Tina Weymouth: Talking Heads’ Unsung Hero 

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Tina may be underrated in some circles, but from what I have seen on youtube she is very well respected among bass players.

Tina is who every bass player should be using as their gold standard in a band. She’s the quintessential bassist. You can sing all of her lines.

Anyone who doubts her melodic genius should check out her bass line on born under punches

I never realised how much of a genius she was. I have loved talking Heads since 1980, especially Tina's funky Bass, but when you understand WHY she was playing what she was playing, wow, I had no idea.

I named my bass Tina. She’s fantastic.

She became an integral part of the band. Not too shabby to then have Tom Tom Club on your résumé.

Her bass playing in 'Take Me to the River" is SO groovin' and addictive! She adds SO much to that song, it's better than the original.

All hail Tina! She is definitely Talking Heads' not-so-secret weapon. Thank you for this thoughtful look at her contributions to my favorite genre of music.

Never showing off, always functional. That's a hard thing for many bassists. Btw, I enjoyed the quotes you had of her. Clearly she has thought about everything deeply and any limitations that people see in her playing are completely intended.

She did the old school real school study of music harmony! Brilliant creativity

Thank God for all the 'someones' on RU-vid. Nothing like a nameless hero

Tina is an absolute unit

Tina is the very paradigm of the underrated but brilliant bass player. Duck Dunn would be another example.

The reluctant genius. I can see the look in her eyes in the early clips,where she is just hanging on to it. And then,simply and simple solid stuff. Outside the box.

Thankyou it is sooo inpotertent, to wimen revolution. And nice to No more about Tina. Ik liked her and do. She is/ was the STIL POWER of TH. Ik think.THANK you an Tina.

Her playing is why I play the bass guitar she is awesome on bass

I have long thought of Tina Weymouth's style as "I'm Learning as I Go:" the longer the performance, the better she got. My favorite example: live performance of Houses in Motion.

Always enjoyed Tina's bass lines. So important to the band. I wish you have shown more examples.

I agree but Suzi Quatro is a bass icon too and needs recognition as well.

Being a musician myself, I love Tina's bass playing.

Honestly, I like the sound of the line in the song Once in a Lifetime. She she had a solid harmony groove on it

She does have a great sound, she's a natural.

When Talking Heads came around it was like nothing I'd heard before, and Tina's basslines were a major part of that uniqueness. The way my brain works the bass guitar in a song barely registers, I can't seem to pick it out, but Tina's playing burst through clearly, much to my delight. I've answered "Best Bass Guitar Player" polls with "Tina Weymouth" plenty of times. Love her work.

She’s great. And some would say she the underachiever in the family. Seriously, she has quite a family of successful people. Dad, brother, sister…

Thank you for that bio on Tina!! I've kind of been a misfit when it comes to knowing where I fit musically. I've always enjoyed several of the Talking Heads songs but I had no idea about Tina and I'm so glad that you shared this with the outside world. I love the bass guitar! Between the drums, bass and vocals, it's beautiful to hear them synchronize. I'm 58 and probably too old to be joining a band by by God, I'm going tear it up on the bass even if it's in my own living room! Thank God for Tina Weymouth and Johnette Napolitano. Talent and style 💯

She is so wonderful ❤

Saw the Tom Tom Club at a Reggae festival twenty years ago. They were the hit of day filled with excellent music.

Thanks A Brilliant artist 🎉 with amazing talents .

Tina-love you! I miss records like REMAIN IN LIGHT

Yes, yes and yes. But it didn't hurt that she was adorable.

There is no talking heads without Tina she was and inspirational influence on 80s music and female guitarist Mushlove tina

Thanks for sharing.

Totally Enjoyed Tina's Bass Playing

Really enjoyed this, I've always overlooked TW as a bassist, will have to give her work more of a listen.

Tina’s basslines are downright addictive and a lesson to wannabe virtuoso pretentious bass players

Great info. Thanks for sharing. Cheers.

The bass line In Speaking in Tongues' I Get Wild is totally out of nowhere. Holy crap what an amazing invention.

She is a huge part of their sound. So few people seem to realize that. Check out Burning Down The House in the live movie. She completely dropped the bass and made a simple line that's both funky and mechanical on a keyboard. The song has incredible drive.

Amazing artist

I’m surprised you didn’t mention that she didn’t record the bass part on Genius Of Love.

2:45 That's definite.That's the cause why she was so astounding.

Happy Belated 🎉 Birthday Tina!!!

Great story, Subbed. Thank you!

*Tina will always be underrated. Rightfully so*

There's some things wrong here. She did know how to play guitar, piano and flute. She even played in bands before.

Great video!

Luv me some Tina

The Ringo Starr of Bass

I saw Talking Heads at UCLA in 1978 (or 1979?) when the only song I had ever heard by them was Take Me to the River on the radio. What is the one thing from that show that I remember most clearly to this day? Tina's bass line on Found a Job. Been a fan from that day forward.

She was a brilliant player. Most top end rock bass players are self-taught with no formal training. {:o:O:}

"The Great Curve" is torrential. I love that track.

Tina Weymouth is a fantastic bass player, but I wouldn’t call her an “unsung hero”, as she’s garnered the utmost respect in the music industry.

vERY nice

Adrian Belew might be famously from King Crimson but he toured with Talking Heads before joining with KC. I'm not sure Genius of Love is Tom Tom Club's biggest hit, I think in most places Wordyrappinghood was a higher charting single, although GoL is their most famous song as it's one of the most sampled records in music.

She's a masterful player, like Ringo's drumming in The Beatles.

Not a musician so I don't know if TIna is an icon or not. I do know I really enjoyed her bass playing and seemed to be a perfect fit in the band.

