When Tina Weymouth answered the loaded question: “Is David Byrne a genius or a moron?”
When you look back at the career that Talking Heads had, it’s quite remarkable that they were ever as famous as they were. A bunch of oddball misfits on the surface of things, the iconic New York foursome rose beyond the cult status that they were perhaps predicted to receive and became one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed bands of all time. However, many people might argue that three of the members were relatively ordinary, and that the presence of frontman David Byrne was what made them so peculiar.
The other art school punks that were emerging at the same time as them in the late 1970s were a lot more reserved in their presentation, and those who were out and out punks had much more of an edge to them. Byrne, on the other hand, was simply weird. His lyrical abstractions, jerky movements on stage and unconventional approaches to composition were what set the group apart from their contemporaries, and these factors ultimately made them such an exciting prospect, and a breath of fresh air in a scene that needed someone to shake up the status quo.
People struggled to know how to interpret Byrne as an individual; some saw him as a pretentious individual who was simply being strange for strange’s sake, while others thought that his eccentricity was genuine, and that his creations were a sign of genius far beyond the comprehension of us mere mortals. Admittedly, this is a fine line that many artists have to approach with some trepidation, but with Byrne, it was very unclear to those who weren’t inside his head – his bandmates included.
It’s hard to know exactly how the rest of the group perceived Byrne, and given that they’ve never worked together as a group since they disbanded in 1991, this might suggest that his unusual personality quirks made him a difficult person to work with. On many occasions, the band have dismissed ever reuniting with their former frontman due to how they resented his behaviour, and have described him as being a distant person who didn’t seem to care about their friendships.
In a 2024 interview with Prog Magazine, bassist Tina Weymouth saw fit to address the debate over whether her former bandmate was a creative genius or just a lunatic who got lucky, and her perspective on the matter didn’t hold back in its honesty. Weymouth and Byrne may not have seen eye to eye on a personal level, but she was willing to concede that there were plenty of positives to working alongside his shortcomings.
“People would ask: ‘Is David Byrne a genius or a moron?’,” she revealed, before adding, “I wanted to nip that ‘moron’ bit in the bud, so it was better to say ‘genius’. The truth is somewhere in between.” Weymouth would go on to further describe her time working alongside Byrne, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison, stating that they “had fun making those Talking Heads records.”
“Our music was emotionally profound,” she continued. “People say we were clever, and it’s funny – it’s also quite mistaken! Compared to Stephen Hawking, we’re just midgets. Imagine if we had A Hawking Heads – that would be something.” While Hawking’s genius is unquestionable, there’s a significant difference between being a physicist and a musician, and the creativity that has always gone into Byrne’s work both with Talking Heads and in his solo ventures is still equally as worthy of the genius tag – no matter how annoying it may have been to work with him.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out Music Newsletter
All the latest music news from the independant voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.
