David Bowman is the biographer Talking Heads deserves. The Salon.com Reader's Guide to Contemporary Authors says, "There's no writer quite like Bowman...He writes brazenly, without shame--the way a toddler runs in circles through the sprinkler, gleefully naked and free." He was shortlisted as one of Granta's "Best Novelists Under 40" and is the author of the novels Let the Dog Drive and Bunny Modern. As a journalist, Bowman has interviewed musicians as diverse as Lou Reed for the New York Times Magazine and Kris Kristofferson for Salon. Bowman lives in Manhattan. He has a wife. They have a dog.
A freelance music and culture journalist (New York Times Magazine, SPIN), Bowman here chronicles minimalist funk-rock band Talking Heads with their cooperation. He starts with character sketches of the quartet: the quiet, complex, blue-blooded bassist, Tina Weymouth; her artistic drummer-husband, Chris Frantz; the eccentric, nerdy, performance-artist-turned-singer David Byrne; and the Harvard-educated, ex-Modern Lover Jerry Harrison. Throughout, he places the band which formed at the Rhode Island School of Design in 1974 in the context of New York history and contrasts them with their Gotham art-punk contemporaries (e.g., Patti Smith, Television, and the Ramones). His deft analysis of how his subjects intersected with the avant-garde scene of Andy Warhol, composer Philip Glass, dancer Twyla Tharp, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, and ambient Dadaist Brian Eno sets his work apart from Jerome Davis's Talking Heads (1986. o.p.) and David Gans's Talking Heads (1985. o.p.). Recommended for all popular music collections and indispensable for Talking Heads fanatics, as this is the only bona fide biography in print. Dave Szatmary, Univ. of Washington, Seattle Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
Who better than a novelist-cum-music journalist to depict "a group that was completely of its time and totally outside of it"? From the Talking Heads' individual roots to their electrifying collaboration and breakup, Bowman (Bunny Modern) portrays brilliant odd-bird David Byrne, even-keeled and Harvard-educated Jerry Harrison, happy-go-lucky Chris Frantz and enigmatic Tina Weymouth, who told Bowman: "I have to rewrite your book for you.... You know nothing about us." Or maybe he knows more than she'd like? Bowman interviewed them (and 50 others) and studied their every mention e.g., New York Times writeups, Andy Warhol's diary to understand how they got the nation singing "Psycho killer/ Qu'est que c'est/ fa fa fa.... " While their dysfunctions intrigue, their unconventionality, hilarity and creative synergy fascinate. David, Chris and Tina met in art school in the 1970s and later shared a New York City loft. Months after Tina learned bass, the trio opened for the Ramones at CBGB, where a record exec pounced. Rounded out by Jerry's keyboard, they shook underground and mainstream audiences, tempering curious lyrics about religion and politics with infectious melodies. They experimented with African polyrhythms and funk while maintaining New Wave followers. They split up in 1991 while "still sound[ing] like the Next New Thing." Bowman's funny, astute book tells how they pulled it off and why they pulled the plug. Bibliography, discography and filmography included; photos not seen by PW. (Apr.) Forecast: No other Talking Head-ography covers the breakup or beyond. Byrne's forthcoming album will boost reader interest. Bowman's cult-crit banter will appeal to New York music and art scene followers. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
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