Talking Heads are preparing to chronicle their wild, wild life in music. The legendary art-punk quartet announced a coffee-table book chronicling their career, New Feeling, on Wednesday (Oct. 21), described as an “upbeat, offbeat, over-the-top celebration” of the band featuring original essays from singer David Byrne, drummer Chris Frantz, bassist Tina Weymouth and guitarist/keyboardist Jerry Harrison.
The first authorized book by all four members will be published on May 18, 2027 in coordination with the 50th anniversary of the band’s debut album, Talking Heads: 77. According to publisher Abrams Books, the collection traces the “loose chronology” of the group from their formation at the Rhode Island School of Design to their emergence as the “as clean-cut newcomers generating propulsive grooves in the gritty downtown music scene at New York’s CBGB, through studio album releases, breakout hits like ‘Burning Down the House,’ international live tours, and ultimately to Jonathan Demme’s dazzling 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, which saw a rapturous revival in movie theaters in 2023.”
In addition to the band essays, the 368-page book will feature the handwritten lyrics for “Psycho Killer,” “Life During Wartime” and other classics, as well as annotated concert playlists, album cover sketches, film and video storyboards — including behind-the-scenes material from the films True Stories and Stop Making Sense — and essays by contemporary musicians and writers including Jeff Bridges, Dave Eggers, Blondie’s Debbie Harry, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Lorde, Questlove and James Wolcott.
The large-format book will feature hundreds of images as well as personal, performance and studio photographs from throughout their years of recording.
In a video announcement, Weymouth said, “for the first time, the four of us have come together to write and curate a comprehensive coffee table book on Talking Heads.” Harrison added that among the treasures in the collection are personal photos that haven’t left the band’s archive in more than 40 years, as well as album sketches and other rare keepsakes.
The quartet’s final studio album, Naked, was released in 1988, three years before Byrne left the group; the remaining trio soldiered on as the Shrunken Heads at first and then, in 1996, released an album called No Talking, Just Head as the Heads before calling it quits. The Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2002 — where they reunited to perform some of their most beloved hits — and have appeared together a handful of times over the past few years, including in 2023 to promote the remastered 40th anniversary re-release of Stop Making Sense.
