This curious little promo CD came to mind recently with the news that Talking Heads – a particular favourite of mine, for a certain period of their work at least – will be releasing a series of deluxe reissue sets that gather together the original albums plus various related recordings, starting with ‘Talking Heads: 77’, obviously enough. I must confess straight off the bat however, I find past re-issues of Talking Heads material a mixture of frustrating and essential. Frustrating because while previous re-issues did come with some bonus material, so many particular versions – those released on singles particularly – have either never been re-released digitally, or if they have been, are limited to downloads/streaming and only in restricted territories. For the essential examples, well… look no further than the Record Store Day release from earlier this year, the ‘Live at WCOZ 77’ live double album that captures the band in fine form (and some of which had been included on their fantastic 1982’ live double album ‘The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads’. Already, based on some of the music forum discussion so far, these releases likely have their work cut out to please all. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
