I took Remain in Love the autobiography by Chris Frantz out the library a few weeks back. It is written in a chronological diary type format. I rattled through the first 100 or so pages but thereafter it became a bit of a slog.
From a priveleged WASP background he studied art at the Rhode Island School of Design where he met David Byrne and his future wife Tina Weymouth and formed Talking Heads. Jerry Harrison came along slightly later. I was unaware that he had previously played with the Modern Lovers.
It must have been a bit of a culture shock moving to a loft in the Bowery and playing at CBGBs. Their first tour to Europe was in 1977 and the book references the famous weekend where four of the CBGBs bands played in Glasgow.On Saturday May 21st Talking Heads supported The Ramones at Strathclyde University Union with Blondie supporting Television at the Apollo on the following evening (ticket price £1.50) Unfortunately I was just too young and not fully immersed in music then so I missed the opportnity to see history being made.
He is madly in love with Tina Weymouth. I know that because he mentions in on every other page. It is nice at first but by the end of the book it has you reaching for the sick bucket. Also David Byrne rapidly becomes the villian of the piece which is perhaps not surprising.
As well as charting the careers of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club there are a few interesting stories from their (him and Tina) production days. Most notably these concern John Martyn trying to drown his naked new wife by holding her head under water in a sink in an appartment in the Bahamas and trying to produce a Happy Mondays album in Barbados at the same time as Shaun Ryder discovered crack cocaine.
Worth a read I suppose but nothing startling. I'll stick to the music thanks.
Think you've summed up that book perfectly and I liked your resorting to the 'sick bucket'. Too much in the end.
ReplyDeleteWe were just the right age for much of the ground-breaking music of the last 50 years but alas just a tad too young for the CBGB era - what a night that must have been in Glasgow on the 21st May '77.
Been dithering about whether to buy this and read it. Love TH (and TTC) but the things you've described have been mentioned in other reviews and they've put me off a bit. Although I haven't heard the John Martyn part before which sounds fairly horrific
ReplyDeleteDoesn't it just
DeleteI agree with you CC; what i thought was very odd there seemed to be 100 pages + on one part of a European Tour and then about 15 pages on 20 years! It was like he kept a diary in 1977 and then didn't from 1978 onwards and has forgotten everything!
ReplyDeleteProbably down to the coke!
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