This album is the reissue put out by Rhino in 2013 and it sounds absolutely amazing. Actually, all the Rhino Talking Head reissues sound excellent, and every time I play one of them I hear something I didn't hear before. This morning, playing this record, I heard an acoustic guitar I never noticed previously. And the low-end is spectacular! Really well done reissue (even though they probably used digital somewhere in the process). But - digital does have it's place.
Speaking in Tongues is the fifth studio album by Talking Heads. Released in June, 1983, it was the band's commercial breakthrough and yielded Burning Down The House, their only Top-10 hit. The tour in support of this album was documented in Jonathan Demme's 1984 film, Stop Making Sense, which also produced a live album by the same name.
David Byrne designed the cover.
Original cassette (and years later CD) copies contain extended versions of Making Flippy Floppy, Girlfriend Is Better, Slippery People, I Get Wild/Wild Gravity and Moon Rocks. The album was reissued in 2006 as a remastered DualDisc containing the extended versions found on the cassette. It also includes two additional tracks, Two Note Swivel and an alternate mix of Burning Down the House. The DVD-A side includes both stereo and 5.1 surround high resolution mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 version of the album, a new alternate version of Burning Down the House and videos for that song and This Must Be the Place. I have mixed opinions of the extended and remixed versions because these songs sounds so good in their original form and I don't think much is accomplished by trying to make them longer.
In 1989 this LP was ranked number 54 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s.
Talking Heads were ready for a breakthrough by mid-1983 and Speaking in Tongues delivered. They sold a million copies, partly due to being able to grow their audience by adding synths, drum machines and radio-friendly hooks to their sound without making it sound too commercial or dumbed down. It can be argued this new sound was an evolution of the 1980s new wave pop sound, which was ready to mature by the time this record was recorded.
Working with additional musicians to flesh out the original lineup, the band was able to add funk and R&B layers to their music. Parliament-Funkadelic's keyboardist, Bernie Worrell, really helped broaden the sound without taking it off course. The rock roots of a band that started out playing in New York's bowery bar CBGB remains intact. It just sounds grown up and respectable.
The recording of this record followed a brief hiatus during which the band's members focused on their own separate projects, which allowed them to come back together more focused and together than they had been previously. They had also jettisoned Brian Eno as their producer, whose close relationship with band leader David Byrne had left the other band members feeling marginalized.
While Burning Down the House will forever be known as the band's biggest hit, it's the second single from this album that is, to my mind, the real gem. On This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), everybody switches instruments to produce an intentionally simple arrangement for a song about a relationship. It just works really well.
The band would break up in 1991. I was able to see them in concert in 1980 and I'm really glad I did. It was a great show! This pressing is a great sounding LP and …
This album is the reissue put out by Rhino in 2013 and it sounds absolutely amazing. Actually, all the Rhino Talking Head reissues sound excellent, and every time I play one of them I hear something I didn't hear before. This morning, playing this record, I heard an acoustic guitar I never noticed previously. And the low-end is spectacular! Really well done reissue (even though they probably used digital somewhere in the process). But - digital does have it's place.
Speaking in Tongues is the fifth studio album by Talking Heads. Released in June, 1983, it was the band's commercial breakthrough and yielded Burning Down The House, their only Top-10 hit. The tour in support of this album was documented in Jonathan Demme's 1984 film, Stop Making Sense, which also produced a live album by the same name.
David Byrne designed the cover.
Original cassette (and years later CD) copies contain extended versions of Making Flippy Floppy, Girlfriend Is Better, Slippery People, I Get Wild/Wild Gravity and Moon Rocks. The album was reissued in 2006 as a remastered DualDisc containing the extended versions found on the cassette. It also includes two additional tracks, Two Note Swivel and an alternate mix of Burning Down the House. The DVD-A side includes both stereo and 5.1 surround high resolution mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 version of the album, a new alternate version of Burning Down the House and videos for that song and This Must Be the Place. I have mixed opinions of the extended and remixed versions because these songs sounds so good in their original form and I don't think much is accomplished by trying to make them longer.
In 1989 this LP was ranked number 54 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 best albums of the 1980s.
