Overview

On the 50th anniversary of Talking Heads, acclaimed music biographer Jonathan Gould presents the long-overdue, definitive story of this singular band, capturing the gritty energy of 1970s New York City and showing how a group of art students brought fringe culture to rock's mainstream, forever changing the look and sound of popular music. ""Psycho Killer."" ""Take Me to the River."" ""Road to Nowhere."" Few musical artists have had the lasting impact and relevance of Talking Heads. One of the foundational bands of New York's downtown 1970s music scene, Talking Heads have endured as a musical and cultural force for decades. Their unique brand of transcendent, experimental rock remains a lingering influence on popular music--despite their having disbanded over thirty years ago. Now New Yorker contributor Jonathan Gould offers an authoritative, deeply researched account of a band whose sound, fame, and legacy forever connected rock music to the cultural avant-garde. From their art school origins to the enigmatic charisma of David Byrne and the internal tensions that ultimately broke them apart, Gould tells the story of a group that emerged when rock music was still young and went on to redefine the prevailing expectations of how a band could sound, look, and act. At a time when guitar solos, lead-singer swagger, and sweaty stadium tours reigned supreme, Talking Heads were precocious, awkward, quirky, and utterly distinctive when they first appeared on the ragged stages of the East Village. Yet they would soon mature into one of the most accomplished and uncompromising recording and performing acts of their era. More than just a biography of a band, Gould masterfully captures the singular time and place that incubated and nurtured this original music: downtown New York in the 1970s, that much romanticized, little understood milieu where art, music, and commerce collided in the urban dystopia of Lower Manhattan. What emerges is an expansive portrait of a unique cultural moment and an iconoclastic band that shifted the paradigm of popular music by burning down the house of mainstream rock.

Full Product Details

9798228469723

Table of Contents

Reviews

Author Information

Jonathan Gould is a writer and a former professional musician. A contributing writer for The New Yorker, he is the author of Can't Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America and Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life. He currently divides his time between Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Livingston, NY. Jason Culp has been acting since the age of ten, and his credits include a variety of television, theater, and film roles. He is best known for his role as Julian Gerome on General Hospital. In addition to voiceover work in national commercials, Culp has narrated audiobooks by bestselling authors such as Louis L'Amour, Danielle Steel, John Irving, and David Weber.He has been recording since 1996 and has nearly 35 audiobooks under his belt.Culp has also narrated documentaries for National Geographic and the History Channel.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available