Talking Heads
UCLA December 1978
De-clicked!
01 The Big Country
02 Warning Sign
03 Stay Hungry
04 Artists Only
05 The Girls Want To Be With The Girls
06 Love Comes To Buildings On Fire
07 Electricity
08 Psycho Killer
09 Take Me To The River
10 I'm Not In Love
I have a love/hate relationship with Talking Heads bootlegs.
Some just don't capture the excitement of the band, or (whisper it) the band just weren't 'sparking' on the song(s) concerned.
BUT, and it's an important but, there are many inspired and brilliant performances too, thankfully.
Personally I enjoy compiling my own 'best ofs' for any given year or tour, and will be doing that.
In the meantime, as I was working through Talking Heads 1978 recordings my work in progress on a couple of recordings
seemed too pleasing not to share. That's not over-glamourising my efforts, just saying a little work has polished
the diamond that was already there.
There are some damn fine performances in this gig! To me, it sounds more exciting and 'closer' to the performance than a lot of FM gigs.
I wasn't over-happy with the track splitting here, but as the gaps between certain tracks was virtually non existant,
I left that as is.
All I have done on this is de-clicking. Part of me wanted to try addressing the right bias in the balance but the balance
of the recording wanders anyway and it's still solid and powerful stereo recording, so I've left that for another time,
for my own 1978 compilation, perhaps. Also I am aware there are people out there who are experienced in fine tuning matters
such as 'centre-ing' a vocal in the stereo picture. If anyone fancied doing that I'd be fascinated to hear the result.
So, this has a little more of the annoying vinyl clicks than on the 'Electrically' torrent that I found - there were still too many for me. I used Click Repair - not freeware, but not expensive and I highly recommend it. I use 30 setting for any
recording that has quite a few treble frequencies - and David Byrne's voice means it does. However careful vetting revealed
it sounded fine.
If this is for you, enjoy.
LOST HEADS!
Like another Talking Heads collector I've lost some of my files in a hard drive crash.
Please share more Talking Heads if you can.
In particular FM shows - such as Amsterdam 1977, Berkeley Performance Centre 1979.
Original text file (relating to this part of the recording - it is half of the double 'Electricity' LP).
Talking Heads
Electrically (1979) 2S 712
Beacon Island Records
MFG & DIST by Shoestring Songs Ltd. a Sunset Communications Company Sunset Ltd.
Post Office Box 4937
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
David Byrne: Guitar & Vocals
Jerry Harrison: Guitar & Keyboards
Martina Weymouth: Bass Guitar
Chris Frantz: Percussion
I transferred these from the vinyl albums that I purchased Nov 1981.
Technics SL-6 > Technics SA-EX110 > VIA AC'97 > CE2k(wav) > flac
No NR was used, I painstakingly went through the manual process of silencing the many pops and clicks inherrent on each track of the vinyl. I by no means got them all, but removed the most annoying and major offenders.
(UCLA Dec. 1978)
Side 1:
d1t01 The Big Country
d1t02 Warning Sign
d1t03 Stay Hungry
d1t04 Artists Only
d1t05 The Girls Want To Be With The Girls
Side 2:
d1t06 Love Comes To Buildings On Fire
d1t07 Electricity
d1t08 Psycho Killer
d1t09 Take Me To The River
d1t10 I'm Not In Love