Happy 40th Anniversary to Talking Heads’ fourth studio album Remain in Light, originally released October 8, 1980.
Talking Heads’ Remain in Light is their fourth studio album and possibly the most important in their discography. One of the album’s influences is the song “I Zimbra” from their previous album Fear of Music (1979), which mostly stayed true to the art-rock/post-punk sound heard in previous recordings.
Another influence was Fela Kuti’s 1973 album Afrodisiac, which was introduced to David Byrne by Brian Eno, producer of Remain in Light as well as their previous two albums (1978’s More Songs About Buildings and Food & Fear of Music). Before recording Remain in Light, Byrne and Eno collaborated on the groundbreaking album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981), which made heavy use of sampled vocals, instrumental loops, and electronic music. All of these laid the foundation for what was to become Remain in Light.
What captivated me when I first heard it was the new direction and experimentation that Talking Heads dove into fearlessly. The unique thing about the album is that it is a departure from their regular sound, yet somehow it is still unmistakably a Talking Heads record from beginning to end.
Up to this point, the recording of a Talking Heads album would go as follows: the band would meet at the studio, with Byrne bringing songs and ideas that were almost finished, and they would work on them. At the time, there was a little tension within the band. Drummer Chris Frantz and his wife, bassist Tina Weymouth, felt as though they were viewed as Byrne’s backing band instead of bandmates. For a time, Weymouth wanted to leave the band because she thought Byrne was too controlling, but Frantz did not want to leave the band. As for Byrne, he felt the need to be responsible for the band’s direction, and it slowly began to wear on him.
Frantz and Weymouth went on vacation in the Bahamas at the end of the band’s tour to sort out their future. It was there that the couple met the legendary reggae rhythm section and producers Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare, who influenced Frantz and Weymouth’s sound going forward. Meeting these kindred spirits re-energized the couple, and at the end of their vacation, they wound up buying an apartment above Compass Point Studios, where they recorded More Songs About Buildings and Food.
In early 1980, the entire band met up in the Bahamas, but this time, Byrne had no songs in tow. There was no other choice but for the band to collaborate. With help from guest contributors like Adrian Belew (guitar), Nona Hendryx (Vocals), Jon Hassell (trumpet and horn), and Robert Palmer (percussion), they began recording the album. Frantz returned the favor to Palmer by playing drums on his song “Looking for Clues.” They got the instrumentals down, but Byrne was still suffering from writer’s block, so they relocated to Sigma Studios in New York. It was there that he finally got his writing mojo back.
The songs on Remain in Light touched familiar themes the band had often explored. Byrne’s lyrics position him as a nervous, sometimes perplexed, other times amused observer of a world he has yet to figure out. He comes off as a post-punk Rod Serling taking us to a different kind of Twilight Zone. The opening track, “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On),” is a funky number about a nervous and unstable government man (“Take a look at these hands / Take a look at these hands! / The hand speaks / The hand of a government man / Well I’m a tumbler / Born under punches / I’m so thin”). Yeah, it doesn’t make sense to me either, but damn this is a killer song.
“Crosseyed and Painless” continues the themes of paranoia and isolation. Byrne’s character is uneasy with the world around him and doesn’t know who to trust. The song contains some of the best lyrics Byrne has ever written, and his delivery seals the deal, placing you right there with him (“Facts are simple and facts are straight / Facts aren’t lazy and facts aren’t lame / Facts don’t come with points of view / Facts don’t do what I want them to / Facts just twist the truth around / Facts are living turned inside out / Facts are getting the best of them / Facts are nothing on the face of men”).
By the time you reach “The Great Curve,” it becomes quite apparent that you’re listening to an excellent band evolve into a great one. Talking Heads’ signature song “Once in a Lifetime” is one of those tunes that you remember the first time you heard it and the feeling you had. Byrne’s delivery is reminiscent of a preacher giving a sermon about a man in the midst of an existential crisis (“You may ask yourself, ‘What is that beautiful house?’ / You may ask yourself, ‘Where does that highway go to?’ / And you may ask yourself, ‘Am I right? Am I wrong?’ / And you may say to yourself, ‘My God! What have I done?’”).
The music on the surface may sound repetitive, but Byrne intended it to be that way. The hidden star of the song is Jerry Harrison’s synthesizer and organ playing, which created a sound that made you feel as if you were floating. In 2000, NPR named “Once in a Lifetime” one of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. Not bad for a song that didn’t even chart in the Hot 100. When MTV came along, the iconic video was played in heavy rotation, cementing its place in music history.
When Remain in Light was released, it received much critical success. In 2008, Vibe Magazine’s Sean Fennessey wrote a review stating, “Talking Heads took African polyrhythms to NYC and made a return trip with elegant, alien post-punk in tow.” Remain in Light has appeared on all-time greatest albums lists too numerous to count, and it certainly has stayed on my list of 20 albums I can’t live without. I’m still amazed that this inventive, quirky album that I bought in a head shop 40 years ago is still relevant today. And yes, I still have that same copy in my collection.
LISTEN: