An early demo of the Talking Heads’ classic “Psycho Killer” is part of the band’s Record Store Day Black Friday release, Tentative Decisions: Demos and Live, and drummer Chris Frantz is happy fans are getting to hear it.
The song was recorded in the early ’70s when he and bandmates David Byrne and Tina Weymouth were a cover band, The Artistics, playing on the Rhode Island School of Design campus.
“I think the real fans will recognize the songs in their demo form,” Frantz told The Boston Globe. He notes “it was three amateurs in front of one microphone in a dusty apartment on Benefit Street, so technologically it’s not brilliant or anything like that. Quite the opposite.”
He adds, “But it’s got an excitement to it and it’s got a real, I think, rock ‘n’ spirit. I’m very happy with it.”
The Record Store Day release also includes The Artistics’ demo of the More Songs about Buildings and Food track “Warning Signs,” as well as other tracks recorded by the trio between 1975 and 1976.
“In our early years in New York before we made any records, you can see the songs evolving over time, and they really did evolve as we got better and more refined in our listening and our thinking,” Frantz said. “I’m very happy that this is coming out because it’s, you know, to me, it’s an important cultural artifact.”
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