Do radio stations in your town tend to play live versions of Talking Heads hits and if so do you think this is a sort of attempt to flatten out the weirdness of Talking Heads and make their music mor

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It seems like I always hear the live version of "Psycho Killer" from Stop Making Sense and then the other day a local station did an hour feature on the group and when they played "Psycho Killer" it was a different live version (must have been the one from that earlier live album, I guess). Rarely, do I hear the studio version.

The Jack station here just played the live version of "Life During Wartime."

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:04 (twenty years ago)

Roland 808 and Bernie Worrell action

― senseiDancer (sexyDancer), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:08 (twenty years ago)

yes the rock stations round here ALWAYS used to do this, especially with that "psycho killer" from stop making sense. that is, when they used to get play round here, I have not heard any talking heads on the radio for a good 10 years.

― haitch (haitch), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:12 (twenty years ago)

The live "LDW" gets played on the radio about 100 times more often than the Fear of Music version. I remember loving the song as a kid and then having my mind blown when I actually heard the studio version for the first time around age 10. Basically, if it was featured in Stop Making Sense it will get played on the radio more often than its studio counterpart.

― Dave Depper (Dave Depper), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:14 (twenty years ago)

The only TH I used to hear on the AOR station here in Miami were the three Top 40 hits ("Wild Wild Life," "Burning Down the House," "Take Me to the River"), "And She Was" and maybe "Once in a Lifetime."

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:22 (twenty years ago)

They did the same fucking thing to Peter Frampton.

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:24 (twenty years ago)

Cheap Trick, too.

― Zwan (miccio), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:24 (twenty years ago)

Not to shoot down any man-keepin'-the-music-down theories, but Stop Making Sense was considerably more popular than the studio albums on which many of its tracks appeared. Popular radio is usually interested in playing the popular versions of songs.

― Thomas Tallis (Tommy), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:25 (twenty years ago)

Unfortunately, I've been hearing a live version of "Hotel California" a lot, at the gym, for instance, and more recently on a music video channel in a Chinese restaurant (alongside Chinese versions of English language songs, alongside inexplicable English language covers of English language songs, which seemed to be done just for this Chinese video channel).

(I sort of remember prefering the version of Psycho Killer from TNOTBITH to the original studio version, but I don't think I prefered the SMS version to the studio version.)

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:30 (twenty years ago)

See also: Solsbury Hill from Peter Gabriel Plays Live - but I'd be surprised if there wasn't another thread about this "songs that were bigger hits live" type phenomenon.

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:32 (twenty years ago)

Most of those English language covers of English language songs (which seemed like they might have been sung by Chinese singers) were awful, but the waitress was singing along with such enthusiasm (the restaurant was relatively empty) that it all seemed okay. But I don't understand the Chinese popular music sensibility at all.

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:32 (twenty years ago)

There was a live Ricky Martin video too (the ole ole ole one).

― Rockist_Scientist (RSLaRue), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:33 (twenty years ago)

sykoklr kzkz :))
runx6 away
g2g

― (oh it's the xpost!) (Øystein), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:35 (twenty years ago)

For what it's worth, the live version of "Life During Wartime" was released as a single. Maybe that's why it gets played more often?

― everything, Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:44 (twenty years ago)

Over here (Belgium) the single was probably Slippery People, because that's the only one that still gets played, as far as I can tell.

― StanM (StanM), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:51 (twenty years ago)

This is true. It and Little Creatures are the Heads' two biggest U.S. albums.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Thursday, 23 March 2006 23:56 (twenty years ago)

Does anybody know if "Purple Rain" was actually live, or if it was just made to sound that way? Although I guess in case of the former there wouldn't be a "studio" version.

I can't think of any other examples like the Talking Heads.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Friday, 24 March 2006 00:06 (twenty years ago)

i remember mostly hearing the TH studio versions on the NYC rock stations. but WNEW DJs had a little more leeway to play what they liked.

― s/c (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 24 March 2006 00:09 (twenty years ago)

Does anybody know if "Purple Rain" was actually live, or if it was just made to sound that way? Although I guess in case of the former there wouldn't be a "studio" version.

I'm pretty sure it IS live (so is "Baby, I'm A Star"), recorded on a mobile truck's equipment.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 24 March 2006 00:13 (twenty years ago)

"Stop Making Sense was considerably more popular than the studio albums on which many of its tracks appeared. Popular radio is usually interested in playing the popular versions of songs."

Yeah. It does seem conservative of alternative stations to rely on these, though, when they do have their own canons of punk/new wave oldies that were not big hits. (Although the alt. stations where I live do play the studio version of LDW, so I guess I'm just really complaining about having to hear the SMS version of "Psycho Killer" all the time.)

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 24 March 2006 00:20 (twenty years ago)

Anyone want to explain why the SMS versions are supposedly more "conservative" than the studio versions. So the live versions are roughed up up by a large gang of black funk musicians and backing vocalists etc - possibly in the 80's the idea of funk music on rock stations was more subversive than playing the superclean studio versions (which more or less reflect a typical sound of the time)?

― everything, Friday, 24 March 2006 00:27 (twenty years ago)

Well with "Psycho Killer," it's just having to hear that clever live version where he comes out with the acoustic guitar and the beat box, though.

― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Friday, 24 March 2006 00:32 (twenty years ago)

that album has so many studio touchups and overdubs on it it's barely live anyway (same with that peter gabriel album). I used to love Stop Making Sense but it seems really overly slick to me now, slicker than the studio versions certainly. I can't listen to it. I hate the way the songs end, particularly. some things just sound better when they fade out.

― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 24 March 2006 00:37 (twenty years ago)

I'm with you on that. It sounds like the Paul Shaffer Orchestra occasionally.

― everything, Friday, 24 March 2006 00:52 (twenty years ago)

I must say: its luster has dimmed since The Name of this Band is Talking Heads was reissued.

― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn (Alfred Soto), Friday, 24 March 2006 01:12 (twenty years ago)

"Purple Rain" (and "Baby I'm a Star", oh, and "I would die 4 U") were all recorded live (albeit overdubbed, and in the case of "Purple Rain", cut down from over 15 minutes long). There's a nice bootleg called "Prince live at First Avenue 83" (or some variant), the same concert from which the three songs are taken from (the concert also acts as Wendy's debut).

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Friday, 24 March 2006 09:48 (twenty years ago)

the commercial station I used to work at almost always played the studio versions of TH songs, the SMS versions were more for fun. We probably had a dozen songs in regular rotation and a dozen more that would come up less often. The alternative station here plays a live version of "Jane Says" that totally hurts my ears, it's so tinny. I think Pride (In The Name Of Love) and Sunday Bloody Sunday are another couple where the live version gets played pretty often, I remember one or both were also released as videos?

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 24 March 2006 15:30 (twenty years ago)

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