the red and the black

Following on from Remain In Light earlier in the week I've dug out my copy of Jerry Harrison's 1981 album The Red And The Black.

What an amazing record and what a hugely under-rated one too. It's not even in print at the moment, for no good reason.

1980 was a momentous year for Talking Heads. The release of the acclaimed Remain In Light was followed by a very successful tour, which saw the old four-piece band expand to ten in order to perform the new complex funky sound. Keyboard player Jerry Harrison was behind the extended Heads line-up, responsible for hiring and rehearsing the new members whilst vocalist David Byrne continued to work on My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts with Brian Eno. In 1981 however, Talking Heads effectively split up for a year, with Byrne embarking on an ambitious suite of music entitled The Catherine Wheel for Twyla Tharp’s dance company, and drummer Chris Frantz and bassist Tina Weymouth relocating to Nassau where they founded the Tom Tom Club. 

Jerry had plenty of half-written songs, many of which predated Remain In Light, but it was only in the spring, when his mother was taken ill and he returned to Milwaukee, that he decided to finish them. Jerry rented a friend’s demo studio, converted from a cold war underground bunker, and began recording backing tracks. The atmosphere in the bunker was darkly oppressive and contributed strongly to the dense feel of the album. Jerry was keen to explore complex polyrhythms and by crashing grooves together he created unusual interlocking patterns (“Things Fall Apart” seems to throw 7/4 against straight 4/4 over 3/4). The multi-layered vocal lines achieve much the same effect - that of confusion, or as the title of one song puts it - “Worlds In Collision.” 

Back in New York Jerry worked on the melodies with Nona Hendryx. The remarkable voices of Nona and Dolette Macdonald had graced the expanded Heads and the original intention was to record a funky ambient album with wordless vocals. Of these, only the eerily impressive “The Red Nights” survived. Bernie Worrell, from George Clinton’s Parliament / Funkadelic, had seriously funked up Talking Heads’ nervy white sound and Jerry called him up too. In June, recording shifted to Eldorado studios in Los Angeles where the Heads’ extra guitarist, Adrian Belew, added some avant-garde overdubs before returning to the newly reactivated King Crimson. Jerry was aware that his record was not as commercial as a Talking Heads album. The close typed detail on the back cover hinted at this as it described the music within. ‘It’s all this information… that’s just what the music is like… a little inaccessible for some people…’ 

The doomiest piece, the pounding dark nightmare that is “Worlds in Collision”, is overlaid with squalling Belew guitar, plus barking dogs and what sounds like a Nazi rally. Thankfully the following track “The Red Nights” immediately lightens the mood with delicate airy synths and gentle wailing – the effect is akin to stepping from the bunker into bright sunlight. 

Jerry’s limitations as a singer are cleverly offset by the generous use of Nona and Dolette, who act as a sort of Greek chorus, offering shrewdly judged response vocals. The opening "Things Fall Apart" has a lovely circular vocal line. Jerry wanted his lyrics to connect directly with the audience, most obviously in the straight to the point pep-talks that occasionally appear. “Magic Hymie” contains this handy piece of advice – ‘There's a way out of that corner you painted yourself into... you gotta decide you wanna do it, and then you're just gonna do it, okay?’ and in “Slink” he offers this – ‘have you ever needed a gram? I have, but I got over it, uh-huh, I got over it.’ The album is full of similar snatches of simple reassurance. In particular, Jerry is of the opinion that life can be bearable if we all accept a measure of personal responsibility – what he can’t stand is helplessness and denial of accountability. This potentially heavy message is delivered with such conviction and verve, via the engaging rush of the music, that it becomes almost subliminal. 

The Red And The Black was sometimes criticised for being a poor imitation of Remain In Light’s art-funk. Jerry happily admitted using the same techniques ‘to build up layers and textures between instruments.’ But what irritated him was the accusation that he had copied Eno or Byrne. Tina Weymouth leapt to his defence – ‘Jerry was playing the things people have assumed Brian or David were doing. It’s unfair when they say he’s copying them.’ Jerry was more philosophical – ‘there’s always attention paid to the lead singer or major songwriter, that’s inevitable.’ But he admitted that it could be ‘very annoying because you just know people are crediting someone else with things you did.’ Fairness and credit where it is due are concepts that often crop up in the lyrics. 

In retrospect The Red And The Black is both a radical extension of RiL and a strong precursor to the all-out dance fever of the next Talking Heads album, Speaking In Tongues, especially in Bernie Worrell’s explosive keyboard textures. It’s not all multi-rhythmic conflict however. The brilliantly light yet complex drumming of Yogi Horton and some cool bass work from George Murray assist in creating some top-flight pop songs of which the bouncy “Slink” is probably the greatest Talking Heads track that the band never recorded, (though they did perform it live in 1982). 

All the songs are laden with hooks and catchy melodies, yet constructed with all sorts of twists and turns which raise them high above most other songs. Jerry's contributions to Talking Heads songs are often overlooked - it seems as though he was determined with this record, to demonstrate exactly what he was capable of. It's a powerful album and one which hasn't really dated. The next Heads album, Speaking In Tongues, is very much of it's time. Still a fine record, but constrained slightly by the 1983 production. TRATB by contrast has a timeless quality.

Unavailable for many years (and only on CD as an expensive Japanese import) The Red And The Black is something of a neglected gem. Not only is it a valuable step in Talking Heads’ evolution but it is also an excitingly original album in its own right. If and when it is reissued it should finally see off an undeserved reputation as poor man’s Heads album. In fact 1983’s Speaking In Tongues is arguably a poor man’s The Red And The Black!