1988 => Musical Couples: Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz

Talking Heads: Mr Jones

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In honor of Valentine’s Day, we will be celebrating the works of musical couples this week. It is difficult to mix a musical career and a love life, even if you are in a band together, so I imagine that some of our couples will be history. But I wanted to begin with one of the most successful rock marriages, that of Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz. They were married in 1977, prior to the release of the first Talking Heads album. That band would break up by 1990, but Frantz and Weymouth are still together, as is their other band, Tom Tom Club. The two have also produced albums together for other artists, and made guest appearances on drums and bass.

1988 saw the release of what would be the last Talking Heads album, Naked. Mr Jones shows mostly David Byrne’s growing interest in Latin music, but Frantz and Weymouth show their usual talent for solid rhythm of all sorts. Talking Heads were able to do everything from a cover of Take Me to the River to songs with African-inspired rhythms, and Frantz and Weymouth never faltered. Also in 1988, Tom Tom Club released their third album, Boom Boom Chi Boom Boom. I don’t have any mp3s from that one, but I found the video for Suboceana. I believe that is Tina Weymouth in the jellyfish gown, preceding Bjork’s more famous swan gown by several years.



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