Boing Boing Staging

Hear the earliest known Talking Heads recordings (1975)

In 1975 The Talking Heads recorded some demo songs at CBS studios. Open Culture has them.

We’ve featured a fair few early Talking Heads performances, from Dortmund and Rome in 1980 to Syracuse in 1978 all the way back to CBGB in 1975. But you haven’t really heard early Talking Heads until you’ve heard the earliest Talking Heads. The same year of that CBGB show (one of many they played after their debut there opening for the Ramones), the trio of David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth recorded a series of demos at CBS studios. Still unsigned and in their early twenties, this first configuration of the Heads (after the band, newly arrived in New York, shed their identity as “The Artistics” from their days together at the Rhode Island School of Design) laid down the very first known recorded versions of such notable tracks as “Psycho Killer” above, “Thank You for Sending Me an Angel” below, and “I’m Not in Love” below.

Exit mobile version