Most of you were aware of the hype that surrounded the announcement of the breakup of REM. While I mourned the end of an exciting musical ride and another sign of my middle age, it also brought back memories of other bands gone by.
Some bands stick around well past their prime and turn into a sad spectacle (feel free to mentally add your list here). I will keep my list to myself for now. Perhaps a future blog will feature bands that should have called it quits sooner. Other bands find their end under tragic circumstances, The Minutemen and Nirvana come to mind. Rarely have we gotten notice like we did when the boys from Athens, GA called it quits. More often than not, they just f…..a…..d….e.. away while you’re busy building a career or raising kids or moving into your first house. They even slip your mind until that one day when you turn on the radio and hear “that” song you loved five years ago. Or was it 10? Holy shit, I think it WAS ten years ago.
At one time I had seen Talking Heads,(not The Talking Heads as they are sometimes called) as many times as I had seen the Grateful Dead. I had seen them in small clubs, large venues, and the Philadelphia Zoo. I had digested every ounce of their music, bootleg and official with the gusto of thirsty man with a one ounce cup at a beer festival. I knew their names and could discuss the musical difference between Talking Heads 77 and More Songs About Buildings and Food. And when in 1979 they released Fear of Music, I listened and listened until the needle screamed for me to stop. I remained loyal to their offerings in 80 83, 84 and 85. I strongly encouraged everyone I knew who liked music to see them live. And then……..
They were gone. Somewhere between post college and the birth of Jennifer, we went our separate ways. David Byrne decided he didn’t want to play with Chris, Tina and Jerry anymore. They didn’t make a huge announcement or invite me to a farewell show. They just left. As I offered up my record collection to Jenny and her siblings, Jake and Kelly, I got very sad. Sad because this was the band I wanted to share live with them. This was the spirit of rock and roll and soul that we should all share. The Grateful Dead was mine, Talking Heads should have been ours.
So, enter the 90’s where bands of the 80’s reunited and toured with huge sets and exorbitant ticket prices. While my Heads remained out of the limelight. Quiet and resting for a triumphant small club return? Waiting through 1995 then 2000. And when they reunited for three songs at their induction into the rock and roll hall of fame, hope sprang eternal. Until, David Byrne referring to why they would never tour said “We did have a lot of bad blood go down. That’s one reason, and another is that musically we’re just miles apart.” Followed by Tina Weymouth describing Byrne as “a man incapable of returning friendship”.
Here we are 28 years since I saw Talking Heads onstage for the last time. I am left with a VHS copy of their acclaimed concert video, Stop Making Sense, to watch over and over. To convey the sense of enjoyment in the crowd to kids who have been to rock festivals and been bowled over by thirty minute sets by the days superstars who have since faded into oblivion after one hit. They can’t feel the two and a half hour extravaganza of a Heads show by watching it on VHS on a thirty seven inch television. But thankfully, I still can.
Add your band names to this list of bands/artists gone but not forgotten:
Ramones,The Clash,Thin Lizzy,