The only Talking Heads song without David Byrne’s lyrics
It’s no secret that David Byrne was the executive leader of Talking Heads. Whilst this bore many fruits, and the group is hailed as one of the most influential rock bands of all time, for the rest of the quartet, bassist Tina Weymouth, guitarist Jerry Harrison and drummer Chris Frantz, Byrne’s attitude was the source of much frustration.
Notably, the band’s relationship with Byrne became so strained that they’ve never had a full-scale reunification, despite participating in several brief reunions, including in 1999 for the 15th-anniversary re-release of Stop Making Sense and in 2002 for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
This doesn’t seem like it will change any time soon, as Byrne affirmed during his recent appearance on the Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend podcast. When the host made a humourous reference to Benito Mussolini, Byrne acknowledged parallels between his approach to Talking Heads and the Italian Fascist leader.
“I remember being like that at various points. Being a control freak and saying, ‘It has to be this way. We’re gonna do it again,'” Byrne said. “Then years go by, and you realise, whatever the phrase is: you catch more flies with sugar or whatever it might be.”
Byrne’s admission came after Weymouth shared her thoughts on Byrne’s leadership style with The Sunday Times. “I recently described David Byrne as Trumpian, which didn’t go down well with everybody,” the bassist wrote. “What I meant was that, from my experience, everything with David is transactional – he will use you until he has no more use for you.”
It transpires that David Byrne had such a tight grip on the creative process of Talking Heads that there is only one song in their entire catalogue that features lyrics that he didn’t partially write. This is ‘Warning Sign’ from their second album, 1978’s More Songs About Buildings and Food. The story goes that it is one of the earliest tracks by the band, written by Byrne and Frantz in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1973, when they were in The Artistics, a group they formed at the Rhode Island School of Design.
The Artistics played the song at various shows in 1974, and then, when Byrne and Frantz formed Talking Heads the following year alongside ‘Psycho Killer’, it became one of the originals in their setlist that originated in their previous band. Following formation, Talking Heads gained many plaudits for their live performances but didn’t sign a record deal until 1977. By the time they recorded their debut album that year, Talking Heads had amassed a wealth of material, meaning that ‘Warning Sign’ did not make the cut.
However, it would feature on their second album the following year. Notably, the song is a darker one than usual, complete with a sort of dub rhythm and chiming guitars. The track is also marked out by Byrne’s ominous lyrics, coloured by a reverse-delay effect.
As with every other song by the New York band, most would assume that David Byrne wrote the lyrics for ‘Warning Sign’. However, according to Songfacts, the words were written by Chris Frantz, making it the only original number in the quartet’s oeuvre that the frontman didn’t write. Per Frantz’s account, he drew upon The Velvet Underground when penning the lyrics, as he wrote them in one sitting when lying on the floor of the apartment owned by The Artistics’ bassist, Hank Stahler.
Listen to ‘Warning Sign’ below.
