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This week, Steve Inskeep interviews all four members of Talking Heads; plus, Bob Boilen shares his final Viking’s Choice episode of All Songs Considered with Lars Gotrich, an interview with Teezo Touchdown and more.
Sire Records/Michael Ochs Archives/Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images/Illustration by Jackie Lay
It’s been 40 years since Talking Heads played the concerts that spawned Jonathan Demme’s classic film Stop Making Sense. The decades since have been fraught for the band: David Byrne left in the early ’90s (and sued the remaining members shortly thereafter), and they’ve rarely appeared together as they’ve rolled along with separate projects. All of which makes Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep’s interview with the full band — David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth — that much more noteworthy. The musicians gathered to revisit Stop Making Sense in honor of an anniversary re-release, which is in IMAX theaters this weekend. Below is an excerpt; to read and hear more, click here.
Inskeep: Given some of the difficulties and the disagreements that you've had over the years, was it hard to decide to come together for events like this?
Frantz: Not for me, not a bit. You know, we have all said things and done things in the past. But right now, we're focused on the celebration of Stop Making Sense and the music of Talking Heads, which is greater than any one of us individually.
Byrne: Yeah, I agree. When we saw how good this was going to be — and we're all super-proud of the movie and what we did at that time, and how well this was going to be presented — I think we all just kind of said, "OK, we're in."
Inskeep: Did you need to take a moment and talk about the past — about differences of opinion, about authorship of songs and any number of other things?
Byrne: No, no. We just decided we're all excited about this film.
Weymouth: Mm-hmm. We're just focused on this.
Harrison: It was just the embrace of making the new production as good as possible. It's been gratifying to see that we're getting that same reaction from audiences, that people can't contain themselves. There was a screening where people stormed the stage at Grauman's Chinese Theater in LA, and were dancing on the stage. The fact that 40 years later, people still can't stop dancing, feels pretty damn good.
Inskeep: The energy you show on stage, David, is amazing. You're running in circles around the stage. You're laying on your back and singing. The thought I keep having is, even though I run, I would be out of breath at some point. You seem like you're having an amazing time up there.
Byrne: Yeah, I am having an amazing time. … I sort of loosen up as the show goes along and the entire band gets assembled, and it really kind of kicks into gear.
Inskeep: But I think you've said, looking back on that time, that in some ways you were not enjoying yourself in those years.
Byrne: It depends on how you define it. I was enjoying the work that we were doing, and very, very proud of it. But as I said earlier, looking at the guy you see in the beginning of the movie, I was very intent and focused and kind of single-minded about, Yeah, this is what I want. I see this going this way. Which sometimes doesn't make for the best kind of social relationships. We've all known people who are obsessed with their work. But I've gotten through that.
Inskeep: Are you saying that the very thing that made you successful also caused you difficulty?
Byrne: Uh, I'm not sure about that.
Inskeep: Or maybe you didn't need to be so serious.
Byrne: That's what I'm thinking, yes. That's the way I was, but now I find that I can collaborate with people in a much more relaxed way.
Inskeep: And you feel just as successful — this is a useful thing to know, I think.
Byrne: Yes, I think it's a useful thing for people to know that. Take it easy once in a while.
Inskeep: What advice would you give to a young artist who is aspiring to do something great, given what you've just said? What would you tell them, based on your experience?
Byrne: I would say similar advice to what we got early on: Pay attention to your business and don't get yourself in debt.
Harrison: This is slightly an aside, but I've been very involved in producing bands, and I've seen many bands where there is definitely a leader — a person who sometimes is intimidating to the other members of the band. And as a producer, I would always try to make sure that anyone who is possibly getting disenfranchised, to try and bring them in. I would almost always insist that everybody have a chance to listen to the mix, or be there at the mix. Because sometimes the drummer goes, "The fill going into the third verse is wrong. The third tom has to be louder." And the mixer goes, "... OK?" And they go, "That's much, much better." And it was not necessarily better to me! But now this person feels that they own this mix too; the mix wouldn't have been right without them. This person is going to have to go out and support this album for the next year, and if we can get everybody here to feel that they have ownership in this, the band's going to do better, the record will do better, and the internal politics of the band will be better.
Inskeep: Even if the record got a little worse, it might be better for the band.
