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| Think this gets to it best. |
Was it all just a plot to escape the soul-sucking gravity of David Byrne? I kid. I kid.
The Hit
“We only said no one time that I can think of right now. It was one of those over-the-top gangster lyrics. We wouldn’t dream of censoring anyone’s lyrics but we reserve the right to deny permission to use our music if we think its garbage.”
- jambands.com interview with Chris Frantz (2001? Really?)
Because the making of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” is no different from everything else they did, I figured I’d fill this section with its multiple second lives as a popular simple. The first act to repurpose it was Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde for “Genius Rap,” but “It’s Nasty” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five couldn’t have been too far behind. The (very likely incomplete) of artists who have borrowed it, for better or worse, continues from there – e.g., Tupac Shakur, Puff Daddy, Coolio, Busta Rhymes, L’Trimm, Funkdoobiest, Busta Rhymes, Mariah Carey, etc. etc.
I honestly can’t recall the first time I heard it, but I’m confident I had no clue who performed it; honestly, the first time I gave it any thought was when I heard Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" and thought, "hold it, I know that sample." And had someone said “Tom Tom Club,” I’m almost certain I would either said, “who?” or assumed it was some mid-‘80s synth act I ignored...so I fucked up.
What’s not to love about a song that melds bubbly and twitchy so seamlessly? Obviously, that means I actually listened the lyrics for the first time for the first time this week and; 1) I never caught all the name-drops and 2) it’s unclear whether or not Frantz was the “laughing boyfriend” referenced in the song, but he claimed it in at least one interview.
The Rest of the Story
“[Q:] Those early Tom Tom Club singles were pretty groundbreaking in mixing up disco, funk, reggae and rap with post-punk art-school attitude. Was that a conscious strategy?”
“[Tina Weymouth]: It was sort of organically grown that way. We wanted to make a dance record, we didn't want to sound like our other band and compete with that. We wanted to make something more escapist. And I think we succeeded rather well, actually.”
The “other band” was Talking Heads, of course, one of the more “out-there” bands to ever manage mainstream success. Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth met David Byrne while attending the Rhode Island School of Design in the late 1970s. I’ll keep that band out of this post, but I would encourage anyone who’s interested to pick through the sources linked to below, because Frantz and Weymouth slip in some politely snarky takes on their relationship to Byrne. They keep it above the belt, basically.
Going the other way, the story of Tom Tom Club boils down to them releasing a half dozen albums over a span of about 30 years and settling down in Connecticut somewhere in the middle of it. Weymouth and Frantz will never not be associated with Talking Heads and, as such, most of the interviews I found bounce between asking about the CBGBs days and the thought process and/or inspiration behind Tom Tom Club. With that in mind, this felt like a good place to start:
“You know, Tom Tom Club were all inspired by the B-52s. We met them in 1978 in Georgia at an after-party, after Talking Heads played with Elvis Costello opening. We thought they were great. We told them, 'Come on up, we'll get you a gig at CBGBs. We'll put in a good word with Hilly Kristal.' Tom Tom Club were always inspired by dance music, without slavishly imitating.”
- Music Radar, 2012 interview with Frantz and Weymouth
Next, on mechanics:
“We almost always begin with a drum pattern. Then Tina adds either a keyboard, guitar or bass depending on what strikes her fancy. Then we start improvising sections- verses and choruses and chord changes and at the same time we’re trying to think of a lyric and/or a title. Before you know it, there’s a song there.”
- jambands.com, again
With the mash-up of genres, one of the several inspirations, and process out of the way, it’s time to talk about the albums. Their eponymous debut album came out in 1981 and, carried by the hit, “Wordy Rappinghood,” and a (damned solid) cover of “Under the Boardwalk,” did really well, climbed to No. 23 on the Billboard Top 200 for albums, and eventually went platinum (and, of course, Byrne took a shot; "too commercial” or something to that effect). A follow up, Close to the Bone, came out by 1983 and, like the debut, it was recorded with “a loose collective of a dozen musicians,” Weymouth’s sister Laura among them. That album did all right, but not as well, with just one single (“The Man with the Four-Way Hips”) enjoying minor success on “urban radio.”
The Hit
“We only said no one time that I can think of right now. It was one of those over-the-top gangster lyrics. We wouldn’t dream of censoring anyone’s lyrics but we reserve the right to deny permission to use our music if we think its garbage.”
- jambands.com interview with Chris Frantz (2001? Really?)
Because the making of Tom Tom Club’s “Genius of Love” is no different from everything else they did, I figured I’d fill this section with its multiple second lives as a popular simple. The first act to repurpose it was Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde for “Genius Rap,” but “It’s Nasty” by Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five couldn’t have been too far behind. The (very likely incomplete) of artists who have borrowed it, for better or worse, continues from there – e.g., Tupac Shakur, Puff Daddy, Coolio, Busta Rhymes, L’Trimm, Funkdoobiest, Busta Rhymes, Mariah Carey, etc. etc.
