Try to imagine that you have never heard the Talking Heads’ cover of “Take Me To The River” by Al Green.[1] And, if possible, try to imagine that you have no idea what a) lead singer David Byrne looks like and b) what his voice sounds like. Now pretend that you have no idea that Talking Heads are comprised of three white dudes and a white girl. Finally, pretend that it is 1978 and I have just told you that this band from New York—some “new wave” type band called Talking Heads, consisting of four white people and an Anglo-French producer (Brian Eno)—has just recorded a cover of Al Green’s “Take Me To The River.”
Your normal guesses before you heard the song would have most likely fallen into one of the three categories. Category One: “This song will most certainly not be good. How could a band of white kids possibly cover Al Green?” Category Two: “This song might be good, but it will probably deface Green’s version in some way.” Category Three: “Why are you even asking me this question? Charlie’s Angels starts in a half an hour. Get away from me.”
Not only is this version of “Take Me To The River” a phenomenal cover, both in terms of a rock group covering an R&B song and of production value, but this song is arguably one of the ten best covers of all time. And it was done by four people who possessed varying degrees of dorky-looking qualities covering a guy who had one of the smoothest voices and presence of his time.
Like countless bands before them Talking Heads are defined to the casual music fan by their frontman, the face of the band, which in this case is David Byrne—a guy whose arsenal of vocalizations, combined with his overall lanky-ness, all conspired to make him into a kind of updated, un-dixie fried version of Carl Perkins. Byrne, like many other musicians, was perfect for and benefited greatly from MTV. The video for “Once In A Lifetime” was like the music video equivalent of Ulysses or the Pop Art movement in terms of its creativity. The song was memorable and catchy to begin with; add the video with its indelible images of Byrne acting like a precursor to Cosmo Kramer and you have an early blueprint for how the fertile landscape of videos would eventually evolve into.[2] (You will also notice that no other band member is in this video.)
Byrne may have been the face of the band and his vocals on “Take Me To The River” are nothing short of outstanding but this song is the consummate example of every member in a band playing in perfect harmony. “Take Me To The River” starts out slow and remains slow until the wonderful and tornadic flourish kicks in and ends the song. But its slow tempo is perfectly executed. Chris Frantz’s drums plod beautifully; Tina Weymouth’s bass lines are crisp and deep; Jerry Harrison’s work with the organ and synthesizer exist within two wonderful spheres: as subdued texture (including the playful melody in the middle of the song) and then a large whirlwind of sound when called upon towards the end—both executions being all the proof you need that electronic keyboards can breathe great life into a song.
Talking Heads would continue to produce some great singles (the aforementioned “Once In A Lifetime,” “Life During Wartime,” “Stay Up Late,” “And She Was” and “Burning Down The House”), a genre-redefining concert documentary (Stop Making Sense), and a critically acclaimed album (Remain In Light) before finally disbanding in the late ’80′s.
They were a band that, when all was said and done, had dipped their fingers in damn near every genre of music. To listen to their studio catalog from beginning to end is an exercise in chameleonism. But it is the simplicity of “Take Me To The River” that is the band’s crown jewel. It not only exists in its own atmosphere in terms of greatest cover songs ever recorded, but it also acts as a great bridge between the late ’70′s CBGG/New York rock and the higher production, synth-pop driven music that would help define the early ’80′s.
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[1] And if you have not heard this song before in the first place (or know who Talking Heads or Al Green are), I’ll just chalk it up to “I’m old, you’re young.”
[2] For anyone who is reading this who is under the age of 25, it is truly impossible to put into words how culturally significant MTV was at one point. Seeing certain music videos for the first time was like an event on par with JFK’s assassination and Nixon’s resignation.
