Burning Down the House

“Riveting…In a gripping narrative, Gould traces Talking Heads’ journey from their hometowns to their art schools, Chrystie Street loft, and eventual global stardom. He sharply analyzes their work and includes rich portraits of individuals, art movements, and music scenes in their orbit.”  — New York Post“Like with his now-classic book Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, And America, Gould infuses his writing with an indelible sense of time and place, making the music feel like part of the scenery and vice versa.”— AV Club”Well-wrought, insightful…Gould is a superb stylist” — Washington Post”A masterful achievement.“  — Booklist (starred review)“Talking Heads fans, rejoice!…a comprehensive biography of the seminal band that injected an art school vibe into popular music and forever changed rock ‘n’ roll…Gould, a former professional musician, writes exceedingly well about music.” — Associated Press“The story of this band, its world, and its impact—a tale of fruitfully conflicting personalities, social politics, art, and luck (good and bad) has been taken up before…But it has never been told as fully and vividly as Jonathan Gould tells it in Burning Down the House: Talking Heads and the New York Scene That Transformed Rock. Gould, a former professional drummer and the author of books on Otis Redding and the Beatles, writes with clarity and musical acumen on a period in American musical history that rock writers tend to romanticize and inflate.” — The Nation”Definitive…Not just for Talking Heads fans—it’s a masterful dive into downtown New York in the 70s, and the changing face of rock music.” — Town & Country“Goes deep into the group’s history and impact, while paralleling the socioeconomical challenges facing New York at the time.” — Rolling Stone“Well-researched and impressive, this is the definitive history of Talking Heads, which will appeal to anyone interested in modern rock.” — Library Journal (starred review)“Gould delivers a colorful and expansive genealogy of the band and the scruffy downtown music scene they helped form…devoted Talking Heads fans will want to pick this up.” — Publishers Weekly““Well written and informative…Fans of the band will find much to appreciate here.” — Kirkus Reviews“Music biographer Gould tells the definitive story of the Talking Heads and the gritty New York City scene that birthed them in this overdue account, out just in time for the 50th anniversary of the band’s founding.” — The Millions

Jonathan Gould is a writer and a former professional musician. A contributing writer for The New Yorker, he is the author of Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America and Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life. He currently divides his time between Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Livingston, NY.