FURLOUGHED in 1981 while frontman David Byrne made a solo LP, Talking Heads’ husband-and-wife rhythm section, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, soon discovered that their own plans to record an album were not being taken seriously. Their label, Sire, offered them a vaguely insulting $10,000 advance, while their producer of choice, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, decided at the last minute that he would only turn up to work with them if he was “paid a thousand dollars an hour”.
A break from gigging cost the Heads a slot at Live Aid
The newly christened Tom Tom Club made their own arrangements and - recording instead for Island - scored massive global hits with “Wordy Rappinghood” and “The Genius Of Love”. In his memoir Remain In Love, Frantz quietly gloats that both were bigger successes than anything Talking Heads had produced since Byrne, Frantz and Weymouth first came together at Rhode Island School of Design in the mid-1970s. However, if the duo thought commercial vindication would bring them respect from the twitchy, distant Byrne, they were mistaken. They complained that Byrne routinely took credit for their work and allowed producer Brian Eno to belittle them in the early phase of their career, while Frantz writes that “Mad Dave” became even more “demanding and imperious” when Talking Heads regrouped in 1983, jealously guarding centre stage and apparently briefing against the couple behind their backs.