Behind the album: “Stay in the Light, the album where talking heads pushed boundaries and left their peers behind

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when such a thing was a realistic possibility for rock bands, scoring a hit single was the goal for most people. For a while, speakers seemed committed and determined to avoid such a fate, and instead followed the sounds that interested them the most, regardless of their accessibility to the masses.

This common instinct among the four band members led them to do just that Staying in the Lightthe 1980 album considered by many to be a masterpiece. Here’s the story of how the band and its rebellious producer forged their own unique path on this mesmerizing album.

Light-Road

The Talking Heads emerged from New York City’s creative and diverse music scene in the late 1970s. They traded in a kind of anti-pop music, full of surprising rhythmic structures and unusual vocals, the latter courtesy of frontman David Byrne. Their first three albums, though impossible to categorize, were ridiculously captivating.

Behind the scenes, things weren’t quite so rosy. While Byrne was a visionary artist, he struggled to connect on a personal level with his bandmates (guitarist Jerry Harrison, bassist Tina Weymouth, and drummer Chris Frantz, the latter two being husband and wife). However, he got along well with producer Brian Eno, who worked with the band on the 1979 album Fear of Music She collaborated with Byrne on the album My Life in the Ghost Bush.

The band reconvened with the idea of making a more collaborative recording, with each member of the group bringing their musical ideas to the table. Eno also returned, and developed a method by which the band could create separate musical parts that could then be manipulated in different songs.

In an interview with this author of the book Restoring the 80s: A decade of unstoppable successPictured, Chris Frantz explained how the process stunned some of the people working with the band on sessions in the Bahamas, including British engineer Rhett Davies:

“We knew Rhett and we liked him. But after a few days of basic songs, Rhett quit. He threw up his hands and said: “Every time you come up with something that sounds like it might be a popular song, Brian says: “No, that’s not good!”

Reconsideration Staying in the Light

You can hear the evidence of Eno and the band’s approach everywhere Staying in the Light. Whether it’s the polyrhythmic racket of “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” or the turbulent funk of “Crosseyed and Painless,” the individual parts coalesce into a cohesive whole, propelling each song forward with fearless momentum.

In fact, “Once in a Lifetime” was supposed to be a hit, with Weymouth’s nose-diving bass anchoring all the floating elements around it. Other highlights include “Seen and Not Seen,” where you can either get lost in Byrne’s spoken notes or in the subtle swirl of sound behind them, and “Listening Wind,” where the music painfully soars to support the tragic story within the lyrics.

Speaking of lyrics, Byrne is at his best in free association Staying in the Light. Although narrative coherence is not on the cards, it’s the sense of sudden displacement in “Once in a Lifetime,” or the futile efforts to connect in “Born Under Punches” that matters. Only the track closure “The Overload” meanders a bit, but that’s a small quibble on such an impeccable record.

The band’s next album. Speaking in Tongues (1983), gave them a hit with “Burning Down the House”. By this time, some cracks in the group were beginning to open wide; they would later split up Naked In ’88. Stay in LightIt presents them at their best, takes us as listeners where we never expected to go, and gives us an exciting journey to get there.