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Remain in Light

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Remain in Light is the fourth album by Talking Heads, released in 1980. The album was greeted with much critical acclaim and praise, and was the last Talking Heads album produced by Brian Eno.

Style

Featuring funky African polyrhythms, the album became an influential post punk, world music and New Wave recording. Remain in Light uniquely blended African-American, continental African and white American musical forms; Rolling Stone magazine's Ken Tucker noted at the time that there had rarely been "a larger gap between what black and white audiences were listening to." In a review of the album, fellow Rolling Stone writer Gavin Edwards commented that "Talking Heads had already mastered minimalist funk, but here they built jams around thick, slurred rhythms." Apart from the music, the lyrical themes explored on the album reflect what Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians writer Robert Walser considers a postmodern character, in that they "depict disorientation, ironic distance and distrust of centering narratives." As a result of its polyrhythmic architecture and collaborative, funk-driven songs, Remain in Light compelled Talking Heads to include seven additional musicians, including guitarist Adrian Belew and Funkadelic keyboardist Bernie Worrell, on their concert tour in support of the album.

The final track on the album, "The Overload", was Talking Heads' attempt to emulate the sound of the band Joy Division. This effort was made in spite of the fact that no one in the band had actually heard the music of Joy Division. Rather, it was based on an idea of what Joy Division might sound like.[1]

Tour

As mentioned above, Talking Heads added seven musicians for a tour in support of Remain in Light during 1980 and 1981. The first appearance of the larger group, which in addition to Belew and Worrell included percussionists Jose Rossy and Steven Stanley, backup singers Nona Hendryx and Dollette McDonald, and bassist Busta Cherry Jones, was in August 1980 at the Heatwave festival. Talking Heads began shows on this tour by playing four songs released prior to Remain in Light. Their set began with the basic quartet and then added players and vocalists song by song until the entire group filled the stage.

Singles

The single "Once in a Lifetime" sold poorly in the US upon its original release, but was a top 40 hit in the rest of the English-speaking world, reaching #14 in the UK, #23 in Australia and #28 in Canada. The single is also remembered for its quirky music video. A later live recording of the song (from the film Stop Making Sense) was a very minor #91 US hit in 1986.

Two follow-up singles were released, one in the U.S. ("Crosseyed and Painless") and one in the UK (a remixed version of "Houses in Motion"). "Crosseyed and Painless" falied to chart; "Houses In Motion" was a modest UK hit, peaking at #50.

Cover art

The album cover and liner notes were created by the notable graphic designer, Tibor Kalman. Kalman based the cover artwork on the life story of Tina Weymouth, with a fleet of planes on the back cover representing her childhood as the daughter of a traveling USAF general, and digitally distorted faces of the band members representing her at-the-time current status as a member of the band and the electro-centric direction the band had taken.[2]

Critical reception

In 2003 the TV network VH1 named Remain in Light the 88th greatest album of all time.

In 1989, it was rated #4 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 greatest albums of the 1980s." In 2003, the album was ranked number 126 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.126) - Ranked #126 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time"

It was voted the second best album of the 1980s by Pitchfork Media.

Q magazine (p.129) - Ranked #5 in Q Magazine's "10 Essential Reissues Of 2006."

Vibe (12/99, p.162) - Included in Vibe's 100 Essential Albums of the 20th Century

NME (9/25/93, p.19) - Ranked #11 among The 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s.

NME (10/2/93, p.29) - Ranked #68 in NME's list of the 'Greatest Albums Of All Time.' [3]

Living Colour's Vernon Reid describes its African polyrhythms: "Instead of alienation turning into dark angst it turns into celebration, the dance."

Covers

Phish covered the album in its entirety, maintaining their tradition of performing a "musical costume" for their second, middle set on Halloween. The concert took place on 10/31/1996 at the Omni in Atlanta, GA. This show, in particular the second set cover of Remain in Light, is considered by fans as not only a classic performance, but a major turning point for the band musically. Crosseyed & Painless was the only song kept in rotation after the Halloween show (Phish typically keeps one song from their Halloween costume as a part of their set), and was performed a total of ten more times from 1996-2004 by the band.

Writing credits controversy

Talking Heads and Brian Eno had originally agreed to credit all songs to "David Byrne, Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison and Tina Weymouth."[2] However, after the album was released, the back cover and inner sleeve of the LP credited the writers as "David Byrne, Brian Eno, Talking Heads." To further convolute matters, the sticker labels on each side of the LP credited all songs solely to David Byrne & Brian Eno with the exceptions of "Houses In Motion" and "The Overload," which were credited to Byrne, Eno and Harrison. Later CD editions of the album have reinstated the originally intended writing credits of Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison and Weymouth for all songs.

Reissues

In 2005, it was re-released and remastered by Warner Music Group on their Warner Bros./Sire Records/Rhino Records labels in DualDisc format, with four unfinished outtakes as bonus tracks on the CD side ("Fela's Riff," "Unison", "Double Groove" and "Right Start"). The DVD-Audio includes both stereo and 5.1 surround high resolution (96 kHz/24bit) mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital 5.1 version and videos of the band performing "Crosseyed and Painless" and "Once in a Lifetime" on German television. In Europe, it was released as a CD+DVDA two disc set rather than a single DualDisc. The reissue was produced by Andy Zax with Talking Heads.

Track listing

All songs written by David Byrne, Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth.

Side one

  1. "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" – 5:46
  2. "Crosseyed and Painless" – 4:45
  3. "The Great Curve" – 6:26

Side two

  2. "Once in a Lifetime" – 4:19
  3. "Houses in Motion" – 4:30
  4. "Seen and Not Seen" – 3:20
  5. "Listening Wind" – 4:42
  6. "The Overload" – 6:00

2006 DualDisc reissue previously unreleased bonus tracks

  2. "Fela's Riff" – 5:19
  3. "Unison" – 4:49
  4. "Double Groove" – 4:27
  5. "Right Start" – 4:07

Personnel

Additional personnel

Technical personnel

  • Greg Calbi – mastering engineer
  • Rhett Davies – engineer
  • Brian Eno – producer
  • Dave Jerden – engineer
  • Jack Nuber – engineer
  • John Potoker – engineer
  • Steven Stanley – engineer

Charts

Album
Year Chart Peak
Position
1980 Billboard Pop Albums 19 [4]
1980 UK Albums Chart 21 [5]
Singles
Year Single Chart Peak
Position
1980 "Crosseyed and Painless" /
"Born Under Punches" /
"Once in a Lifetime" 		Billboard Club Play Singles 20 [6]
1981 "Once in a Lifetime" UK Singles Chart 14 [5]
1981 "Houses in Motion" UK Singles Chart 50 [5]
1986 "Once in a Lifetime" Billboard Hot 100 91 [6]

Certifications

Organization Level Date
RIAA – U.S. Gold September 17, 1985 [7]

Notes

  1. ^ Bowman, David (2002) [2001]. This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century (First ed. (pbk.) ed.). New York: HarperCollins. ISBN 0060507314. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
  2. ^ a b Bowman, David (2002) [2001]. This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century (First ed. (pbk.) ed.). New York: HarperCollins. p. 184. ISBN 0060507314. Retrieved 2007-02-18.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ "allmusic (((Remain in Light > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums)))". Retrieved 2008-05-18.
  5. ^ a b c "UK Top 40 Hit Database". Retrieved 2008-05-18.
  6. ^ a b "allmusic (((Remain in Light > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles)))". Retrieved 2008-05-18.
  7. ^ "RIAA Gold and Platinum". Retrieved 2008-05-18.
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