Box Set Review: Talking Heads’ (3-Disc) ‘Tentative Decisions – Demos & Live’ – The Rosetta Stone of Early Heads?

I spent the weekend holed up with the new Talking Heads’ archival release, Tentative Decisions – Demos & Live, a 3 disc retrospective visiting their early days – the pre Jerry Harrison days – with (as the title would suggest) demos and live stuff from 1975 up to their debut in 1977, Talking Heads: 77. It’s a snapshot of a band crystallizing into its ultimate form, combining punk, post-punk and art rock into a stunning blend.

Depending on where you stand on the Talking Heads (David Byrne, guitar/vocals; Chris Frantz, drums, Tina Weymouth, bass; Jerry Harrison, keyboards/guitar) this is either going to be a treasure trove of early material, the “Rosetta Stone” of early Heads or at the other extreme, something for completists only. I tend to lean toward the former. I found all of this fascinating listening.

The Talking Heads formed around David Byrne and Chris Frantz who famously met at the Rhode Island School Of Design. They were actually in an earlier band, the Artistics – and yes we get a few songs from that early version of the band here as well. Frantz’s girlfriend was Tina Weymouth who often drove the band to gigs. When they lost their bass player, Tina took up the instrument. I recently read that Byrne made her audition three times before accepting her as the new bass player… I’m beginning to think Byrne might be a sociopath.

The band migrated to New York in ’75 and quickly joined the punk scene playing at CBGB’s. They recorded a number of demos until finally releasing a single, “Love –> Building On Fire” in February of 1977. Shortly after that Jerry Harrison, formerly of the Modern Lovers, joined the band on keyboards and additional guitar. When the Modern Lovers broke up Harrison went back to… checks notes… Harvard to study architecture. What a life that guy’s had. Harrison had been courted by Byrne to join the Heads for a while but didn’t join until March of 1977. The rest is history.

This box set is focused on those early, formative days before Harrison and before the debut album which I think makes this a cool “look backwards.”. The Cult recently toured featuring only music from their early period, when they were known as the Death Cult, and released a contemporary live album featuring only that early music. It seems the Talking Heads aren’t the only folks out there feeling a bit of nostalgia these days.

When most folks see the word “demo” associated with a song, they think a guy alone in a room with an acoustic guitar and a lo-fi tape recorder. While these demos are much more than that, they are still, in places, very rough sounding. But make no mistake, these tracks are fully formed. They may change over the course of the 3 disc set, but they’re complete songs from the start.

What made the Super Deluxe Editions of Talking Heads: 77 and their sophomore effort More Songs About Building And Food for me were the live shows they included in those sets. Here, we also get live stuff but it all sounds very much like a bootleg. And I’m not talking soundboard bootlegs, I’m talking audience recordings. I’ve listened to boots for year so I’m used to that sort of thing, but if you’re expecting the crisp recorded sounds of Stop Making Sense, this isn’t going to be your live music recording cup of tea.

The first two discs of this box are demos from ’75 and ’76. I think having these demos are an interesting peak into the creative process of the Talking Heads and principal songwriter David Byrne. Byrne’s lyrics in those early days might lead fans to think he was an alien robot sent here to attempt to understand human’s emotions and behaviors. The demos give us a musical view into not only the development of the songs, but of the band. I think Frantz/Weymouth are a really fabulous if underrated rhythm section.

The first four tracks of the disc 1 are from September of ’75. It’s fun to hear this early version of “Psycho Killer.” The next six demos are from ’76 and includes six different tracks from the earlier ones from September of ’75. The ’76 demos really show a leap forward in terms of quality of the tracks, both writing and performing.

We then get a live track, “Artists Only,” from the summer of ’76 and I have to wonder what the crowd thought of this relative unknown band and the shrill falsetto of their lead singer. We then get two tracks to round out disc 1 from the Artistics. An early version of “Psycho Killer” is again, probably the gem here. They sound like a college band.

Disc 2 of demos is all from a session they did for CBS records who were interested in signing them. This would have been in 1975 as well. The sound on these demos is exceptional. This could have been released as the debut album. I have been reading about the CBS demo tape for years so I was very excited to hear all of this music. I’m still very surprised CBS Records passed on them, they ended up on Sire Records. Disc 2 is the gem of the set (for most folks).

Although saying that, I really like the live stuff that features on disc 3. It’s probably the gem of the set to me, but I realize the sound quality might be off putting for some. Byrne starts off on “Artists Only” by saying his iconic, “The name of this band is Talking Heads.” This time we don’t have to wonder what the fans in the probably mostly empty club think of the band, we can hear them heckle. I heard one guy exclaim, “Do you have any ballads?” I thought that was funny.

The first 10 tracks of the live disc hail from Max’s Kansas City on October 9th, 1976. I was probably playing sandlot football in the school yard and this cool stuff was going on. It’s fun to hear this music and the interaction with the crowd. B.B. King and the adoring crowd on Live At The Regal, this ain’t. They even cover the Modern Lovers “Pablo Picasso” in an almost unrecognizable version. Bowie did that track later, it’s a favorite of mine.

We then get seven tracks recorded live at the Jabberwocky Club in Syracuse from January 26, 1977, right before that first single and Harrison’s subsequent entry into the band. They sound much tighter on this set. The sound is a little better but the vocals tend to distort throughout the recording. “New Feeling,” announced as “The B-side to our new little single” is especially lively. They end it with their great take on Al Green’s “Take Me To The River.” I always thought that ended up on the debut… I was wrong. I really dug this second set of live stuff.

I was late jumping on the bandwagon of the Talking Heads. They put out all of this great music through my middle school and high school years so it wasn’t until I was in college that I came to love these guys. I feel like hearing this is like catching up on homework I left undone. Again, I get people will grouse about the sound quality, but I think this is all great stuff and fascinating to hear them come together as a band.

In March of 1977 Harrison joined the band and really helped supercharge their sound with keyboards and extra guitar. As I said when I started this, the rest as they say is history. This really is one of America’s truly great bands and it’s a treat to hear them forming and coming into being. I’d tell you to turn this one up loud but that might hurt due to the sound quality. I did find myself really cranking the live stuff up in the car. Give me any live Heads I can get!

Enjoy this one, all you Talking Heads’ fans out there!

Cheers!