjoying your channel! ✌💙✌
This guy doesn't seem to realize what a genius David Byrne was! For further elucidation, watch their video of "Life During Wartime" from the Stop Making Sense tour!
I didn't own a TV, and had this album and NEVER actually SAW them.
LOVED the music.
Then I SAW Stop Making Sense.
WOW Shock!
21:20
“Life In Wartime” that’s the next one to listen to.
If you’d like to hear some good influential punk; I’d really like to drop a few suggestions.
Death - “Let The World Turn”
(proto-punk funky goodness)
Ramones - “Sedated”
(you’ve seen the T-shirts)
Dead Kennedys - “Kill The Poor”
(weaponized sarcasm!)
The Misfits - “Astro Zombies”
(Elvis sings about B-movies and it’s kinda scary)
Joan Jett - “Bad Reputation”
(Gets a lot of praise and is still criminally underrated)
Bad Religion - “Do What You Want”
(Suffer is on the most important punk albums of all time)
NoFX - “Linoleum”
(Clowns have feelings too)
Dead Milkmen - “Punk Rock Girl”
(long honored tradition of good musicians playing bad music)
Violent Femmes - “Kiss Off”
(Folk punk is its own thing)
He took this from a revivalist sermon I think? Also he and Chris and Tina met at art school. David has always been into performance art. And no there's no one quite like them.
I HIGHLY recommend their concert film Stop Making Sense directed by Jonathan Demme. Brilliant. Starts with just David by himself on an empty stage and adds new players with every successive song. Great hop around, sing at the top of your lungs, party band
My favorite from them is This Must be the Place. About a man questioning his choices.
One of my favorite all time songs!
The same band that did "The Overload." A masterpiece in my mind.
Supposedly, the term "New Wave" was first used in reference to Talking Heads, when they were playing at CBGB's, an "underground music" club in New York City.
"Psycho Killer" and "Take Me to the River" are two of their early hits from '77 and '78. 🤙😎
"New Wave" is the anglicized name for the French genre of cinema - Nouvelle Vague - popular in the late 50s and 60s. It was the reaction against established French cinema at the time for more artistic and stylized films where Art was more important than profit. Initially, it was used as a way of saying "there is a new wave of artists or genres becoming popular. Then, cut down to just "New Wave" as a genre itself.
Much of that transferred to Art Rock/Glam Rock groups like Roxy Music headed by Bryan Ferry and David Bowie in the early 70s. Synthesizer player Brian Eno was a major creative force with Roxy Music as well as producing a huge number of LPs including for David Bowie and Talking Heads. He has worked with Robert Fripp (King Crimson), UltraVox, Devo, U2, Coldplay, Peter Gabriel, Daniel Lanois, Grace Jones and Laurie Anderson, among others.
Once In A Lifetime follows the religious thread of baptism by water established on their 1978 album More Songs About Buildings and Food's cover of Al Green's "Take Me To The River"
Take me to the river and wash me down.
won't you cleanse my soul? Put my feet on the ground.
I wanna know
Take me to the river
I wanna know
Want you to dip me in the water
I wanna know
Won't you wash me in the water
Wash me in the water
Wash me in the water
Won't you wash me in the water?
Feeling good.
There's a concert video from Rome (1980 I think) where you can see them do most of this album live with a huge supporting band, I think you'll enjoy that
The blue screen that look like water coincided with the repetitive lyrics in those chanting parts to the rhythm. Just read the lyrics again and you'll see where he's combining this idea of our subconscious is like water running underground, and then they were young when they were doing this right? And it's that feeling of suddenly you're on your own, and it can be so intimidating and sometimes you just literally run out of resources to keep going so that's when you grow up a little bit and try a few different things and work a little harder. But it's very visual as well, and that's got to be at least part of why they chose that for the graphical background in those segments. They kind of match up with the lyrics.
Take Me To The River, Found a Job, all their albums are great.Oh man! 😍🥰
Stop Making Sense You will love David Byrne wearing the big suit...Art students, You should ck out the whole movie!
"New Wave" is a tag everyone in the USA put to all the music from the last 70 and, especially, to the whole eighties: synth pop, post punk, electro pop, new romantics, etc.
One of my favorite songs ❤❤❤ one of my favorite videos
This is nu wave.
Evanescence is metal.
Evanescence came years and years after New Wave. In terms of categories, there is one called NuMetal, but even that is not Evanescence, although they are probably closer to that than they are to actual New Wave.
At some point man listen to this with just the audio, like we originally heard it, although the video exploded in popularity and we loved it for how creative it was at the time, but just listen to the audio and crank it really loud, and think about people on the dance floor at a club, but a really cool club, dancing their asses off to this.
Basically everything on this revolutionary album Remain In Light could be listened to that way, but the thing is, on so many other levels as well it was incredibly groundbreaking. But really all of their albums were groundbreaking leading up to this and to some degree after this.
Psycho Killer, the audio track from their very first album, would give you an idea of the range that they went through in just a few albums and a few years to get to the point of this Once in a Lifetime video and song.
Not to be confused with their performance of it years later as part of their incredibly important live concert movie Stop Making Sense, that came out just after this Remain In Light album that the song we're listening to came from.
