Installment Vol. 2, Page 5

The other group was a trio called "The Talking Heads" with Tina Whemouth, Chris Franz, and David Byrne. They had been art majors at the Rhode Island School of Design, a very prestigious school for the arts in New England. Eventually they were joined by Jerry Harrison.

While the Shirts' originality was based on harmonies, interesting lyrics and somewhat complex arrangements with melodic (in your face) energy, The Talking Heads' style was simple and direct. Chris was a really good drummer. Tina -though not considered a virtuoso on the bass guitar- learned to play what ever she had to play like a virtuoso. And then there was David. David Byrne, whose unique guitar sound was very percussive, had a voice like a wavering scarecrow, (if you can imagine what it would be like for a scarecrow to sing. If not, buy their first albums) David's performance to say the least, was riveting. Unique? Odd? The band was like a metronome gone awry. I thought of them as the Bach of rock and roll. I don't know exactly why. Possibly because of their constant rhythmic pulse and spare melodic and harmonic progressions. David performed with a jerky motion that reminded me (being a farm boy) of a chicken walking around without a head, and reminiscent of NOBODY I'd ever seen before. Considering their simplicity, they were amazingly visual.

The Shirts brought their rowdy fans from Brooklyn; The Talking Heads had a lot of artist friends as well as recent graduates of The Rhode Island School of Design who knew them in college.

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