The Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light” Tour Hits the Lincoln Theatre

After about 25 years, Jerry Harrison returns on tour to revisit the Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light” album alongside Adrian Belew.

Jerry Harrison is modern rock royalty, a founding member and keyboardist of both the proto-punk pioneers The Modern Lovers and the new wave legends Talking Heads. He received a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2021 and was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s class of 2002 with his bandmates in Talking Heads.

As a record producer, he has worked with Violent Femmes, Foo Fighters, Live, No Doubt and many more. He has also released several solo records and co-wrote the acclaimed documentary about the Memphis music scene “Take Me to the River” (2014). In 2021, after a handful of live performances with Adrian Belew — a storied musician, the touring multi-instrumentalist for Talking Heads who performed several of the key guitar solo parts for their album “Remain in Light” — the two musicians and longtime friends decided to reunite with a full backing band to hit the road. The band includes former members of Turkuaz — Julie Slick on bass and Yahuba Garcia-Torres on percussion — a horn section, and back-up singers.

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Talking Heads’ iconic album “Remain in Light” (with a slight Covid-19 pandemic delay), the 19-stop tour comes to Lincoln Theatre on June 22. District Fray caught up with Harrison in his hotel room before the band’s next show in Dallas to reflect on the making of this record, the joy of live music and whether a full reunion is in the works. Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

District Fray: I’d love to hear about the formation of the tour. During a few breaks in the pandemic, you played some “Remain in Light” shows, but now you’re doing a full tour.
Jerry Harrsion: Adrian and I have remained friends over the years. And whenever we’d have dinner, our conversations would always come back to the show we did in 1980 in Rome. The whole “Remain in Light” tour was so special. And we thought, “The world needs something like this.”

We played Hardly Strictly [Bluegrass], which is a big, free concert in Golden Gate Park every autumn. It’s always warm, lovely weather. These are people who are in a good mood; they have just gotten into a free concert, and they have good music playing. We went on after Elvis Costello and people just came to our stage. We played to 55,000 people and there was this wave of joy that just went through the audience. There are shows where you get excited and there are shows where you remark upon the artistic brilliance, but this was almost like a revival meeting — not that I have experience with that. That show proved that we could do it again.

So that single moment of joy was enough to begin touring again? You’ve kept a very busy producing schedule but haven’t really toured much since the mid-1990s.
It’s been 25 years. I used to tell people that my performances now are memorials and benefits. It was fine. I could play and reunite with wonderful people: Sean Lennon, who’s playing with Les Claypool [and opening some shows on the current tour], Lukas Nelson, Bob Weir, Steve Kimock and my daughter. That was great because we did a number of songs together [for the memorial for John Perry Barlow of the Grateful Dead]. But it’s not the same as doing an hour and a half of the music that you helped create. I’ve been very satisfied, particularly in places like San Francisco where my wife and I have been living for almost 30 years. I think people there know me; they know I was in a really successful band but a lot more than that, never saw the Talking Heads. I’m an abstract presence in that way. For them to actually see this show — that sort of reified and made them go, “Whoa, now I get it. Now I get why people rave about that.” That’s really satisfying.

What are new discoveries you’re making about these songs or old memories that are coming back as you’ve been exploring “Remain in Light” with the band and on tour?
Having a horn section, to begin with, just adds an ability to rearrange the songs and a tendency to stray in a really good way from what the Talking Heads was doing, because we have a new element we can bring in. I’ve had a great deal of fun with this interplay between this guitar part and this keyboard part saying, “Let’s make that a horn part and see how that sounds.” There was a band called Turkuaz that I produced, and Talking Heads, especially “Stop Making Sense,” was the inspiration for the band. They already knew a lot of the songs, so I told Adrian, “We can do this.” We all did a rehearsal together at Music City Studios in Nashville and Ace Frehley from KISS was in the next room having a record release party. We largely spent the whole time working on “Crosseyed and Painless,” just trying out new things. When we opened the door, there were all these people with their ears at the crack of the door. They had walked out of the record release party because they thought the Talking Heads were in the next room. We knew we were onto something because we gathered an audience without even trying. They’re all very good players; they come up with their own parts and then they kind of feel the freedom to expand if they want from the music. As the co-leader of the band, I don’t want to be a dictator. We’re all there to try and make it as great as possible.

How does the new arrangements and artists involved make you think about the original recording of “Remain in Light”? I’ve read before that though the album is genius, it was fraught with delays, writers’ blocks and changing studios.
Well, I would certainly say that the album was a collaborative effort. We went into the studio with very few preconceptions, except that we wanted to capture things the moment they were created. So we deliberately had not written the songs ahead of time. And with that process, we did come up with really unique things, but also the need to have a much bigger band because there were parts that go all the way through the song playing. You couldn’t say, “I’ll play that little bit,” because they were both playing at the same time. When we got to New York, Chris [Frantz] and Tina [Weymouth’s] drums and bass parts were already finished, so they were not spending as much time in the studios. David [Byrne] did struggle with lyrics, because there are no real chord changes, no “we’re going to a chorus,” so to speak. It was like textural changes, rather than using the mixing board as a composing technique. And that meant coming up with interesting melodies was even more challenging.

We took a break for the Bahamas and then coming back to New York had a different vibe. The Bahamas was really, really relaxed. We were having a great time; we could go swimming and snorkeling. And in New York, it was a really hot August where the minute you go in the subway, you’re already dirty. That created a period of great creative tension that made the record what it was, but it was not without its difficulties. And sometimes, something that had been on the tracks in the Bahamas had fallen by the wayside of a new part written in New York. [Many of those demo versions appear on the Deluxe reissue of “Remain in Light.”] I do think that while the album turned out great, we were under a great deal of pressure to finish it. Working conditions, emotions, pressure: In the end, what makes the record so good are probably all of those things contributing to it.

Speaking of major anniversaries, the Talking Heads’ concert film “Stop Making Sense” is turning 40, too! It’s really one of the best concert films of all times. Are you working on anything for that?
I’m actually really involved in the re-release because I’ve been overseeing remixes for Dolby Atmos and various other surround-sound systems in theaters and in home theaters. [Original sound engineer] Eric Thorngren and I were under a gigantic deadline to get all eight of the Talking Heads records finished for Atmos last August and September. It’s spacialized sound; the music is not entirely in front of you but it is definitely a wider soundstage. One of the interesting things that I had not remembered is that we only do two songs from “Remain in Light” in that concert: “Once in a Lifetime” and “Crosseyed and Painless.” So, that means that songs like “Houses in Motion,” “The Great Curve” and “Born Under Punches” were only played in 1980 and now on this tour. So it’s another reason for people to come and see this show, because it’s your only opportunity. And one thing I would recommend is to get up and dance. It’s better if you’re dancing.

So, you’re touring “Remain in Light”; David Byrne has been on Broadway doing “American Utopia”; and Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” (a side project of the Talking Heads’ Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz) lives on as one of the most famous hooks in sampling history. Any chance of a full reunion?
I think after James Brown’s “Funky Drummer,” “Genius of Love” is the next most sampled song in history. I think that we could do a great tour, but we better hurry.

Jerry Harrison and Adrian Belew revisit the Talking Heads’ “Remain in Light” at the Lincoln Theatre on Thursday, June 22 at 8 p.m. Coliol cool cool, which comprises former members of Turkuaz, will open. Tickets start at $40 and can be purchased here.  

Lincoln Theatre: 1215 U St. NW, DC; thelincolndc.com // @thelincolndc

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Colleen Kennedy

Colleen Kennedy writes about art, culture and music for District Fray. She is also the Publicist and Managing Editor at Shakespeare Theatre Company.