Harrison: It's possible. I wouldn't let that happen. But there are many times where it could be this way or it could be that way, but if it's important to someone else that it's a certain way, let's do it. The way that teams work best is when everyone feels that they got listened to.
Inskeep: I want to ask about something else; you can refuse to talk about it if you want. In a 2019 interview on NPR, you described yourself as being on the autism spectrum, or believing yourself to be — which is of interest to me because I have autism in my family. Is there some connection between that and your difficulty in connecting with people?
Byrne: Oh yeah, absolutely. As often happens, it's much less now, maybe none at all now, but then, yes. And it was a friend of mine who — the idea of the spectrum and Asperger's and all of that was becoming more widely known, and she was reading about it and said, "David, listen to this. This is you." And I said, "Oh. Yeah, OK. That sounds right."
Inskeep: What were the things you did that made her say, "That's you"?
Byrne: Maybe being slightly socially uncomfortable, or not picking up on the signs when you're engaging with people. Being very able to focus on something, whether it's something you're writing or whatever, and just being very intently focused on that. So there's an upside to it sometimes.
Inskeep: That's what I was wondering about. Because it's not a disease like cancer; it's a characteristic. It's who you are. And watching you on stage, listening to your distinctive lyrics, I wonder sometimes if who you are produced those lyrics.
Byrne: I think you're right. There's probably some of those songs, some of those lyrics and things that I wrote — I could never write those kinds of things today. Although occasionally I do; I've been working on a song about moisturizer, so it's not gone completely. But to a large extent, I see those songs and watch the performance and go, you're not that guy anymore. You wouldn't do a lot of the same things now.
More to read, watch and hear
Last week, Jann Wenner, the co-founder of both Rolling Stone magazine and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, gave an interview to The New York Times in which he made comments that betrayed a bias against women artists and artists of color that both institutions have long been accused of perpetrating. The fallout was swift and definitive: Within two days, Wenner was removed from the Rock Hall's board of directors. Rolling Stone, among many other artists and institutions, spoke out against his comments. In a new essay, NPR Music's Sheldon Pearce wonders whether we need the Rock Hall at all any more, if we ever did.
As discussed in last week’s newsletter, Bob Boilen is retiring on Oct. 2. For his next-to-last episode of All Songs Considered, the legend (we can finally call him that with a mostly straight face now that he’s retiring) sat down with one of his favorite recurring guests — Lars Gotrich, who began as an NPR Music intern all the way back in the summer of 2006 — for one final show in a series they call “Viking’s Choice.” They discuss a characteristically eclectic assortment of music by MxPx, Slant, Daniel Bachman, Matana Roberts, Svetlana Nianio and Liam Grant.
Nigerian music star Mohbad died Sept. 12 in a Lagos hospital. He was only 27. His death has sparked protests against his former music label — which Mohbad had accused of harassment and abuse — and the label’s boss, the politically connected Nigerian star Naira Marley. NPR international correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu has the story.
Last week’s newsletter mentioned an interview in which Lara Downes spoke to the great singer-songwriter Allison Russell, whose new album is titled The Returner. This week, as the 2023 AmericanaFest opens, Jewly Hight of Nashville station WPLN breaks down the singer’s rise — and her insistence on holding doors open for the musicians who come after her.
Roughly six million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. Martha Kaye was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 18 years ago, but her son Adam still finds ways to connect with her through their shared love of music. The two still perform together — and post videos to Instagram, where they’ve developed a following. NPR’s Dustin Jones reports.
The latest installment of New Music Friday finds a distinguished panel joining undistinguished host Robin Hilton to discuss new releases from Doja Cat, Mykki Blanco, yeule, Kylie Minogue and Loraine James.
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Sometimes, bringing a Broadway show to the Tiny Desk means assembling a vast cast of characters — see, for example, these representations of Hadestown or Be More Chill. But for Wicked, the fourth-longest-running show on Broadway, we needed only two actresses (Alyssa Fox and McKenzie Kurtz) and, because he just happened to say yes, Stephen Schwartz. Which is to say, the three-time Oscar winner who wrote Godspell and Pippin, not to mention Wicked itself, pops up at the desk to perform and introduce a few of his own classic compositions. It’s a set that feels both stripped-down and lavish.
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