The drummer of Talking Heads and Tom Tom Club looks back on a remarkable career in rock and roll, life in New York City's punk heyday, and his 43-year marriage to the woman who is both his bandmate and soulmate.
For the most part, Frantz delivers just the right amount of information about rehearsing, writing songs, recording, touring and managing interpersonal relationships within the band and its management team. Musicians will enjoy hearing about the group’s myriad musical and production collaborations and often unusual writing and recording processes, but Frantz explains things clearly and succinctly enough to keep anyone engaged in his tales. He also namechecks an incredible array of people who come into his orbit ... Beneath the surface of all the great gigs and unlikely encounters, however, Frantz does have an ax to grind ... While Frantz’s memoir is generally well-paced, two exceptions make for distractions. When recounting the Talking Heads’ first tour of Europe as a support act for the Ramones, Frantz suddenly shares far too much detail about every city visited and every show played ... These chapters could have been edited down to the exceptional details also shared in them. Conversely, near book’s end....Frantz casually mentions his outpatient treatment for cocaine and alcohol bingeing ... This merits a single paragraph and is left unexplored elsewhere. Thankfully, Frantz shares plenty of other stories more deftly
Frantz tells the story of the early days of the New York scene with admirable recall, evoking a cultural moment when anything could happen, and often did ... Unlike so many rock-star memoirs, Remain in Love...doesn’t recount a fall into the horrors of addiction and subsequent recovery, or rail against the vampires in the record business. Presumably, neither is part of the story, which is refreshing. Frantz is not a polished writer, but that’s forgivable in the rush of enthusiasm he has for the story. Also refreshing is the lack of a neat ending ... a worthy addition to any shelf of rock memoirs.
Frantz...doesn't pull any punches, but he also makes clear that there aren't really any bridges left to Byrne. ... The setup might lead you to expect a real dishy read, but the reality is that Talking Heads were never Mötley Cruë ... Remain In Love should help buttress the conviction that Talking Heads were a truly collaborative unit ... Remain In Love is a memory-dump memoir, but there are plenty of music fans who will be more than happy to download these memories. Frantz makes a point of describing just how down-and-out the Bowry was; Remain In Love is an apt companion piece to Debbie Harry's recent memoir[.]
