Remain In Light by Talking Heads

"My first encounter with Talking Heads was probably aged about 10 or so when I saw the video for "Once In A Lifetime". Very strange, I loved the music but couldn't work it out, and for some reason I thought David Byrne was Japanese. It was a cursory moment on Top of the Pops and unfortunately at that age I soon lost track of them. But on re-discovering the song some time later I sought out the album. The cover was as indecipherable to me as the video had been. Why the halloween faces, and what were those planes about ? Kamikaze ? I took the plunge and dived in.

Talking Heads have been a favorite band ever since and of all the bands I've listened to I'm grateful to them more than any. They made me curious of all music far beyond the pigeon holes I was used to. On More Songs About Buildings and Food is the song "The Big County" which is one of my favorites. It was is probably the first time I appreciated the slide guitar which as it fades away has an almost ethereal quality. And the reverse cover seems the image of the song, a hovering luminescent snapshot of America."

Words by Pete Finbow, who kindly suggested this album. It turns out to be a back cover about which a substantial amount has been written.

Talking Heads used the working title Melody Attack throughout the initial sessions for the album (after watching a Japanese game show of the same name). This is said to have been the inspiration behind the warplanes motif, which was originally intended to grace the front cover. After the working title was dropped in favour of Remain In Light, the warplanes were relegated to the back and the computer-defaced band member images used for the front instead.

Not for the first time (see Loaded), the credits on the reverse side of Remain In Light also caused interband tension, with no individual band members other than David Byrne listed. The only other indivudal credit went to the producer, Brian Eno (who had also wanted to be featured alongside the band on the front).

The above draws on This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century by David Bowman.

Lubbock (On Everything) by Terry Allen

"I don't know why Terry's records aren't more popular because I think they're the greatest. Terry writes really good lyrics, very direct and funny and moving, but his songs fall between the cracks of all established formats. His music isn't quite country and it's not quite rock, but the themes he deals with-- family, love, religion, violence-- are so universal it seems like anybody could relate to them." So said David Byrne of Talking Heads (as quoted in a 1998 Perfect Sound Forever interview with Allen).

 

Allen and Byrne worked togther on the latter's True Stories film soundtrack. In the same interview Allen said of their friendship: "We're friends and we work very different from one another, the way we write songs, the nature of our curiosities. But the real common denominator is that neither of us particularly give a hang about high art, fine art, pop culture or popular art. I think it's about what inspires you, what moves you, what makes you laugh, whatever it is. The information is the same. I just think HOW we get it is very different and how it presents itself."

I hadn't even heard of Terry Allen until I interviewed M C Taylor of Hiss Golden Messenger. He chose it as a favourite back cover. "A picture of him covering his face with his hands, wearing a hat. It's an evocative image" and one Taylor has recently echoed in press shots such is the impact it's clearly had on him. The photo was taken by Allen's wife, Jo Harvey Allen.

In his review for Allmusic, Stewart Mason provided heavy praise. "Although it's all but unknown outside of a devoted cult following, Terry Allen's second album, 1979's, is one of the finest country albums of all time, a progenitor of what would eventually be called alt-country. This is country music with a wink and a dry-as-West-Texas-dust sense of humor, but at heart, Lubbock (On Everything) is a thoughtful meditation on Allen's hometown." He concluded, "Lubbock (On Everything) is essential listening for anyone with an interest in the outer fringes of country music."