PSYCHO KILLER
“Psycho Killer” is a song written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth and first played by their band The Artistic in 1974, and as new wave band Talking Heads in 1975, with a later version recorded for their 1977 album Talking Heads: 77. In the liner notes for Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads (1992), Jerry Harrison wrote of the b-side of the single, an acoustic version of the song that featured Arthur Russell on cello: “I’m glad we persuaded Tony [Bongiovi] and Lance [Quinn] that the version with the cellos shouldn’t be the only one.” The band’s “signature debut hit” features lyrics which seem to represent the thoughts of a serial killer. Originally written and performed as a ballad, “Psycho Killer” became what AllMusic calls a “deceptively funky new wave/no wave song” with “an insistent rhythm, and one of the most memorable, driving basslines in rock & roll”. (More from Wikipedia)
Talking Heads had several hit songs and albums and rock videos, as well as a concert film, Stop Making Sense; they were also a favorite of rock critics throughout the 1980’s. Favorites of mine include “Burning down the House”, “Psycho Killer” and “Life During Wartime”; actually the official title of the last song is “Life During Wartime (This Ain’t No Party . . . This Ain’t No Disco . . . This Ain’t No Foolin’ Around)”, and it is one of the longest song titles ever.
(December 2013)
