Talking Heads Jerry Harrison & Chris Frantz – HuffPost 11.4.09

[Note: This was taken from my interviews with Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison regarding Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense video upgrade and release, and it is presented here to be inspirational.]

Mike Ragogna: How would you rate Stop Making Sense with the rest of the Talking Heads catalog?

Jerry Harrison: I would say that if no one had heard of the Talking Heads, it would be the first thing I would point them to because, with the exception of the later records, it’s very singular. As great as our records are, I think our performances often raise things to a higher level. That being said, thinking back, I think Remain In Light will probably go down as the most original album we ever did. I think it changed the way people thought about making music.

MR: What do you think Talking Heads’ legacy will be?

Chris Frantz: My feeling is that it was a wonderful group and I’m so glad that we actually managed to pull it off. Talking Heads was really remarkable in many ways, especially in the fact that we sort of rewrote what a rock band should be like. Great rock bands before us were like The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones–bands that were a great influence on us. But we felt like those guys had already done such a great job at that, there’s no way we can outdo them at what they do. So we came at the rock band thing from a different angle. Thanks to that, a lot of normal kids from the suburbs feel like they don’t have to dress up in leather clothes and stuff like that in order to get their message across. Also, we were one of the few bands who could have artistic credibility and commercial success at the same time. We could really kind of have our cake and eat it too which was remarkable. Especially today, it’s very hard to balance artistic ability with commercial success. You don’t see too much of that.