Talking Heads' 3CD Version Of "Tentative Decisions Demos & Live Arrives March 6 With Unreleased 1975 CBS Demos And Early Live Recordings
BLACK-VINYL EDITION AVAILABLE THE SAME DAY WITH EARLY RECORDINGS ON LP, PAIRED WITH THE ARTISTICS’ “PSYCHO KILLER” DEMO ON 7”
PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED CBS DEMO OF “LOVE GOES TO A BUILDING ON FIRE” AVAILABLE TODAY DIGITALLY LISTEN NOW
(January 21, 2026 - Los Angeles, CA) Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live offers an unprecedented look at Talking Heads’ earliest years. Arriving March 6 from Talking Heads and Rhino, the 3CD collection charts the rapid evolution of the original trio—David Byrne, Chris Frantz, and Tina Weymouth—through a trove of newly unearthed demos and live recordings.
The set builds on last year’s 11-song collection released for RSD Black Friday, adding 15 unreleased demos made for CBS in September 1975, and more than a dozen unreleased live recordings from the band’s first two years in New York.
Also available March 6 is a black-vinyl edition of Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live. Originally released last year on clear vinyl for RSD Black Friday, it includes 10 early demos and a live track recorded at the Ocean Club in 1976. It comes with a 7” single featuring The Artistics’ 1974 recordings of “Psycho Killer” and “Warning Sign.”
The CBS demo for “Love Goes To A Building On Fire” is available digitally today. Listen Now.
After relocating from Rhode Island to New York City in early 1975, Byrne, Frantz, and Weymouth began recording early demos with their late friend, J.R. Rost, to get an idea of what they sounded like; those recordings open the collection. That September, at the request of Mark Spector, they recorded an album’s worth of demos at CBS Studios. The session didn’t result in a contract, but it did preserve early versions of songs that would form the backbone of Talking Heads’ first two albums: “Don’t Worry About The Government,” “The Book I Read,” “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel,” and “Stay Hungry.”
Tentative Decisions also uncovers a cache of live recordings from 1976 and 1977, capturing the band at key moments. The October 1976 performance at Max’s Kansas City took place just a few weeks before the group met with Seymour Stein and signed to Sire Records. A few months later, the January 1977 show at The Jabberwocky Club in Syracuse would be among the last by the original trio before Jerry Harrison joined in March.
The earliest recordings on Tentative Decisions reach back to The Artistics, the band Frantz and Byrne formed while they were students at the Rhode Island School of Design. Recorded in 1974 at Frantz’s apartment on Benefit Street in Providence, the demo represents the earliest known recordings of “Psycho Killer” and “Warning Sign.”
In the liner notes, Frantz says The Artistics’ aspiration to become the RISD house band—entertaining friends with covers of The Kinks, Motown, and Al Green—changed when they began writing their own songs. “One day, David knocked on the door of the painting studio Tina and I shared,” Frantz recalls. “He played us the first verse and chorus of ‘Psycho Killer,’ which sounded promising.” Byrne asked Weymouth, who spoke French, to write lyrics for the bridge while Frantz added some verses—and so it began.
Tentative Decisions: Demos & Live continues a series of archival releases launched last year as Talking Heads began celebrating the band’s 50th anniversary. One of the most influential groups of their era, Talking Heads helped shape modern music and expand the creative possibilities of the music video—most recently with the premiere of a new “Psycho Killer” video directed by Mike Mills and starring Saoirse Ronan.
TENTATIVE DECISIONS: DEMOS & LIVE
3CD Track Listing
Disc One
1. “Psycho Killer” (September 1975 Demo)
2. “Tentative Decisions” (September 1975 Demo)
3. “No Compassion” (September 1975 Demo)
4. “Warning Sign” (September 1975 Demo)
5. “I’m Not in Love” (1976 Demo)
6. “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” (1976 Demo)
7. “The Book I Read” (1976 Demo)
8. “I Wish You Wouldn’t Say That” (1976 Demo)
9. “Love Goes To A Building On Fire” (1976 Demo)
10. “Happy Day” (1976 Demo)
11. “Artists Only” (Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, New York, NY, 8/17/76)
12. “Psycho Killer” – The Artistics
13. “Warning Sign” – The Artistics
Disc Two
CBS Demos (September 1975)
1. “Psycho Killer” *
2. “Sugar On My Tongue” *
3. “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” *
4. “I Want To Live” *
5. “I Wish You Wouldn’t Say That” *
6. “The Girls Want To Be With The Girls” *
7. “Who Is It?” *
8. “With Our Love” *
9. “Stay Hungry” *
10. “Tentative Decisions” *
11. “Warning Sign” *
12. “I’m Not In Love” *
13. “The Book I Read” *
14. “Love Goes To A Building On Fire” *
15. “No Compassion” *
Disc Three
Live at Max’s Kansas City, New York, NY (10/9/76)
1. “Artists Only” *
2. “1, 2, 3 Red Light” *
3. “Happy Day” *
4. “Don’t Worry About The Government” *
5. “Psycho Killer” *
6. “Love Goes To A Building On Fire” *
7. “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” *
8. “With Our Love” *
9. “Pablo Picasso” *
10. “I’m Not In Love” *
Live at the Jabberwocky Club, Syracuse, NY (1/26/77)
11. “No Compassion” *
12. “New Feeling” *
13. “Psycho Killer” *
14. “A Clean Break (Let’s Work)” *
15. “Sugar On My Tongue” *
Live at the Lower Manhattan Ocean Club, New York, NY (8/17/76)
16. “I Wish You Wouldn’t Say That” *
17. “Take Me To The River” *
TENTATIVE DECISIONS: DEMOS & LIVE
LP Track Listing
Side One
1. “Psycho Killer” (September 1975 Demo)
2. “Tentative Decisions” (September 1975 Demo)
3. “No Compassion” (September 1975 Demo)
4. “Warning Sign” (September 1975 Demo)
5. “I’m Not In Love” (1976 Demo)
Side Two
1. “Thank You For Sending Me An Angel” (1976 Demo)
2. “The Book I Read” (1976 Demo)
3. “I Wish You Wouldn’t Say That” (1976 Demo)
4. “Love Goes To A Building On Fire” (1976 Demo)
5. “Happy Day” (1976 Demo)
6. “Artists Only” (Live At The Ocean Club, New York, NY (8/17/76))
7” Single
A. “Psycho Killer” – The Artistics
B. “Warning Sign” – The Artistics
* Previously Unreleased
.png)
