Remain in Love: Talking Heads, Tom Tom Club, Tina

by Chris Frantz

Overview

Two iconic bands. An unforgettable life.

One of the most dynamic groups of the ‘70s and ‘80s, Talking Heads, founded by drummer Chris Frantz, his girlfriend Tina Weymouth, and lead singer David Byrne, burst onto the music scene, playing at CBGBs, touring Europe with the Ramones, and creating hits like “Psycho Killer” and “Burning Down the House” that captured the post-baby boom generation’s intense, affectless style.

In Remain in Love, Frantz writes about the beginnings of Talking Heads—their days as art students in Providence, moving to the sparse Chrystie Street loft Frantz, Weymouth, and Byrne shared where the music that defined an era was written. With never-before-seen photos and immersive vivid detail, Frantz describes life on tour, down to the meals eaten and the clothes worn—and reveals the mechanics of a long and complicated working relationship with a mercurial frontman.

At the heart of Remain in Love is Frantz’s love for Weymouth: their once-in-a-lifetime connection as lovers, musicians, and bandmates, and how their creativity surged with the creation of their own band Tom Tom Club, bringing a fresh Afro-Caribbean beat to hits like “Genius of Love.”

Studded with memorable places and names from the era—Grace Jones, Andy Warhol, Stephen Sprouse, Lou Reed, Brian Eno, and Debbie Harry among them—Remain in Love is a frank and open memoir of an emblematic life in music and in love.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250209221
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/21/2020
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	1,136,914
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.40(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

CHRIS FRANTZ is a musician, producer, and songwriter and founding member of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club. He is a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and hosts the radio show "Chris Frantz the Talking Head" on WPKN. He and his wife Tina live in Connecticut.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Preface xi

1 The Best Seat in the House 1

2 How Did I Get Here? 4

3 It's Got to Have Soul 18

4 Back to Pittsburgh 22

5 Kentucky Love 30

6 RISD 35

7 Martina 41

8 Words in Papers, Words in Books 45

9 Artistic Days Go By 49

10 The Beginning 54

11 Free Cocktails! 62

12 Summer Again 64

13 Life on the Bowery 72

14 Early Days in New York 79

15 Talking Heads' First Show 90

16 The Record Companies 94

17 The Stars of CBGB 97

18 Lou Reed 106

19 The Artist's Lunch with Andy Warhol 110

20 The Talking Heads Look 113

21 Finding Jerry 115

22 The Spirit of '76! 119

23 Words of Faith and Tell Me Straight 125

24 Sundragon Studio 127

25 The Blizzard of '77 130

26 Talking Heads '77 133

27 On Tour with the Ramones 136

28 Talking Heads in London 158

29 Deeper into the UK 165

30 Our Wedding in Washington, Kentucky 181

31 Honeymoon Interrupted 186

32 The Summer of Sam 191

33 Gary 195

34 Mini Touts 198

35 Let's Work! 202

36 California 212

37 From XTC to Dire Straits 220

38 Buildings and Food 230

39 Planet Claire Has Big Hair 237

40 Dick and Phil 245

41 Fear of Music 248

42 Paris to Japan 254

43 Remain in Light 259

44 The Big Band 267

45 Tom Tom Club 274

46 Genius of love 282

47 Burning Down the House 287

48 Life at Compass Point 297

49 Stop Making Sense, Please 311

50 Little Creatures and True Stories 318

51 James Brown Comes to Town 330

52 Naked in Paris 334

53 Lou Reed with Tom Tom Club at CBGB 345

54 Happy Mondays 349

55 Strangers in Paradise 355

56 Without Adventures We Won't Have Stories 360

Index 369

Editorial Reviews

04/13/2020

Talking Heads drummer Frantz delivers a bright memoir that reads more of an entertaining greatest-hits compilation than complete life chronicle. He discusses his early musical influences (R&B, Fela Kuti, and Kraftwerk) and how the band first came together in 1973 at the Rhode Island School of Design as a herky-jerky art-rock trio called the Artistics, with singer-songwriter David Byrne and bassist Tina Weymouth (whom Frantz later married). The band moved to Manhattan the next year and its burgeoning punk music scene, where, Frantz notes, the Talking Heads “were not afraid to appear straight.” His account of their 1977 Europe tour with the Ramones, studded with set lists and bright detail, is particularly thrilling (“we were post-punk before there even was punk”). In 1991, the band broke up when Byrne left. (Frantz writes of Byrne’s self-aggrandizement and suggests he is on the spectrum.) Later sections on Frantz and Tina’s epochal dance-band, Tom Tom Club, and their time recording and producing in the Bahamas, are replete with fun cameos (the Clash, Robert Palmer, Grace Jones). Fun, cheerful, and eventful, this memoir has just the right amount edge. (May)

