ally existed? Is there any Egyptian or Babylonian
reference to Moses?
DB: They found footprints on the bottom of the
Red Sea ...
CF: There was never any doubt in my mind, Jer.
DB:... a burnt bush ...
TW: They found remains in the desert that were
Neanderthal and that are the direct ancestors of
the Jewish tribe.
DB: ... they have these two big tablets down at
Epcot Center ...
TW: You know, that really is fascinating that it
dates that far back.
DB: I read that Neanderthals had a larger brain
capacity than we do now. By all accounts, they
were actually sharper and smarter because they
had to survive by their wits ...
TW: It's the reverse.
DB: ... and as we became more sedentary and
agrarian, we didn't need to be as smart. Our hey-
day was years ago.
JH: It's all been downhill since then.
TW: It's not that. Neanderthal man had a larger
frontal lobe, which is considered the seat of
logic. Neanderthal man relied on a much greater
amount of intuition.
JH: Tina, really, where did you learn that the
Jews were descended from Neanderthals?
TW: In anthropology at Columbia.
JH: Really?
TW: Uh-huh.
JH: Boy, I never heard ...
TW: When I went to Barnard.
CF: Those were the days.
TW: The Neanderthals were such a remarkable
f
Eatkit
Group portrait (1988):
'Part of what keeps us
together after all this
time is the friendship
thing,'says Frantz.
'We're all still good
friends'
DEBORAH FEINGOLD
race, but they were defeated by Cro-Magnon-
who, of course, was deposed by Homo sapiens. Cro-
Magnon was a more logical, strategic fighter.
JH: Then how come ... well, there's a counter-
argument there.
TW: Well, of course, because it's all theory, like
whether we're going to tour or not. It's all theory.
It's, like, not going to happen.
Touring, or, rather, the lack of it, seems to be the
only source of tension within the band at the mo-
ment. (Friction over the increased media attention
that's usually given to Byrne seems to have been
taken care of.) It's been four years since Talking
Heads last performed live, and everyone would like
togoon the road,butthey can't findthetime. "Can't
be in two places at the same time," says Byrne.
Maybe later in the summer, after Harrison's solo
tour is over and the Tom Tom Club album is fin-
ished,but Byrne'smovie work mightgetin the way,
and there's a chance that Tom Tom Club might
tour. Still, this logjam of activity should not be
interpreted as a sign that the group is pulling apart
into separate orbits. "Talking Heads is clearly ev-
erybody's main loyalty," says Frantz. "It's Talking
Heads that enables us to do outside things."
Such good friends
CF: Part of what keeps us together after all this
time is the friendship thing. That we get back
together. It's the one thing that we all have in
common these days. Fortunately, we're all still
good friends, and it confirms it when we get togeth-
er. We still manage to come up with, to my way of
thinking, really good stuff.
JH: There's also an ease to it. You can play with
really, really great players. But there's something
hard to define about what it's like to play with
someone you've played with for years. You have
these shared assumptions. I mean, the idea that we
wrote the basis for this whole album in 10 days. I've
spent a lot of 10 days with other musicians and you
get like two songs, maybe, or one song. We got the
music for this whole album. And a lot of that has to
do with not having to learn how to work together.
You just kind of start.
TW: This is kind of mushy. I'm married to Chris,
so we're obviously friends. But Jerry and David-
they're still my best friends. They know where I'm
coming from and they understand me. And I un-
derstand them, in a way that other people just
don't. I'm lucky to have some wonderful friends,
but I really haven't made any better friends since
them. I imagine that's why we held together for so
long. Because we have a lot of interesting, stimu-
lating relationships with other people. (Sigh.) It's
very sentimental. But I love David and Jerry and
Chris. And I love what they do. I still love it after all
this time. I guess we'll still love each other when
we're 90. Even if we don't agree all the time,
because we're like four chefs now in one kitchen.
But there's still that love and respect that brought
us together in the first place. It's very mushy. You
better change the subject.
Cappuccinos: Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, David Byrne.
Double espresso: Chris Frantz. No dessert
4
14 NEWSWEEK ON CAMPUS
MAYv19RR