I’ve always liked the Talking Heads well enough, but tonight I saw Stop Making Sense, and I finally get what the big deal was. The groove was so deep, and the tunes were so twisty. I read somewhere about a DJ from back in the day saying that the Talking Heads were the only band that really got black and white crowds dancing together. Also, nothing hotter than a chick playing bass, unless it’s a chick playing drums--though come to think of it, I know way more chick drummers. (Although I guess quite a few of them are hot, so that rather proves the point.)
David Byrne: weirdest dude to ever become a rock star? There have certainly been more out-of-control, crazy types (although try tell me that stage wasn’t knee-deep with coke), and there have probably been more far-out innovators (your Zappas, your Beefhearts) but I’m talking flat-out, paste-eating, ten-mile-eyed, 298-volt weird. I love the way he turned awkward, self-aware, almost ironic white-guy dancing (stripped down to jogging in place at points) into legit, high-energy stuff. Plenty of people dance funny as a defense mechanism against dancing sincerely, but he dances funny and he dances well--and he’s got the beat to back it up. And it doesn’t hurt that he’s doing the crazy legs with two hot backup singers and the guitarist from The Brothers Johnson.
