Rabbit Holes

A quick survey of 1977's rock albums shows a vibrant genre, pushing in many directions at once. British punk went major label, with debut albums from The Clash, The Damned, Wire, and The Sex Pistols (their only studio album). The Ramones released Rocket to Russia. David Bowie explored a new direction with both Low and Heroes. Mainstream blockbusters included Rumours by Fleetwood Mac, News of the World by Queen, Slowhand by Eric Clapton, and Pink Floyd's Animals. Not to mention Meat Loaf 's Bat Out of Hell and the soundtrack to Saturday Night Fever (footnote 1).

Amid all of this, there was a distinct new sound, quickly labeled New Wave. It wasn't rock like Queen, Pink Floyd, or anything coming out of Laurel Canyon. And it wasn't manufactured in the disco-pop factories. But it wasn't punk. It was NYC-centric, but there was also Brit brat (before brat was a thing), Elvis Costello, introducing himself with My Aim Is True. Back in the Big Apple, two seminal new wave debuts dropped in 1977: Television's Marquee Moon, and Talking Heads: 77.

Talking Heads' debut LP recently received a four-disc deluxe reissue, including a previously unreleased live recording from the legendary CBGB club (now a clothing store) and a Blu-ray disc with Dolby Atmos, 5.1 surround, and HD stereo mixes. The discs are packaged in a hardcover book with first-person accounts of the band's formation and early days by its members: David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth, and Jerry Harrison.

Since the band's breakup in 1991, there have been some episodes of dirty laundry aired in public. In these essays, the target of score-settling is album co-producer Tony Bongiovi (uncle to Jon Bon Jovi and co-founder of the legendary Power Station studio, award-winning producer of pop and rock albums). In a 2018 interview with Tape Op magazine (footnote 2), Bongiovi claimed he called in a hired-gun bassist to replace Weymouth on several tunes. According to Weymouth, and recording/mixing engineer Ed Stasium, she played every bass note heard on TH: 77, except a doubled "ghost" part by studio bassist Bob Babbitt on the opening track, "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town" (footnote 3). Although Weymouth, Frantz, and Stasium spill some ink addressing the bass-player issue in their booklet notes, the text's main focus is the joy and excitement of forming a band, finding their musical legs, and recording what turned out to be an exceptional first album, with a hit: "Psycho Killer."

Byrne (guitar, vocals, songs) and Frantz (drums) started playing together at Rhode Island School of Design. In late 1974, they reunited in New York City, where Byrne worked as a cinema usher when Frantz and Weymouth—already a couple, soon to be married—arrived. Although enthusiastic about the band, Weymouth was reluctant to learn the bass and join in. Eventually, she relented. The trio knew Harrison from the NYC music scene. Already seasoned by several years in Boston-based The Modern Lovers, Harrison brought skilled musicianship and some studio-technical chops. His backing guitar and vocal parts were well-suited to Byrne's unique style.

Talking Heads followed a trail blazed by the Ramones, first in signing with Sire Records, and then entering Sundragon Studios with co-producer Bongiovi and engineer Stasium. Their first album is very different from the Ramones' debut, but both harnessed the raw energy of NYC's mid-'70s underground. The city was a menacing witches' brew of bankruptcy, crime, and decay, yet its many-faceted arts scene shone bright, in parallel and sometimes in conjunction with the coked-up boogie-all-night disco world. Indeed, prior to working with Talking Heads, Bongiovi produced a hit disco version of the theme from Star Wars.

Rather than go hard and fast like the punks, Talking Heads took a bright and percussive, somewhat poppy approach. As the CBGB concert proves, Frantz and Weymouth were locked in tight, and the guitar and keyboard parts by Byrne and Harrison, often jangly and percussive, meshed well into a beat-forward style over which rode Byrne's eccentric vocals and lyrics. The concert shows Byrne shyly figuring out his vocal pitch and presentation, in front of a locked-in musical force.

"Psycho Killer" aside, Talking Heads songs tended to be less dark and street-tough than Television's. The band's "Statement of Intent," reproduced early in the booklet, includes this: "Without seeming pretentious, the band would like to think that music ... has the potential to inspire constructive feelings in the listener." They continued: "Words the band would hope can be associated with their 'image' are: sincerity, honesty, intensity, substance, integrity and fun." Quite the manifesto. Given the Talking Heads' success during their 15-year run, and the fact that their music is still alive in the culture, they achieved the aims of their idealistic young selves.

Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound Nashville did a nice job remastering the original album for this reissue. The no-nonsense mix and crisp arrangements are spruced up without modern over-loud dynamics crunching. Disc 2 is singles, B-sides, and assorted alternate mixes, mostly for diehard fans. In the live set from CBGB, October 10, 1977 (less than a month after the original LP's release) on disc 3, the band was already playing songs from its next album, More Songs About Buildings and Food. They were on their way.

Because it was recorded to 16-track tape, with simple arrangements and minimal overdubbed extras, TH: 77 is not ideally suited for surround-sound remixes. Stasium's new Dolby Atmos mix, as rendered to 5.1 in my system, spreads the sound out wider and plants more distinct sounds in the rear-side speakers than the older 5.1 mix made by Harrison and E.T. Thorngren, originally for the short-lived DualDisc CD-DVD release.

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Footnote 1: There were more historically significant albums released in 1977, not mentioned above. See tinyurl.com/u7nhd6bu for one list; here's another: tinyurl.com/2py6zb9d.

Footnote 2: See tapeop.com/interviews/127/tony-bongiovi.

Footnote 3: Stasium submitted a detailed rebuttal to Tape Op about several of Bongiovi's statements, published online at tinyurl.com/23zh2bb8.