The guitar that breaks open The Great Curve.
Narrated music history from OffStereo, built around the records that tell it.
Tracklist
- The Great Curve — Talking Heads
- Crosseyed and Painless — Talking Heads
Transcript
The Great Curve — Talking Heads
The way into this story is a guitar part, and the musician's own memory of making it. Adrian Belew's account of working on Remain in Light gives The Great Curve a very specific listening cue. We'll start with that recording, then stay on the album for Crosseyed and Painless. In his Colorado Sound interview, Belew remembers an enthusiastic response while he was still setting up his guitar sounds. He describes being asked to choose where a solo should go. Listen to The Great Curve with that freedom in mind. Follow the arrangement until the guitar takes your attention, and notice what its entrance does to your sense of the whole track. Hear The Great Curve by Talking Heads.
Crosseyed and Painless — Talking Heads
Now stay with Remain in Light for Crosseyed and Painless. This is album context, rather than another claim about Belew's credits. After focusing on one striking entrance, widen the frame: listen to the interaction of the parts and how the vocal sits among them. Two tracks can give a better sense of a record than one famous studio anecdote. Hear Crosseyed and Painless by Talking Heads.
The Great Curve gives that first-person account somewhere to land. Remain in Light is worth continuing on its own. For another direction, ask the DJ to research Belew's earlier work with David Bowie and Brian Eno.