TALKING HEADS : THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS TALKING HEADS

 

Disc One (78:51)

  1. New Feeling
  2. A Clean Break (Let's Work)
  3. Pulled Up
  4. Psycho Killer
  5. Who Is It ?
  6. The Book I Read
  7. The Big Country
  8. I'm Not in Love
  9. The Girls Want to Be with the Girls
  10. Electricity
  11. Found a Job
  12. Mind
  13. Artists Only
  14. Stay Hungry
  15. Air
  16. Love / Building on Fire
  17. Memories (Can't Wait)
  18. Heaven

Disc Two (77:52)

  1. Psycho Killer
  2. Warning Sign
  3. Stay Hungry
  4. Cities
  5. I Zimbra
  6. Drugs (Electricity)
  7. Once in a Lifetime
  8. Animals
  9. Houses in motion
  10. Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
  11. Crosseyed and Painless
  12. Life During Wartime
  13. Take Me to the River
  14. The Great Curve

Label : Rhino

Release Year : 1982

Recording Date : November 17, 1977 - February 27, 1981

Venues : Northern Studios, Maynard, MA + The Capitol Theater, Passaic, NJ + Emerald City, Cherry Hill, NJ + Central Park, New York, NY + Sun Plaza Concert Hall, Tokyo, Japan,

Review (AllMusic) : Although most people probably think the only Talking Heads live release is Stop Making Sense, the fact is that there's an earlier, better live album called The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads. Originally released in 1982 on LP and cassette, the album chronicles the growth of the band, both stylistically and personnel-wise. The first LP is the original quartet version of the band, recorded between 1977 and 1979, performing excellent versions of tunes (mostly) off 77 and More Songs About Buildings and Food. Also included were the previously unavailable A Clean Break and Love Goes to a Building on Fire, as well as early versions of Memories Can't Wait and Air. The second LP comes from the Remain in Light tour, recorded in 1980 and 1981. In order to present something close to the music on that album, the original quartet lineup was greatly expanded. Added were two percussionists (Steven Stanley, Jose Rossy), two backup singers (Nona Hendryx, Dollette McDonald), Busta Cherry Jones on bass, Bernie Worrell (!) on keys, and a young Adrian Belew on lead guitar. The excitement of this material is palpable, and the muscular band rips into these tunes with more power than the originals in most cases. Drugs gets revamped for live performance, and Houses in Motion kicks into high gear with a great art-funk coda. Belew is absolutely on fire throughout, especially on The Great Curve and Crosseyed and Painless, where his deranged feedback soloing has never sounded better. At this point in their career, Talking Heads were still basically an underground band; it was Burning Down the House that really thrust them into the mainstream, and Stop Making Sense documents their arrival as a more or less mainstream act. The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads captures a hungry band on its way up, performing with a fire that was never matched on later tours. Unfortunately, The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads remained unavailable on compact disc for years, which is a shame since it's arguably one of their finest releases.

Review (Wikipedia) : The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads is a double live album by Talking Heads, originally released in 1982. The first album featured the original quartet in recordings from 1977 and 1979, and the second album the expanded ten-piece lineup that toured in 1980 and 1981. The album contains live versions of songs that appear on Talking Heads: 77, More Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music, and Remain in Light. The cassette edition of the album contained a bonus track Cities not included on the vinyl edition - this track has been included on the subsequent CD release. The title of the album is both the group's response to the general public's constant and incorrect reference to the band as "The Talking Heads", and a reference to David Byrne's minimalist introductions to songs. The album opens with one such introduction: "The name of this song is New Feeling. That's what it's about." An expanded version of the record, on CD in the United States for the first time, was released in 2004 by Sire/Warner Bros./Rhino. It duplicated the pattern of the original with the first disc featuring the quartet alone, and the second disc a ten-member band. Additional tracks from 1978 are among the eight extra songs on the first disc, and correct running order for the set from the larger band on the second disc. The introduction to the song "Crosseyed And Painless" was edited out on the CD version, however. The remastered & expanded edition of the album currently sits at number fifteen on the Metacritic list of all time best-reviewed albums.