True Stories is the seventh album released by
Talking HeadsTalking Heads was an American rock band formed in 1974 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
in 1986; it was released at the same time as the
David ByrneDavid Byrne is a Scottish-American musician and artist best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1974 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo projects on record, and worked in a variety of media, including...
film of the same name,
True StoriesTrue Stories is an American musical film directed by and starring musician David Byrne. It also stars John Goodman and Swoosie Kurtz, and was released in the US, Canada and Sweden in 1986 ....
.
The album does not contain the actors' performances from the film, and as such is not considered a true soundtrack album. Byrne stated in an interview that the decision not to release these unique renditions (including performances by
John GoodmanJohn Stephen Goodman is an American actor. He is best known for his role on the television series Roseanne, as well as his film work with the Coen brothers.-Early life:...
and
Pops StaplesRoebuck "Pops" Staples was a Mississippi-born Gospel and R&B musician.A "pivotal figure in gospel in the 1960s and 70s," he was an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and singer...
) is a major regret.
True Stories is the seventh album released by
Talking HeadsTalking Heads was an American rock band formed in 1974 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
in 1986; it was released at the same time as the
David ByrneDavid Byrne is a Scottish-American musician and artist best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1974 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo projects on record, and worked in a variety of media, including...
film of the same name,
True StoriesTrue Stories is an American musical film directed by and starring musician David Byrne. It also stars John Goodman and Swoosie Kurtz, and was released in the US, Canada and Sweden in 1986 ....
.
The album does not contain the actors' performances from the film, and as such is not considered a true soundtrack album. Byrne stated in an interview that the decision not to release these unique renditions (including performances by
John GoodmanJohn Stephen Goodman is an American actor. He is best known for his role on the television series Roseanne, as well as his film work with the Coen brothers.-Early life:...
and
Pops StaplesRoebuck "Pops" Staples was a Mississippi-born Gospel and R&B musician.A "pivotal figure in gospel in the 1960s and 70s," he was an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and singer...
) is a major regret. Instead, this is a Talking Heads studio album featuring recordings of songs from the
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
. While an original cast recording for this movie was never released, several of the film performances did appear on single releases of several songs from the album. An early working title for the project (endorsed by bassist
Tina WeymouthMartina Michèle "Tina" Weymouth is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the influential New Wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club .-Profile:Weymouth is of French heritage on her mother's side...
) was
Wild Infancy.
Later, lead singer Byrne released the album
Sounds from True StoriesSounds from True Stories, subtitled Music for Activities Freaks is the soundtrack to David Byrne's 1986 film True Stories. It was released only on cassette and LP.-Tracks:...
containing
incidental musicA film score is an alternative word used for the background music of a film . The term soundtrack is often confused with film score, though a soundtrack may also include songs featured in the film as well as previously released music by other artists, while the score does not...
from the soundtrack.
The single "Wild Wild Life" became the big hit from the album, accompanied by its
videoA music video is a short film or video that accompanies a complete piece of music/song. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings. Although the origins of music videos go back much further, they came into their own in the...
airplay on
MTVMTV is a cable television network based in New York City and launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs...
. The "Wild Wild Life" video won two MTV Video Music Awards in 1987: "Best Group Video", beating U2 and Crowded House, and "Best Video from a Film". (The video is in fact an extended sequence lifted directly from the film itself). A video for "Love for Sale" was created for use in the film (during a sequence when a woman watches the video on TV), and an extended version was later released as a video in its own right.
In 2006, it was re-released and remastered by Warner Music Group on their Warner Bros./Sire Records/Rhino Records labels in
DualDiscDualDisc is a type of double-sided optical disc product developed by a group of record companies including EMI Music, Universal Music Group, Sony/BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and 5.1 Entertainment Group and now under the aegis of the Recording Industry Association of America...
format, with three bonus tracks on the CD side (an extended mix of "Wild Wild Life," "Papa Legba" with vocal by
Pops StaplesRoebuck "Pops" Staples was a Mississippi-born Gospel and R&B musician.A "pivotal figure in gospel in the 1960s and 70s," he was an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and singer...
, and "Radio Head" with vocals by
Tito Larriva-Early life:Larriva was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, and El Paso, Texas. As a child he played the violin in the school orchestra and sang in the church and school choirs where he met his wife Janet Carroll. Rumor has it that in 1972 Larriva snuck into Yale...
). The
DVD-AudioDVD-Audio is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio is not intended to be a video delivery format and is not the same as video DVDs containing concert films or music videos. The first discs entered the marketplace in 2000...
side includes both stereo and 5.1 surround high resolution (96 kHz/24bit) mixes, as well as a Dolby Digital version and the videos of "Wild Wild Life" and "Love for Sale." In Europe, it was released as a CD+DVDA two disc set rather than a single DualDisc. The reissue was produced by
Andy ZaxAndy Zax is a former co-star of the Comedy Central game show Beat the Geeks on which he played the Music Geek. He is a music historian and producer of CD boxed sets and reissues by Talking Heads, Rod Stewart, Echo & the Bunnymen, Television, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Judee Sill, John Cale, Nico,...
with Talking Heads.
Track listing
All songs written by David Byrne:
- "Love for Sale" – 4:30
- "Puzzlin' Evidence" – 5:23
- "Hey Now" – 3:42
- "Papa Legba" – 5:54
- "Wild Wild Life
"Wild Wild Life" was a single from the Talking Heads album True Stories. It was released in 1986.It was also covered by Wailing Souls for the 1993 movie Cool Runnings....
