Talking Heads reveal they started as a “cover band”
Following the recent 4K release of their concert film, Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz has revealed the group started out as a cover band.
Frantz first met future Talking Heads frontman David Byrne at Rhode Island School of Design, where he discovered that surprisingly few students were in bands. Therefore, they filled the void by starting a group of their own.
“There weren’t a whole lot of bands at RISD,” he told Stephen Colbert on The Late Show, “which is why we formed one.” He continued: “I had this idea, ‘We should form a band to entertain our friends’, and I met David, and he was into that idea, and some other friends joined in, and we were a cover band.” According to Frantz, the “sole purpose” of the project was to entertain their friends.
The drummer recalls playing a “whole eclectic mix” of covers, including tracks by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Who, The Velvet Underground and Paul Revere and the Raiders.
When asked if there is any footage of their early cover band, Frantz responded, “I wish. I heard that somebody has a recording that they made, but that person has not come forward.”
Talking Heads bassist Tina Weymouth also chimed in to assert, “I was not in that band. Everybody who wasn’t in that band stood in another corner of the room because it was so loud.” She concluded, “It was just so painful.”
Meanwhile, in another interview, Weymouth recently reflected on her touring days with Talking Heads and described how drugs had a disastrous effect on them.
She explained: “I really think that that’s what hurt touring for me, the amount of drugs around us. It was great until the drugs came into the picture. When we were touring in the ’80s, the drug of choice was primarily cocaine, which was cut with all sorts of things, including speed. It made people feel like they could just do anything. But it was just so damaging.”
Watch the trailer for the newly 4K restored version of Stop Making Sense below.
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