Ian Gittins

This is a relatively engaging read that goes through the history of the enigmatic band 'Talking Heads' using the various albums and songs as a timeline to guide the narrative. The author does a good job of touching on every song released by the band and drawing in anecdotal and contextualizing information to paint a fuller picture of the ongoing development of the band over two decades.

There are some major down sides though. It seems that the author has virtually no direct contact with the band and, as such, his ‘inside information’ is either based on third party sources (magazine interviews and the like) or more simply rumor and innuendo. Further, when it comes to discussing the songs themselves, it is more often than not simply based on a personal impression or interpretation. At times Gittins' incites are quite enlightening, but more often are just unfounded opinionating that could come from any self confessed ‘expert’. Moreover, he often seems to miss the blatantly obvious symbology present in many of Byrne’s lyrics which was very frustrating at times. Admittedly, in Gittins' defense, there are many Heads lyrics that are quite random and could easily be interpreted in many ways.

As a fan of the band I was generally engaged by the subject matter and occasionally quite entertained and informed by some of Gittins' discussion. With such a dearth of quality writing on the Talking Heads, this is about as good as it gets which is a pity. Gittins' work is OK, and definitely worth a read if you’re a fan, but very very limited in most respects and it must be read with this in mind.… (mehr)