Yes.

I considered suing the Talking Heads for plagiarism, because I stopped making sense LONG before they did... also I had a suit that size, but it fit me perfectly...

But it was the "Speaking in Tongues" album that I could really relate to, because my life at the time was zig-zagging between "This Must Be The Place" and "Burning Down the House".

I see you that but really, I raise you one "Naked." That album is a titan, and doesn't get its due. But no, the music of "stop making sense" is absolutely iconic for a certain swath of us.

I really like Talking Heads and "Stop Making Sense," but I remember when I was a kid it seriously bugged the shit out of me to hear people say "You should listen to Talking Heads... because David Byrne has a genius-level IQ."

I remember thinking, that's such a lame reason to like anything by anyone. In fact, knowing that his IQ was publicized at some point and was a persuasive contributor to some people's taste in music actually tainted my appreciation for later Talking Heads and David Byrne projects, including his awesome compilations of Brazilian music.

Which is of course wholly unreasonable -- now I understand that taste is as varied as are taste's motivations -- but that's just how it was. Growing up takes time and experience.

I've always had a problem with modern genius worship. As far as I'm concerned there are only seven geniuses worth consideration:

Uanna, who finished the plans for heaven and earth,
Uannedugga, who was endowed with comprehensive intelligence,
Enmedugga, who was allotted a good fate,
Enmegalamma, who was born in a house,
Enmebulugga, who grew up on pasture land,
An-Enlilda, the conjurer of the city of Eridu,
and Utuabzu, who ascended to heaven.

Hell, yes.

That's interesting - I never heard that genius thing about him.

I'm a big Talking Heads fan and have owned all their albums in one format or another over the years but have never actually watched that whole movie.

yea Miko I was among the cohort who was really turned off by Talking Heads because not only were they incredibly overplayed in the sorts of public hangouts Young LFR was wont to hangout in, there were a certain subset of (older, mostly) college graduate student types (proto-hipsters, I'd have to say) who were all "zomg they're SO DEEP and INCREDIBLY RELEVANT and DID YOU READ THIS ESSAY blablabla" and I was like, um, yea, fuck that, I'll just go listen to the Smiths until you come down off your high horse about it.

see also: REM.

so yea basically if I never hear either of those bands ever again I won't cry about it.

I love love love them since I first heard them live when I was a tiny citrus bud. Always will.

(I hadn't heard that genius thing either, which is just as well.)

Nope. I was in the Marines then, stationed in California, and with that haircut, I was a natural fit for the San Diego hardcore scene. This was about seven years before they turned into wannabe nazis.

I think I heard the genius thing by way of Trouser Press, which would have been '79ish.

{ Trouser Press, btw, is an excellent alternate resource for punk and new wave. The earliest issues focused on the British scene almost exclusively. }