The Talking Heads’ 1980 album, “Remain in Light,” has been named one of the pivotal popular music releases of its era, a dense and forward-thinking work that blends electronic rock with halting African song forms and the repetitive rhythms of Krautrock and hip-hop. In 2017, the Library of Congress chose the eight-song record for preservation in the National Recording Registry, hailing it as a culturally significant work.
But the birth of this classic set of songs, helmed by producer Brian Eno and Heads frontman David Byrne, was difficult, says sideman guitarist Adrian Belew.
“When I came in to work on the record, and I did everything in one day, they had nothing,” he told Style Weekly last year. “It was just chords and a drum beat. They didn’t have vocals, nothing. They were kind of stuck and later Jerry [Harrison, Talking Heads keyboardist] told me that they were at the point of nearly giving up.”
More than forty years later, Belew and Harrison reunited, supported by a band called Turkuaz, to pay tribute to the album for three performances. The reception of those shows was so enthusiastic that it has spurred a full-fledged U.S. tour (originally halted by the pandemic) that includes a stop in Richmond on Tuesday, June 6 at Brown’s Island. Harrison and Belew, under the band name Remain in Light, will open up for Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, which will be paying tribute to another memorable rock album, Pink Floyd’s 1977 release, “Animals,” as part of its set; frequent Claypool collaborator Sean Lennon will be a part of the Brigade.
“It’s a show that’s upbeat and really fun,” Harrison told Glide Magazine earlier this year. “You can dance to it and it’s really largely about the music. I think that everyone that is a fan of that album and a fan of Adrian and a Talking Heads fan, it’ll be joyful and fun.”
Belew doesn’t use the word “fun” to describe the recording process of “Remain in Light.” When he arrived at Sigma Sound studios in New York to augment basic tracks that the Talking Heads had recorded at Compass Studios in Nassau — recording all of his guitar parts in one day — he found a group in turmoil.
“Chris [Franz, drummer] and Tina [Weymouth, bassist] didn’t show up,” he recalls. “I didn’t realize there was tension at the time. It was when they asked me to join them later for the world tour that it became very obvious to me that there was a direct split in the band, David and Brian Eno on one side, Chris and Tina on the other, and Jerry neutral. But they loved me and I loved them and I wasn’t about to take sides. Basically, it was all about [who got] credit for the work. But it didn’t affect the quality of the music, or the performances.”
Even though the record spawned a radio hit, “Once in a Lifetime,” that came with an iconic music video, “Remain in Light” feels today like a continuous piece of music. The jittery, metronomic heartbeat of songs such as “Crosseyed and Painless” and “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” was built on music made to sound like sampled sound loops but was actually the band locking into circular grooves and finding drama and dynamics in the repetition.
The members of Radiohead, in particular, took notice, and have cited “Remain in Light” as a huge influence on their 2000 album, “Kid A,” which has been called one of the pivotal albums released so far this century. On many of the songs, guitarist Jonny Greenwood told the Consequence website in 2016, “the band plays the same exact [same] thing for five minutes, which is really interesting. And that’s why it’s not exhausting to listen to because you’re not hearing the same piece of music over and over again. You’re hearing it slightly differently every time. There’s a lesson there.”
According to Harrison, Belew’s one-day studio appearance ignited the record when things were at a low creative point. “It’s not like we had a lot of time … I think Eno said, ‘Well Adrian, just go out there and listen and when you feel like a solo might come in just start playing.’ (laughs). I think we began with ‘The Great Curve,’ which I think is one of his most amazing solos of all time, you know.”
The Remain in Light band will perform the album in its entirety at Brown’s Island, filling out the set with other Talking Heads songs, like “Slippery People,” and a few scattered tracks from Harrison’s 1988 solo album, “Casual Gods,” and Belew’s stint with King Crimson.
Belew is an excellent singer as well as a master guitarist, and his vocal style is similar to lead singer Byrne. “The show we’ve put together is everything we hoped for and more,” he stated in a press announcement when the tour was announced. “An awesome group of players and singers faithfully and lovingly reliving the music of a historic time.”
Remain in Light will perform with Les Claypool’s Fearless Flying Frog Brigade on Brown’s Island on Tuesday, June 6. Opens at 6 p.m. All Ages. Tickets $49.50-$199. venturerichmond.com
Editor’s note: And then there’s Richmond’s own Talking Heads tribute band, Fear of Music, that we’d argue is still the best in the world, even though they don’t have actual former Heads in the band. Remain in Light should seriously consider inviting Nate Griffith onstage to sing the big hit, “Once in A Lifetime.” He sounds more like David Byrne that David Byrne does. If you can’t make it to the Brown’s Island show, you can catch Fear of Music on Thursday, June 8 at the Get Tight Lounge.