Tina is my favorite member of Talking Heads, she brings such a unique approach to their sound, and she still looks good too (:

But she didn't play bass on "Genus of Love". She was injured.

Weymouth was a DIY Goddess!

I saw a video recently about meg from the white stripes, and this video reminded me of it… That they are both women is the obvious thing, but the important thing is the untrained, unaffected natural creativity, unblemished by copying other’s lessons and training… and the ability to do what is good for the song, rather than what strokes the ego or is technically impressive. I love musicians who have those traits

Wonder how Tina Weymouth thinks about being referred to the 'rug in a dude's room'?

By the way her dad was a world war 2 us navy pilot flying in the Pacific.

I heard Genuis of Love bass line is not done by her ( if I'm wrong please correct me)...if this is so really hurts the argument of how great she was.....

Alongside John McVie, Geddy Lee and John Paul Jones in my list of best bass players. 😊

Saw them in 1977 in a small theatre venue. Thought they were awful lol they got better

She was more than proficient in acoustic guitar going back to her HS days…. So there was a musical foundation there…

Putting ego down and playing for the song was easy for her, but harder for her bandmates

You had to be different to play bass for Talking Heads. David Byrne was one eccentric, quirky, and funky dude.

In The Pocket, solid lady bassist…

"Once In A Lifetime" has a repetitive bass line that is simple yet indispensable to the song's arrangement. Tina's lack of formal training prior to joining Talking Heads allowed her to develop a unique style that wasn't beholden to conventional playing techniques.

Shes also one of the writers on some of the best hip hop songs!

She is great from learning the bass like that

She's awesome. But it's noted that she didn't come up with the bassline for "Genius of Love." That was another musician playing. She was incapacitated at the time with bad hand cramps and the studio clock was ticking.

Always liked Tina Weymouth. When you listen to the records, "you" me or anyone won't be likely to think, "That bassist is a girl!" That's the best thing we get out of music. Then you see Tina, Susanna Hoffs, Jane Wiedlin or Zooey Deschanel and go...talented *and* lovely? Hmmm...

Time for the obligatory mention of the fact that Tina did not play the bass line for genius of love on the Tom Tom record. Not that she couldn’t she had just played herself out. Her hand cramped up after hours of playing, and the studio engineer was recruited to record the bassline.

Functional and as a bsnd front man for many years, I would have had her in a band. GREAT? Not.

Can we hear her play..........

Everybody loves a female bass player

Every rock band has an “unsung hero“ it seems: Beatles: George Harrison Stones: Brian Jones Led Zepoelin: John Paul Jones Etc...etc...etc

Hopefully she never gets treated like the Dude's rug!

There is a lack of examples of her music for all the chat

So why did they want her to join for 2 years before she did if she couldn’t play bass or had any musical training?

Really ??? 🤔 Chris Squire/ John Wetton/ Geddy Lee/ Les Claypool/ John Entwistle are Bass Icons !! 🎶🎼

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !

All the Dude wanted... was his rug back.

Fender Musicmaster bass not Precision bass

Underrated? I don' think so, anyone who knows knows she's a phenomenal bassist. That being said she's not in my top 10 or 20 bassist just like she wouldn't be in most. Does that mean she's underrated? Maybe, it's subjective. Who would you substitute her for in your top 10/20?

Please join my band, and by the way, could you possibly learn how to play an instrument just a thought!

You left out their best songs and best bass lines, just so you could have something muso bore to say that you thought was _"clever clever."_ {:o:O:}

Talk about a phenomenal WOMAN??!!!

She really seems to hate David Byrne. I don't think I've seen an interview with her where she doesn't launch into some kind of character assassination of him. Once I read her complaining that some of Byrne's solo albums could have been Talking Heads albums, and it was really selfish of Byrne not to cut her and Frantz in on them, jeez Tina I wonder why he doesn't call you?

Sixto Rodriguez is worthy.... "The Sugarman"......

I don't think she is underrated at all. Anyone who knows music would hold her in very high esteem. She pathed the way for the likes of women bassists such as Kim Deal, Kim Gordon, Paz Lenchantin and many more. Personally I think the last quote in this video was spot on "If it weren't for Tina Weymouth, Talking Heads would be just another band"

I’m female, so context…. Weymouth was not officially accepted into the band, and the writer of this video claims that she says it was because she was female. Then goes onto to say that she doesn’t actually know how to play the bass. So… WTF?

One unfortunate thing that can not be forgotten is that she is a horrible person, she has made several bizarre claims that byrne killed a brazilian child with voodoo, that he has some kind of psychic firewall, and that people should "watch out for that autism". she also tried to kick byrne out of the band in 1980 and replace him with Adrian Belew but belew declined the offer of a band coop.

Noooo my brother, Lil Ellen Alaverdyan is an icon. She may not have the Production skills but look out.😳👌🏾

I have no idea why David Byrne spent half of his professional life stating Martina Weymouth wasn't a skilled enough musician. Dude, really? And it was with the complicity of producer Brian Eno that he hired B.C. Jones to play on Remain In Light, both the album and the tour (although sometimes Jones would also nicely slap his bass, a technique Tina doesn't [know how to] use). But then again, what can you expect from a guy who said he used to have Asperger autism but has eventually overcame it!? Sure, Dave, like it's the flu, right? And don't get me started on royalties. One day TH manager told Chris & Tina that Tom Tom Club were #1 in whatever chart. Byrne looked outside the Rolls Royce window pretending he hadn't heard the news, only not to greet his two mates. Too bad cause I really admire the man as an artist but, gee...

How many rock musicians have an "academic training"? Being formally self-taught is just as valid as being "academically trained."

Psycho killer was written by the group. Byrne always tried to take credit for everything.