251 - Talking Talking Heads w/ Jonathan Gould

Jonathan Gould's latest book is "Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock" (Meridian Books 2025). Gould has previously written books about The Beatles and Otis Redding -- his shorter works appear in The New Yorker. Gould is a New York City native; he attended ballgames at The Polo Grounds as a child and is a Mets fan.

Jonathan Gould's Website -  https://www.jonathangouldauthor.com/

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction
• 3:14 Talking Heads early engagement with African-American music
• 6:10 When you're young you'll put up with a lot of stuff
• 9:59 The art of writing about the music
• 15:02 On the cover of The Village Voice
• 22:08 Jerry Harrison had already been through the ringer
• 23:16 David v. Tina: David was supposed to be doing what I'm doing right now
• 28:26 Individual ambition meets a communial, collective institution
• 33:54 Each album would be different than the one before it
• 42:29 Jonathan Gould's favorites (today)
• 47:50 Do we even want to see a Talking Heads reunion tour?
• 51:26 Jonathan Gould was a Willie Mays fan and is now a Mets fan
• 58:51 Coda