I honestly can’t recall the first time I heard it, but I’m confident I had no clue who performed it; honestly, the first time I gave it any thought was when I heard Mariah Carey's "Fantasy" and thought, "hold it, I know that sample." And had someone said “Tom Tom Club,” I’m almost certain I would either said, “who?” or assumed it was some mid-‘80s synth act I ignored...so I fucked up.
What’s not to love about a song that melds bubbly and twitchy so seamlessly? Obviously, that means I actually listened the lyrics for the first time for the first time this week and; 1) I never caught all the name-drops and 2) it’s unclear whether or not Frantz was the “laughing boyfriend” referenced in the song, but he claimed it in at least one interview.
The Rest of the Story
“[Q:] Those early Tom Tom Club singles were pretty groundbreaking in mixing up disco, funk, reggae and rap with post-punk art-school attitude. Was that a conscious strategy?”
“[Tina Weymouth]: It was sort of organically grown that way. We wanted to make a dance record, we didn't want to sound like our other band and compete with that. We wanted to make something more escapist. And I think we succeeded rather well, actually.”
The “other band” was Talking Heads, of course, one of the more “out-there” bands to ever manage mainstream success. Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth met David Byrne while attending the Rhode Island School of Design in the late 1970s. I’ll keep that band out of this post, but I would encourage anyone who’s interested to pick through the sources linked to below, because Frantz and Weymouth slip in some politely snarky takes on their relationship to Byrne. They keep it above the belt, basically.
Going the other way, the story of Tom Tom Club boils down to them releasing a half dozen albums over a span of about 30 years and settling down in Connecticut somewhere in the middle of it. Weymouth and Frantz will never not be associated with Talking Heads and, as such, most of the interviews I found bounce between asking about the CBGBs days and the thought process and/or inspiration behind Tom Tom Club. With that in mind, this felt like a good place to start:
“You know, Tom Tom Club were all inspired by the B-52s. We met them in 1978 in Georgia at an after-party, after Talking Heads played with Elvis Costello opening. We thought they were great. We told them, 'Come on up, we'll get you a gig at CBGBs. We'll put in a good word with Hilly Kristal.' Tom Tom Club were always inspired by dance music, without slavishly imitating.”
- Music Radar, 2012 interview with Frantz and Weymouth
Next, on mechanics:
“We almost always begin with a drum pattern. Then Tina adds either a keyboard, guitar or bass depending on what strikes her fancy. Then we start improvising sections- verses and choruses and chord changes and at the same time we’re trying to think of a lyric and/or a title. Before you know it, there’s a song there.”
- jambands.com, again
With the mash-up of genres, one of the several inspirations, and process out of the way, it’s time to talk about the albums. Their eponymous debut album came out in 1981 and, carried by the hit, “Wordy Rappinghood,” and a (damned solid) cover of “Under the Boardwalk,” did really well, climbed to No. 23 on the Billboard Top 200 for albums, and eventually went platinum (and, of course, Byrne took a shot; "too commercial” or something to that effect). A follow up, Close to the Bone, came out by 1983 and, like the debut, it was recorded with “a loose collective of a dozen musicians,” Weymouth’s sister Laura among them. That album did all right, but not as well, with just one single (“The Man with the Four-Way Hips”) enjoying minor success on “urban radio.”
The “loose collective...of musicians’ fell away during the four-year hiatus that followed – a period that at least loosely coincided with peak-popular success for Talking Heads (right?) – and their U.S. label ghosted them as well by the time 1986’s Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom came out. It didn’t do quite as well, but Frantz and Weymouth managed to talk Byrne and Lou Reed into cameos for the cover of “Femme Fatale.” And, again, the story just carries on from there: Frantz and Weymouth moved to Gamecock Island, CT in 1991, built an art/recording studio above the garage, in which they recorded Dark Sneak Love Action (1992), The Good, the Bad, and the Funky (2000), and, quite a bit later, Downtown Rockers (2012).
Musicians tend to exist within a certain set of mythologies – or they do for me at least, and they don’t all occupy the same myths – and I think that leaves me confused when I come across people like Frantz and Weymouth – i.e., two people who have been married for, at time of writing, 45 years, and who have a better job than I ever will, but, you know, they still get up in the morning, read books/the papers/the internet, make dinner, do the dishes, have and raise kids, pets, etc. etc. They did do some producing work – e.g., Ziggy & Melody Makers, Angelfish (Shirley Manson’s band before Garbage), and Happy Mondays (ah, the “musician myths” I crave; see the Quietus interview) – and they’ve done some interesting collaborations (e.g., with Damon Albarn, who they met after shows at the bar in London’s Portobello Hotel), but they mostly come across as normal people who moved a lot of units and across a couple projects.
