Wednesday, August 17, 2016

40 Year Itch : Tipping Over Backwards


Talking Heads : The Book I Read (live)



On August 17, 1976 Talking Heads played "The Book I Read" at their gig in the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club in Tribeca. More significantly, it was one of the first times Jerry Harrison performed with the band. The former Modern Lover had quit the music business to lecture at Harvard when his old bandmate, Ernie Brooks, gave Heads bassist Tina Weymouth Harrison's number. She convinced him to see a gig in Boston and later to practice with Talking Heads and even play a few gigs in New York. Harrison would later say "I saw something in them and I knew straight away. I saw what the group needed : me!"

  The live version of "The Bool I Read" features a saxophone solo by Fletcher Buckley.




In November Seymour Stein's Sire Records would sign Talking Heads with a $15,000 advance.


Byrne has already played one fairly legendary show at the Ocean Club in July of 1976. It was a John Cale and Friends show featuring Lou Reed, Patti Smith, Chris Spedding and, in the audience, Andy Warhol. Below they jam together on the Velvet Underground chestnut "I'm Waiting For The Man". More about that gig can be found via Aquarium Drunkard.



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