Publishers Weekly

04/01/2020

Mixing punk, new wave, pop, dance, and world music, Talking Heads were one of rock's great innovative bands as well as commercial and critical genre favorites in the later 1970s and 1980s. Here, drummer and cofounder Frantz recounts his own life and the band's story in a rich, entertaining memoir. Frantz met his future bandmates David Byrne and Tina Weymouth (whom he married) at art school in Rhode Island, and, along with Jerry Harrison, Talking Heads performed early gigs in New York, eventually recording albums and touring Europe with the Ramones. With an eye for detail, Frantz presents sharply drawn pictures of the nascent punk and postpunk world of New York City, life on the road, and, later, the work he and Weymouth did in their group Tom Tom Club. He blends thumbnail portraits of notables he met with tidbits about daily life that charmingly meander from food to travel. VERDICT Frantz's absorbing, vivid book will reward Talking Heads fans and those interested in the postpunk and 1980s music scene. [See Prepub Alert, 11/11/19.]—James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ

Library Journal

2020-02-09
A music memoir that is as much about love as music.

Frantz’s highly detailed, “true inside story” begins with a pleasant boyhood. Born to a military family, he moved around, went to good schools, enjoyed listening to music—especially the Beatles—played drums, and joined various bands. While attending Rhode Island School of Design, he met fellow art students Tina Weymouth, his future wife, and the aloof David Byrne, who, Frantz writes, “got into music to get out of himself.” Weymouth and Frantz helped Byrne write lyrics for “Psycho Killer,” and Frantz wrote “Warning Sign,” which Byrne later took sole credit for. Throughout, the author offers a devastating portrait of Byrne as a back-stabbing liar who aggrandized himself while disrespecting his band mates. Their first band, the Artistics, played some venues, and they moved to New York’s Bowery in 1974, where they got a regular gig playing as Talking Heads at the CBGB club, their all-time favorite venue. A keyboard player, Jerry Harrison, formerly of Modern Lovers, joined them. The star-struck Frantz began meeting people like Patti Smith, John Cale, Debbie Harry, Lou Reed, and Andy Warhol. Throughout the narrative, he proves to be an inveterate name-dropper. Frantz describes the band as “pioneers” in the “Punk/New Wave/Post-Punk music” scene. In 1976, they played 76 gigs. At this time, Byrne wanted to kick Weymouth out of the band, but as the author rightly notes, her inventiveness on bass “was one reason Talking Heads sounded so unique.” In 1977, they recorded their first album and toured Europe with the Ramones. Afterward, Frantz and Weymouth got married. Though not the most elegant stylist, the author offers entertaining stories about Stop Making Sense, Jonathan Demme’s documentary about the band; the origins of the Tom Tom Club; Byrne’s big white suit; and the day, in 1991, Byrne “sneaked out of Talking Heads.”

Although written in mostly colorless prose, this is a gold mine for fans of the 1970s and ’80s music scene.

Kirkus Reviews

Remain in Love] has great storytelling and amazing detail about adventures that Chris and I have shared in our parallel universes. As the Brits say: I'm gobsmacked. I devoured this book and all the memories and all the love Chris has for Tina . . . . One of the most potent examples of living the dream.” —Debbie Harry

"From the first time I saw Talking Heads live (CBGB, 1976), I've had a huge thing for Tina Weymouth. And since then I've been biding my time, waiting for the right moment to make my move. But after reading Remain in Love by Chris Frantz, it's become pretty clear to me that she's already in a relationship (see pages xi, 3, 33-34, etc.), and what's more, it looks to be serious (pages 41, 43-48, and especially 147). But you know something? That's OK. I'm happy for Tina, and for Chris, a great drummer who has written a great book." —Bill Murray

"A music memoir that is as much about love as music. [Remain in Love] is a gold mine for fans of the 1970s and '80s music scene." —Kirkus Reviews

“Electrifying. Remain in Love is possibly the most uxorious rock ’n’ roll memoir ever written…” —Wall Street Journal

"Fun, cheerful, and eventful, this memoir has just the right amount of edge." —Publishers Weekly

“This swift-paced, well-written book has the upbeat tone of dreams coming true. Frantz conveys the excitement of his adventures from boyhood to art school to international rock-stardom with honesty and enthusiasm . . . . I dare any drummer to write a better book!” —Duncan Hannah, author of Twentieth Century Boy

"While [Remain in Love] does offer a vivid backstage glimpse of New York’s downtown scene in the ‘70s and beyond, what sweetens the read is that even after all these years, the torch Frantz carries for his spouse could still burn down the house." —O, The Oprah Magazine

“Frantz’s absorbing, vivid book will reward Talking Heads fans and those interested in the postpunk and 1980s mu­sic scene.” —Library Journal

“Heads and drums and funk and roll: herewith Chris Frantz outs himself as a Writing Head and Raconteur First Class, bringing it on an engaging narrative which combines an enchanting love story with an eye-opening disquisition on the upsides and downsides of being in bands with unusual people.”
—Charles Shaar Murray, author of Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix and Post-War Pop

“Crackling with verve, comedy, calamity, crisp detail, forward motion, and abiding affection, speckled with an all-star cast of punk legends and pop idols, Chris Frantz's Remain in Love is a rock music memoir like none other—a candy kiss with a kick to it.” —James Wolcott, author of Lucking Out

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