Sources
Wikipedia – Tom Tom Club
jambands.com, interview with Chris Frantz (2001)
Music Radar, interview with Frantz and Weymouth (2012)
Quietus, interview with Frantz and Weymouth (2012)
About the Sampler
Call it about ¾ songs I like – and I liked a lot of Tom Tom Club’s body of work – and ¼ songs I think belong on a sampler they defined the band’s sound/body of work. And “body of work” fits, because, while the collection of instruments doesn’t change much, the tones and structures are all over the place/. Stuff you’d expect from audiophiles who have the talent and sensibility to take in influences and make them their own, basically, only they never stopped taking things in for as long as Tom Tom Club stayed together.
Now, the actual songs. By album, and I linked only to songs that I hadn’t already above.
Tom Tom Club: “Genius of Love,” “Wordy Rappinghood,” and “L’Elephant” (the latter because, 1) I like it, and 2) it points to the “takings things in”)
Close to the Bone: “The Man with the 4-Way Hips” "Pleasure of Love," and (best one/one of their best), “Never Took a Penny” (the way they mix up their sound...right up my alley)
Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom: “Femme Fatale,” “Suboceana” (did well in the UK), “Don’t Say No,” plus, two little sonic oddities, “Little Eva” and “She Belongs to Me”
Dark Sneak Love Action: “Sunshine and Ecstasy,” “Irresistible Party Dip” (the B-52s things come thru, if 15 years later), “Dogs in the Trash,” and a flat-out cuddly cover of Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing”
The Good The Bad The Funky: “Time to Bounce,” “Who Feelin’ It,” and “Superdreaming,” which offer...just such a nice spread of sounds and tones, all of them very pleasant
Downtown Rockers: the moody, creepy, guitar-heavy (for them) “Won’t Give You Up” and the name-drop drunk ode to the 1970s NYC underground, “Downtown Rockers”
Till the next one...
Musicians tend to exist within a certain set of mythologies – or they do for me at least, and they don’t all occupy the same myths – and I think that leaves me confused when I come across people like Frantz and Weymouth – i.e., two people who have been married for, at time of writing, 45 years, and who have a better job than I ever will, but, you know, they still get up in the morning, read books/the papers/the internet, make dinner, do the dishes, have and raise kids, pets, etc. etc. They did do some producing work – e.g., Ziggy & Melody Makers, Angelfish (Shirley Manson’s band before Garbage), and Happy Mondays (ah, the “musician myths” I crave; see the Quietus interview) – and they’ve done some interesting collaborations (e.g., with Damon Albarn, who they met after shows at the bar in London’s Portobello Hotel), but they mostly come across as normal people who moved a lot of units and across a couple projects.
Sources
Wikipedia – Tom Tom Club
jambands.com, interview with Chris Frantz (2001)
Music Radar, interview with Frantz and Weymouth (2012)
Quietus, interview with Frantz and Weymouth (2012)
About the Sampler
Call it about ¾ songs I like – and I liked a lot of Tom Tom Club’s body of work – and ¼ songs I think belong on a sampler they defined the band’s sound/body of work. And “body of work” fits, because, while the collection of instruments doesn’t change much, the tones and structures are all over the place/. Stuff you’d expect from audiophiles who have the talent and sensibility to take in influences and make them their own, basically, only they never stopped taking things in for as long as Tom Tom Club stayed together.
Now, the actual songs. By album, and I linked only to songs that I hadn’t already above.
Tom Tom Club: “Genius of Love,” “Wordy Rappinghood,” and “L’Elephant” (the latter because, 1) I like it, and 2) it points to the “takings things in”)
Close to the Bone: “The Man with the 4-Way Hips” "Pleasure of Love," and (best one/one of their best), “Never Took a Penny” (the way they mix up their sound...right up my alley)
Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom: “Femme Fatale,” “Suboceana” (did well in the UK), “Don’t Say No,” plus, two little sonic oddities, “Little Eva” and “She Belongs to Me”
Dark Sneak Love Action: “Sunshine and Ecstasy,” “Irresistible Party Dip” (the B-52s things come thru, if 15 years later), “Dogs in the Trash,” and a flat-out cuddly cover of Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing”
The Good The Bad The Funky: “Time to Bounce,” “Who Feelin’ It,” and “Superdreaming,” which offer...just such a nice spread of sounds and tones, all of them very pleasant
Downtown Rockers: the moody, creepy, guitar-heavy (for them) “Won’t Give You Up” and the name-drop drunk ode to the 1970s NYC underground, “Downtown Rockers”
Till the next one...
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