The Talking Heads - Melody Attack - Non-Album Tracks (1982-1983)

Out of all the albums I've posted here so far, this is one of my top favorites. If you're a Talking Heads fan at all, you should give this a listen.

In 1980, the Talking Heads released "Remain in Light," which is their most acclaimed album and frequently included on the best albums of all time lists. In 1983, the band released "Speaking in Tongues," which is widely considered another five star album. This era was the peak of the band's career, yet there was a three year gap between the two album releases. That was a long time for the band back then, when they generally released about an album a year. What happened during that long gap?

This album happened. The band members stayed busy, with David Byrne releasing two solo albums, Jerry Harrison releasing one, and Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth forming a side project, Tom Tom Club, that released two albums. I could do a lot with all that solo album material, but luckily I found enough material for me to make an album containing nothing but actual Talking Heads songs! So this really is the band's lost album that covers those gap years.

The reason I have all actual Talking Heads material for this is because the best of those solo songs were played live by the band in concert in 1982 and 1983. Four songs from Byrne's 1981 solo album "The Catherine Wheel" were done by the band live. Most of that album is made up of quirky instrumentals, but these four songs have lots of vocals and are very Talking Heads-like. ("What a Day that Was" in particular is one of my favorite Talking Heads songs, period.)

Additionally, the band did one song, "Slink," from Jerry Harrison's 1981 solo album that is the best song from the album, and was a minor hit. Harrison sings on the Talking Heads live version, but he sounds a lot like Bryne to begin with, and Bryne adds prominent backing vocals.

The situation with the Tom Tom Club songs I've included here is a bit more complicated. In 1981, Tom Tom Club released an album (also called "Tom Tom Club"). It resulted in two hits, including "Genius of Love," which is now considered an all-time classic that has been covered or sampled by dozens of artists, including a shameless rip-off by Mariah Carey called "Fantasy" that was a number one hit. What happened in 1982 and 1983 concerts is that Bryne would leave the stage for a while and the Talking Heads would temporarily "turn into" the Tom Tom Club. But it was the exact same band (complete with all the extra musicians and backing vocalists), just minus Byrne and plus two of Tina Weymouth's sisters helping on vocals. Generally, they only did "Genius of Love," but sometimes they were allowed more songs, and that's how I got a Talking Heads version of the other hit, "Wordy Rappinghood," from the first Tom Tom Club album.

On top of all that, I've also included a couple of Talking Heads studio outtakes that are really good songs. I edited one of them, "Two Note Swivel," by cutting the last three minutes or so. That's because the recording was never finalized, and while the first half of the song contained a lot of singing and interesting stuff, the second half was just the band going over the same two chords without any soloing or variety. I'm sure it was never intended to be released like that.

Although most of the songs here are from concert bootlegs, luckily I was able to find some high quality soundboard sources and eliminate all the audience noise, so it sounds like a studio album. For the song "Genius of Love," I decided to use the version from the "Stop Making Sense" official live album because the sound quality was a notch better than any other version I could find.

It's too bad David Byrne dominated the Talking Heads as much as he did, singing all the songs. The other three band members were very talented too, and this represents an alternate path the band could have taken, where the others were allowed songs on Talking Heads if they were strong enough. "Genius of Love" certainly would qualify! Chances are the band would have lasted longer and made stronger albums overall.

Now, I should explain the curious album title I've chosen, "Melody Attack." I went with this because it was the original intended album title for "Remain in Light," and the band came very close to using it. Look at the artwork on the back of that album, of three fighter planes flying over some mountains. That was originally planned for the front side, and was meant to illustrate the "Melody Attack" concept. That title was dropped at the last minute due to worries that it sounded too arrogant. But I think it's a fun title, and it fits here since the music on this album isn't far from the "Remain in Light" sound.

By the way, I've added one song as a bonus track, "The Man with the 4-Way Hips." It's only a bonus track because it's the actual Tom Tom Club and not the Talking Heads pretending to be that band. But it was a hit in 1983, which fits this time frame, and I think it's as solid as the other songs here. As far as I know, the Talking Heads never played this song in concert, probably because the band stopped doing any concerts at all after the 1983 tour, even though they continued as a studio band until 1988.

01 What a Day that Was (Talking Heads)
02 Big Blue Plymouth [Eyes Wide Open] (Talking Heads)
03 Wordy Rappinghood (Talking Heads)
04 My Big Hands [Fall through the Cracks] (Talking Heads)
05 Slink (Talking Heads)
06 Big Business (Talking Heads)
07 Genius of Love (Talking Heads)
08 Two Note Swivel [Edit] (Talking Heads)
09 Popsicle (Talking Heads)

The Man with the 4-Way Hips (Tom Tom Club)

https://www.imagenetz.de/dM6kB

Thanks a lot to The Lifehouse for the cover art.

Peter at the Albums I Wish Existed blog has taken the back cover to "Remain in Light" that I mentioned above and altered it to make an alternate cover option.