After relocating from Rhode Island to New York City in early 1975, singer/guitarist David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz, and bassist Tina Weymouth began recording early demos with their friend, J.R. Rost to get an idea of what they sounded like; those recordings open the collection.
That September, at the request of Mark Spector, they recorded an album’s worth of demos at CBS Studios. The session didn’t result in a contract, but it did preserve early versions of songs that would form the backbone of Talking Heads’ first two albums: “Don’t Worry About The Government,” “The Book I Read,” “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel,” and “Stay Hungry.”
Tentative Decisions also uncovers a cache of live recordings from 1976 and 1977. The October 1976 performance at Max’s Kansas City took place just a few weeks before the group met with Seymour Stein and signed to Sire Records. A few months later, the January 1977 show at The Jabberwocky Club in Syracuse would be among the last by the original trio before Jerry Harrison joined in March.
The earliest recordings on Tentative Decisions reach back to The Artistics, the band Frantz and Byrne formed while they were students at the Rhode Island School of Design. Recorded in 1974 at Frantz’s apartment on Benefit Street in Providence, the demo represents the earliest known recordings of “Psycho Killer” and “Warning Sign.”
In the liner notes, Frantz says The Artistics’ aspiration to become the RISD house band—entertaining friends with covers of The Kinks, Motown, and Al Green—changed when they began writing their own songs. “One day, David knocked on the door of the painting studio Tina and I shared,” Frantz recalls. “He played us the first verse and chorus of ‘Psycho Killer,’ which sounded promising.” Byrne asked Weymouth, who spoke French, to write lyrics for the bridge while Frantz added some verses—and so it began.
Track Listing (3CD):
Disc One
“Psycho Killer” (September 1975 Demo)
“Tentative Decisions” (September 1975 Demo)
“No Compassion” (September 1975 Demo)
“Warning Sign” (September 1975 Demo)
“I’m Not in Love” (1976 Demo)
“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” (1976 Demo)
“The Book I Read” (1976 Demo)
“I Wish You Wouldn’t Say That” (1976 Demo)
“Love Goes To A Building On Fire” (1976 Demo)
“Happy Day” (1976 Demo)
“Artists Only” (Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, New York, NY, 8/17/76)
“Psycho Killer” – The Artistics
“Warning Sign” – The Artistics
Disc Two
CBS Demos (September 1975)
“Psycho Killer” *
“Sugar On My Tongue” *
“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” *
“I Want To Live” *
“I Wish You Wouldn’t Say That” *
“The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” *
“Who Is It?” *
“With Our Love” *
“Stay Hungry” *
“Tentative Decisions” *
“Warning Sign” *
“I’m Not In Love” *
“The Book I Read” *
“Love Goes To A Building On Fire” *
“No Compassion” *
Disc Three
Live at Max’s Kansas City, New York, NY (10/9/76)
“Artists Only” *
“1, 2, 3 Red Light” *
“Happy Day” *
“Don’t Worry About The Government” *
“Psycho Killer” *
“Love Goes To A Building On Fire” *
“Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” *
“With Our Love” *
“Pablo Picasso” *
“I’m Not In Love” *
Live at the Jabberwocky Club, Syracuse, NY (1/26/77)
“No Compassion” *
“New Feeling” *
“Psycho Killer” *
“A Clean Break (Let’s Work)” *
“Sugar On My Tongue” *
Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, New York, NY (8/17/76)
“I Wish You Wouldn’t Say That” *
“Take Me To The River” *
* Previously Unreleased
To purchase: amazon.com
George Paul
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