American musician and producer, born February 21, 1949 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. Jerry Harrison is best known as a former member of The Modern Lovers (1971 to 1974) and Talking Heads, where he played guitar and keyboards from 1976 until 1991 when the band split up, between 1981 and 1990 he also recorded three solo albums; two under the name Jerry Harrison: Casual Gods. He owns a recording studio called Sausalito Sound. As of 1991 he has turned his attention to producing and has worked on a number of successful albums by Violent Femmes, Crash Test Dummies and Live. In the early 2020s Harrison and Talking Heads touring member Adrian Belew started a live tour tribute to Remain In Light, playing the iconic 1980 record.
Talking Heads - 1978 - More Songs About Buildings and Food (Deluxe Version) @320
The title of Talking Heads' second album, More Songs About Buildings and Food, slyly addressed the sophomore record syndrome, in which songs not used on a first LP are mixed with hastily written new material. If the band's sound seems more conventional, the reason simply may be that one had encountered the odd song structures, staccato rhythms, strained vocals, and impressionistic lyrics once before. Another was that new co-producer Brian Eno brought a musical unity that tied the album together, especially in terms of the rhythm section, the sequencing, the pacing, and the mixing. Where Talking Heads had largely been about David Byrne's voice and words, Eno moved the emphasis to the bass-and-drums team of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz; all the songs were danceable, and there were only short breaks between them. Byrne held his own, however, and he continued to explore the eccentric, if not demented persona first heard on 77, whether he was adding to his observations on boys and girls or turning his "Psycho Killer" into an artist in "Artists Only." Through the first nine tracks, More Songs was the successor to 77, which would not have earned it landmark status or made it the commercial breakthrough it became. It was the last two songs that pushed the album over those hurdles. First there was an inspired cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River"; released as a single, it made the Top 40 and pushed the album to gold-record status. Second was the album closer, "The Big Country," Byrne's country-tinged reflection on flying over middle America; it crystallized his artist-vs.-ordinary people perspective in unusually direct and dismissive terms, turning the old Chuck Berry patriotic travelogue theme of rock & roll on its head and employing a great hook in the process. (AllMusic)
Talking Heads were among the first bands from the scene that emerged from New York's CBGB in the mid-'70s to reach a national audience, at a time when "punk rock" was a fresh concept still making its way into Middle America. If their debut album, 1977's Talking Heads: 77, doesn't sound like punk rock from a remove of over four decades, that has more to do with how "punk" was soon codified as a genre rather than a way of approaching their art, and underestimates how striking and groundbreaking they truly were. Talking Heads clearly had musical antecedents in 1960s pop and rock, classic soul, and folk-rock, though it was obvious from the first they were mixing those ingredients in a unique way, and adding the edgy, nervous energy of David Byrne's songs and vocals truly set them apart. Byrne was fortunate to have a band that was both talented and simpatico -- Tina Weymouth's bass and Chris Frantz's drums give the tunes a churning groove, sometimes funky and sometimes motoric, and though Jerry Harrison was still growing into his role as the group's utility man, his guitar and keyboards give the performances a depth and texture they need. That said, Byrne was the wild card who made Talking Heads something different; the nervous gulp of his vocals, his lyrical voice that took a quizzical look at the world around him and the emotions moving within him, and the melodies that managed to be both herky-jerky and inviting at the same time were all fresh and intriguing, and they still sound that way all these years later.
The arrangements and production on Talking Heads: 77 suggest that the folks at the controls were trying to find a way to make this music a bit easier to swallow for the uninitiated, and the steel drums on "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town," the sax and marimba on "First Week/Last Week…Carefree," and the playful bounce of "Don't Worry About the Government" feel a bit out of place within the context of the band's next two albums, 1978's More Songs About Buildings and Food and 1979's Fear of Music, which rank with their finest work. But the final two tracks, "Psycho Killer" and "Pulled Up," end the show with a bang and point to the brilliant music the group would make in the years to come.
Talking Heads: 77 was a striking debut that sounds even better now than when it first arrived. [In 2024, Rhino Records issued a Super Deluxe Edition of Talking Heads '77 that, along with a crisply remastered version of the original LP, adds a bonus disc of alternate versions and material that didn't make the album, including a version of "Psycho Killer" with Arthur Russell on cello. The best reason to get the expanded version, however, is the inclusion of a complete Talking Heads show from an October 1977 appearance at CBGB, which boasts an energy and muscle lacking from the studio tracks. It's the sound of a band evolving from very good to honestly great, and it's a must for anyone who prizes the group's early work.] (AllMusic)
