David Bowman: This Must Be The Place: The Adventures Of Talking Heads In The 20th Century

In one of the most unlikely success stories to emerge from New York's exciting mid-'70s underground, Talking Heads made it to the masses with its mystery intact. But what should be public record, in light of Talking Heads' subsequent prominence, instead remains a blank, from the group's sketchy art-school beginnings to its anticlimactic breakup. That's why David Bowman's belated account of the whole affair is both a revelation and a disappointment: Talking Heads' story is, predictably, every band's story, from the standard sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll to the banal insecurities and squabbles that fill each Behind The Music segment. Coming from relatively wealthy backgrounds and comfortable in high-art circles, Talking Heads' members couldn't have been more unlike the scuzzy CBGB crowd, which helped them stand out. David Byrne's neurotic behavior and nervousness—not all of it a gimmick—inevitably became the band's focus, much to the frustration of fellow founding members Chris Frantz and wife Tina Weymouth. (Jerry Harrison played the polite diplomat.) So, just as Talking Heads was reaching a creative peak in the early '80s, ego clashes sowed the seeds for the increasingly self-interested group's ultimate, if protracted, dissolution less than a decade later. Bowman, a well-regarded novelist in his own right, here plays the part of the traditional biographer, following Talking Heads' chronology closely and competently, but not always creatively. Recent interviews with the band members—some still smarting, especially Weymouth, whom Bowman shapes into Byrne's nemesis—glean the usual dirt and anecdotes, but Bowman's passive take yields more secondhand insults than actual insights. He does capture the unique vibe of New York's vibrant, pre-gentrification artistic community and Talking Heads' utter weirdness even in this idiosyncratic milieu, although he comes up short in providing the musical context needed to demonstrate just how special the group was. It would have been nice had he widened the scope of the story to include other then-contemporary players (such as the likeminded Devo and Pere Ubu) and settings. This Must Be The Place will have to do, but the overlong book raises more questions than answers. In light of Talking Heads' still-perplexing musical brilliance, perhaps that's just as well.