" – 3:39
- "Radio Head" – 3:14
- "Dream Operator" – 4:39
- "People Like Us" – 4:26
- "City of Dreams" – 5:06
- "Wild Wild Life (Extended Mix) [CD bonus track] – 5:30
- "Papa Legba (Pops Staples
Roebuck "Pops" Staples was a Mississippi-born Gospel and R&B musician.A "pivotal figure in gospel in the 1960s and 70s," he was an accomplished songwriter, guitarist and singer...
Vocal Version) [Re-release bonus track] – 5:59
- "Radio Head (Tito Larriva
-Early life:Larriva was born in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, and grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, and El Paso, Texas. As a child he played the violin in the school orchestra and sang in the church and school choirs where he met his wife Janet Carroll. Rumor has it that in 1972 Larriva snuck into Yale...
Vocal Version) [Re-release bonus track] – 3:50
Of the above, "Love for Sale", "Wild Wild Life" and "City of Dreams" are the only recordings that actually appear in the film. On screen, the other songs are performed by the film actors.
Talking Heads
- David Byrne
David Byrne may refer to:*David Byrne , musician and former Talking Heads frontman**David Byrne , his eponymous album*David Byrne , Irish footballer...
– guitarThe guitar is a musical instrument with ancient roots that adapts readily to a wide variety of musical styles. It typically has six strings, but four-, seven-, eight-, ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen- and eighteen-string guitars also exist. The size and shape of the neck and the base of the guitar...
, vocals
- Chris Frantz
Chris Frantz is an American musician and producer. He was the drummer for both Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club.- Career :...
– drumThe drum is a member of the percussion group of music instruments, technically classified as a membranophone.. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a shell and struck, either directly with parts of a player's body, or with some sort of...
s
- Tina Weymouth
Martina Michèle "Tina" Weymouth is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the influential New Wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club .-Profile:Weymouth is of French heritage on her mother's side...
– bassThe electric bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a plectrum....
, backing vocals
- Jerry Harrison
Jerry Harrison is an American songwriter, musician and producer...
– keyboards, guitar, backing vocals
Additional musicians
- Bert Cross Choir – vocals on "Puzzlin' Evidence"
- Tommy Camfield – fiddle
The term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, including the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
on "People Like Us"
- Paulinho Da Costa
Paulinho da Costa is a Brazilian percussionist born in Rio de Janeiro, considered one of the most recorded musicians of modern times...
– percussionA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound by being hit with an implement, shaken, rubbed, scraped, or by any other action which sets the object into vibration...
on "Papa Legba", "Radio Head", and "People Like Us"
- Steve Jordan
Esteban "Steve" Jordan is a conjunto and Tejano musician from the United States. He is also known as "El Parche", "The Jimi Hendrix of the accordion", and "the accordion wizard". An accomplished musician, he plays 35 different instruments.Born in Texas to migrant farm workers and partially...
– accordionThe accordion is a portable box-shaped musical instrument of the hand-held bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox...
on "Radio Head"
- St. Thomas Aquinas Elementary School Choir – vocals on "Hey Now"
- Tommy Morrell – pedal steel guitar
The pedal steel guitar is a type of electric guitar that uses a metal slide to stop or shorten the length of the strings, rather than fingers on strings as with a conventional guitar. Unlike other types of steel guitar, it uses foot pedals and knee levers to affect the pitch, hence its name...
on "People Like Us" and "City of Dreams"
Recording personnel
- Charles Brocco – assistant mixing
- Paul Christiensen – overdubbing engineer on "Puzzlin' Evidence"
- Nick del Ray – assistant engineers
- Mick Guzauski
Mick Guzauski is a multi-platinum production sound mixer and sound engineer.Guzauski's work spans a wide range of styles, including jazz, R&B, Latin, rock, pop, and easy listening...
– mixing on "Wild Wild Life"
- Lee Herschburg – mixing on "People Like Us"
- Robin Laine – assistant mixing
- Michael McClain – overdubbing engineer on "Hey Now", "Radio Head", "People Like Us", and "City of Dreams"
- Tom Nist – assistant mixing
- Jack Skinner – mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
- Eric Thorngren – engineer, mixing, overdubbing
- Melanie West – assistant engineers
- Mike Nicholson – engineer on "Wild Wild Life"
In Popular Culture
- British
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
band RadioheadRadiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their first single, "Creep", in 1992...
took their name from the song "Radio Head" on this album. They also name Talking Heads as a big influence in their music.
- In the novel American Psycho
American Psycho is a psychological thriller and satirical novel by Bret Easton Ellis. The story is told in the first person by fictitious serial killer and Manhattan businessman Patrick Bateman. The graphic violence and sexual content generated much commentary at the novel's release...
, this Talking Heads album is the one that Patrick BatemanPatrick Bateman is a fictional character, the antihero and narrator of the novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis and its film adaptation.-Biography and profile:...
plays throughout the start of the story.
Chart performance
Album
| Year |
Chart |
Position |
| 1986 |
UK Albums |
7 |
Singles
| Year |
Single |
Chart |
Position |
| 1986 |
"Wild Wild Life" |
UK Singles |
43 |
| 1987 |
"Radio Head" |
UK Singles |
52 |