Well, it's been nearly two months since I took the time to put together a new offering in this somewhat irregular theme.
Heard this one on the radio the other day. Damn I miss the old Talking Heads. Their first gig was opening for The Ramones at CBGBs in 1975, and this song, Love - Building on Fire, normally known as simply Building on Fire, was in fact the first Talking Heads single, released by Sire in 1977.
The first few Talking Heads albums are masterpieces; Talking Heads:77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, and Fear of Music. Their fourth, Remain in Light, has its moments, and contains the familiar MTV generation hit, Once in a Lifetime. After their fourth studio LP, the band took a nearly three year long break. During this time the excellent live LP, The Name of this Band is Talking Heads, was released. Once the group got back together for a new studio LP, the direction had changed. It was with 1983's Speaking in Tongues, their fifth studio album, that the band began to realize commercial success, but the raw, jittery art rock sound was long gone.
Members of The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and boasting four albums on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, here is Talking Heads: Building on Fire, from 1978.
I found a pair of interesting covers of Building on Fire for your listening pleasure. An outstanding live cover by The Figgs (sorry about the bass on The Figgs cover, but the audio is otherwise very good), and another live version, this time from Pearl Jam. Enjoy!
The Figgs: Building on Fire
Pearl Jam: Building on Fire
Have a great weekend!
~Sham, Quixotic Referee
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5 comments:
This reminds me that I need to break out my DVD copy of True Stories this weekend.
I may be the only person on the planet who loves that nutty little movie.
Yay for True Stories, even though it's been years since I've seen it. Probably my favorite latter-era Talking Heads album.
So happy to see them featured here! I have fond memories of many a summer afternoon spent listening to Stop Making Sense and feverishly sketching out maps of imaginary worlds.
If you haven't checked it out, the CBS Demos bootleg is well worth a download for primo early Heads.
I was an extra in True Stories, no shit. It was filmed a few miles from where I went to grade school in Arlington TX--those pre-fab buildings and all. My whole high school drama class was enrolled to be in the mall scenes after our teacher's hubby landed a role as the Computer Guy.
I was a little too Punk Rawk at the time to appreciate them, but the Talking Heads were quite awesome.
Brunomac: I'm ashamed to admit I've never seen True Stories. Checking it out is now on my To Do List!
Sir Larkins: I'll also have to track down those CBS Demos. Thanks for the 'heads' up.
ckutalik: Hey - now that's really cool! Indeed they were quite awesome. I love a lot of the CBGBs 77 stuff, including early Talking Heads, Television, Blondie, Richard Hell, etc. Awesome, mostly forgotten stuff these days.
I was an extra in True Stories, no shit<
That's pretty cool. The mall scene is funny, with John Goodman checking out the teenage black chicks and the old ladies there because he's looking for a wife. I still think of True Stories whenever I see Goodman in something.
A very unassuming film, especially with the hype (deservedly so) after the Stop Making Sense movie.
It was really cool that you could buy a soundtrack of the townsfolk in the film doing the songs, or the Heads record with Byrne doing the songs.
I found my copy of the DVD last year in the bargain area of a video store for 2.99. Keep an eye out for it when you are browing your video shop.
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