And the concert movie is fantastic, and I have watched lots of reactors react to a handful of performances from that, it's pretty mind-blowing. The movie theaters would crank the volume up loud and we danced to it in the aisles and down in the front in that area at the very bottom of the huge movie screen.
One of my favorite videos. I never watch Disney, so I don't get the reference.
That's quite a song to break into Talking heads with. What I would really recommend, is to watch the movie 'Stop Making Sense'. Oprah was using 'Naive melody' for awhile. They're right up there with my favorite bands really.
I have a few faves: 'And She Was', 'This Must Be the Place', and 'Life During Wartime' or anything from 'Stop Making Sense', their concert film. Enjoy! 😊❤
Great reaction .I love the song. I grew up with this video. Please watch and listen to the same song from the movie.(Stop Making Sense) I think you’ll really like it. It’ll help you understand. if you haven’t asked yourself the same questions you probably should. Especially how did I get here? The only answer should be letting the days go by. you should also listen to psycho killer and burning down the house.❤️✌️🌼
IN THE 80s UPTOWN/BRONX YOU HAD RAP,
BUT DOWNTOWN BELOW 14 TH STREET YOU HAD A WORLD ITS OWN...
This is a group but only the lead singer is in the video
If you literally want to be blown away, check out “Life During Wartime” from the Stop Making Sense concert movie. In fact the entire show is a life changing revelation
Check out
And She Was
Stay Up Late
Road to Nowhere
Take Me to the River
Wild Wild Life
After Take Me to the River he needs to hear the original Al Green.
@@stevengifford7457I just found out that was a cover while listening to an al green playlist yesterday. Worldview shattered.
Their live shows were legendary
13:16
Okay young’n back in the day that was what happened when a TV was turned on but there wasn’t a station. You’d get static. That was zoomed in analog static.
And what’s a Disney Channel?
Definitely gotta see video from a live performance. I like 'Burning Down the House' but you can't go wrong with anything from Stop Making Sense.
The term "Talking Heads" was originally a slang term that referred to newscasters.
The lead singer pretends to be a nerd but really he's a low-key super soul ninja
New Wave (some of many): Blondie, B-52's, Oingo Boingo, New Order, Dépêche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen, Eurythmics, The Police...
Yes! Life During Wartime Live :)
Also check out "Burning Down the House".
The album Fear of Music is a belter with every track a dance killer.
Check out I Zimbra and Cities from the same album,you’ll be bobbing about in no time.
New wave is punk rock with keyboards .
New Wave is the style of music that appeared post-punk. It maintains some punk elements, but is more pop-oriented and often incorporates a lot of performance art (hence, the "delivery" you found weird). It's usually characterized by use of synths, and jerky/eccentric delivery of lyrics or musical phrases. Some of the bands considered New Wave in the early 80's also incorporated reggae and ska into their repertoires.
The terms "Punk" and "New Wave" are often used interchangeably.
There was a heavy rebellion against the disco craze of the 70's there, too.
Bands that were considered New Wave back in my day would have been the Talking Heads, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Gary Newman, The Police, Devo, Blondie, The Specials, The Ramones, The Clash, Duran Duran.
My introduction came when I was 13 and fell in love with Chrissie Hynde (The Pretenders).
Damn! I forgot Squeeze!
The movement came from a desire to escape what was then called "Commercial Rock" while still trying to appeal to pop and rock sensibilities. It was different from Progressive Rock in that Progressive Rock was all about masterful musicianship and New Wave was a little bit more about a visual artistic expression, and often discarding the political sentiments often found in punk.
They are…unique. If you’re not ready for em’…
Radio play kept us from focusing on the wild video. Yeah back in those days we of course had the video (on mtv) but that's at your friends house cuz maybe your dad couldn't afford cable. So you'd hear it on the radio and buy the record. The primary enjoyment was not the video which i think can distract from what a genuine bop this song is
Wait till you discover DEVO.
I don't think he could handle that!
Are we not men? 😅
@@JenSell1626 we are DEVO!
Another great (if seriously underappreciated) band from the same scene out of CBGB's in NYC is Television and my pick is 'Venus'.
✌🏼😉🎶❤️🍁❤️✨️🕊
Great reaction
Think you confused Nu Metal with New Wave. New Wave is like pop/punk synth music. I am a huge Metal head and love Talking Heads. The video is weird but keep going they are fantastic. Try Soft Cell track Tainted Love, Flock of Seagulls track I Ran So far Away, Culture Club track Do You Really Want to Hurt Me and XTC track Complicated Game.
Check out Crosseyed and Painless from the same album. Studio version. ❤❤
They got a lot of great songs
Burning Down the House is 🔥!
Just wait till you see him in the giant suit lol.
Yes, you really need to check out a clip from Stop Making Sense! Please just do it!
David Byrnes is a musical genius. He and Brian Eno have really shaped music. Check out his more recent live performances but also his older pieces like "Blind" and "I zimbra" which has a great beat, Byrne's vocals are shit but damn it is still great. Love your channel! ❤❤
Blind is about fascists like Donald Trump and was way ahead of its time. Shit never changes.