Maps of Music

Naked (1988)

Where the lyrics of Naked take you, and where it was really made.

Talking Heads' final album started as Paris jam sessions, with lyrics left until the band returned to New York.

Key places

Paris sessions at Studio Davout (1988)

Recording site Studio Davout — The album's songs were formed from improvisational jam sessions recorded in Paris. The Discogs release credits list Studio Davout as the recording studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Naked: eighth and final studio album by American new wave band Talking Heads
• Released 15 March 1988 by Sire Records
• Returned to the worldbeat style of Remain in Light (1980) and Speaking in Tongues (1983)
• Blends Afrobeat, Latin funk and art pop
• Followed the more straightforward new wave and pop rock sound of Little Creatures (1985) and True Stories (1986)
• Talking Heads officially went on hiatus after release

Background

• The band wanted to try something different after using regional American music and the pop song format on its previous two albums
• It decided to record in Paris with a group of international musicians
• According to the liner notes, the decision was partly a reaction to the isolationist foreign policy of the Ronald Reagan administration
• Before leaving for France, the band recorded about 40 improvisational tracks as the foundation for the Paris sessions
• Frontman David Byrne announced in December 1991 that the band had dissolved

Recording

• The songs were formed from improvisational jam sessions recorded in Paris
• Producer Steve Lillywhite worked with the band in Paris, where a number of other musicians joined them
• Each day the band rehearsed and played for the whole day, and one take was chosen as the ideal version of each tune
• Guest musicians included former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr and singer Kirsty MacColl
• Lyrics and melodies were left until later, and the lyrics were not overdubbed until the band returned to New York
• Lillywhite said the album's more organic, percussive sound was a deliberate move away from the bombastic production he had helped make common in the 1980s
• Overdubbing and mixing took place at Sigma Sound, NYC

Cover

• In a 1988 interview with Record Mirror, Byrne said many songs on the album are about human beings stripped of their pretensions
• This idea inspired putting a picture of a chimpanzee on the album cover

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Talking Heads were an American rock band formed in New York City in 1975.
• Byrne, Frantz, and Weymouth met at the Rhode Island School of Design, where they formed the Artistics in 1973.
• After moving to New York, they took the name Talking Heads, joined the New York punk scene, and recruited Jerry Harrison in January 1977.
• They signed to Sire Records in November 1976 and released their debut album Talking Heads: 77 in 1977.

Members

• David Byrne: lead vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion (1975–1991, 2002).
• Chris Frantz: drums, percussion, backing vocals (1975–1991, 2002).
• Tina Weymouth: bass guitar, keyboards, backing vocals (1975–1991, 2002).
• Jerry Harrison: keyboards, guitar, backing vocals (1977–1991, 2002).
• Additional musicians including Adrian Belew, Bernie Worrell, and Nona Hendryx joined the band's shows and sessions in the 1980s.

Career

• The band collaborated with producer Brian Eno on More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978), Fear of Music (1979), and Remain in Light (1980).
• Their cover of Al Green's "Take Me to the River" was their first Billboard Top 30 hit.
• Speaking in Tongues (1983) brought mainstream commercial success, including the Top 10 hit "Burning Down the House".
• Stop Making Sense (1984), directed by Jonathan Demme, is often regarded as the greatest concert film of all time.
• Little Creatures (1985) was their best-selling studio album.
• Byrne left in 1991 and the band disbanded; they reunited briefly in 2002 for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction.
• Four Talking Heads albums appeared on Rolling Stone's 2003 list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Critics received it positively and saw it as a return to form after the mixed responses to True Stories
• Chris Willman of the Los Angeles Times said the band abandoned its stripped-down four-piece rock approach for a far more eclectic big-band, world music extravaganza
• In Rolling Stone, Anthony DeCurtis called the album stylistically bold and intellectually provocative, and said it marks a return to the open-ended, groove-oriented style of Remain in Light
• Robert Christgau regarded it as an honest if less than sustaining internationalist gesture
• Naked was voted the 24th best album of 1988 in The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop poll of American critics

Reappraisal

• Retrospective assessments have been more lukewarm than the original reception
• In a retrospective review, Michael Hastings of AllMusic found the album alternately serious and playful, and said it is closest in spirit to Remain in Light
• Hastings said the album sounds technically perfect but has little of the loose, live feel of the band's earlier work with Brian Eno
• Stephen Thomas Erlewine said it marked a return to the band's worldbeat explorations, although it sometimes suffered from Byrne's lyrical pretensions
• Christgau later revised his stance on Naked and True Stories, admitting that he had been wrong to find them overrated

Records

• Peaked at No. 19 on the US Billboard 200
• Peaked at No. 3 on the UK Albums Chart
• Certified gold by both the RIAA and BPI

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Track 8, Mommy Daddy You and I, was listed as Mommy Daddy on the vinyl label
• Track 12 first appeared on the soundtrack to the 1991 film Until the End of the World
• Johnny Marr played guitar on tracks 4, 5, 8 and 11
• Kirsty MacColl sang backing vocals on tracks 5 and 10
• Christgau later reversed his earlier view of both Naked and True Stories

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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