Talking Heads were ready for a breakthrough by mid-1983 and Speaking in Tongues delivered. They sold a million copies, partly due to being able to grow their audience by adding synths, drum machines and radio-friendly hooks to their sound without making it sound too commercial or dumbed down. It can be argued this new sound was an evolution of the 1980s new wave pop sound, which was ready to mature by the time this record was recorded.
Working with additional musicians to flesh out the original lineup, the band was able to add funk and R&B layers to their music. Parliament-Funkadelic's keyboardist, Bernie Worrell, really helped broaden the sound without taking it off course. The rock roots of a band that started out playing in New York's bowery bar CBGB remains intact. It just sounds grown up and respectable.
The recording of this record followed a brief hiatus during which the band's members focused on their own separate projects, which allowed them to come back together more focused and together than they had been previously. They had also jettisoned Brian Eno as their producer, whose close relationship with band leader David Byrne had left the other band members feeling marginalized.
While Burning Down the House will forever be known as the band's biggest hit, it's the second single from this album that is, to my mind, the real gem. On This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody), everybody switches instruments to produce an intentionally simple arrangement for a song about a relationship. It just works really well.
The band would break up in 1991. I was able to see them in concert in 1980 and I'm really glad I did. It was a great show! This pressing is a great sounding LP and …
BONUS TRACK
Burning Down the House started as a jam, according to band bassist, Tina Weymouth, in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads.
"Chris Frantz (drummer] had just been to see Parliament-Funkadelic in its full glory at Madison Square Garden, and he was really hyped. During the jam, he kept yelling 'Burn down the house!' which was a P-Funk audience chant, and David dug the line, changing it to the finished version, burning down the house'."
Initially, the lyrics were different. In an interview on NPR's All Things Considered in December, 1984, David Byrne played excerpts of early tapes showing how the song evolved from an instrumental jam into its finished version.
Once the band had reworked it into something resembling the final recording, Byrne began chanting and singing nonsense syllables over the music until he arrived at phrasing that fit the rhythm. Some of the phrases he tried but did not use "I have another body," "Pick it up by the handle," "You travel with a double," and "I'm still under construction."
At another point in the recording process Byrne was chanting 'Foam rubber, USA" instead of "burning down the house."
I think he made the right choice.
Burning Down the House started as a jam, according to band bassist, Tina Weymouth, in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads.
"Chris Frantz (drummer] had just been to see Parliament-Funkadelic in its full glory at Madison Square Garden, and he was really hyped. During the jam, he kept yelling 'Burn down the house!' which was a P-Funk audience chant, and David dug the line, changing it to the finished version, burning down the house'."
Initially, the lyrics were different. In an interview on NPR's All Things Considered in December, 1984, David Byrne played excerpts of early tapes showing how the song evolved from an instrumental jam into its finished version.
Once the band had reworked it into something resembling the final recording, Byrne began chanting and singing nonsense syllables over the music until he arrived at phrasing that fit the rhythm. Some of the phrases he tried but did not use "I have another body," "Pick it up by the handle," "You travel with a double," and "I'm still under construction."
At another point in the recording process Byrne was chanting 'Foam rubber, USA" instead of "burning down the house."
I think he made the right choice.
BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE
LYRICS
Watch out
You might get what you're after
Boom babies strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary guy
Burning down the house
Hold tight wait till the party's over
Hold tight We're in for nasty weather
There has got to be a way
Burning down the house
Here's your ticket pack your bag
Time for jumpin' overboard
The transportation is here
Close enough but not too far
Maybe you know where you are
Fightin' fire with fire
All wet! Hey you might need a raincoat
Shakedown!
Dreams walking in broad daylight
Three hun-dred six-ty five de-grees
Burning down the house
It was once upon a place
Sometimes I listen to myself
Gonna come in first place
People on their way to work
And baby what did you except
Gonna burst into flame
My house! Is out of the ordinary
That's right! Don't wanna hurt nobody
Some things sure can sweep me off my feet
Burning down the house
No visible means of support
And you have not seen nothin' yet
Everything's stuck together
And I don't know what you expect
Staring into the TV set
Fighting fire with fire
