Girlfriend Is Better

The pictures from the past two years convey a much more yuppified impression of his early 80s persona than was actually the case (for the record, the cowboy hat was being worn ironically, although he still has it to this day).  In truth, he was barely getting by, managing a redneck well-drilling crew in South Georgia and struggling to survive on the meager state-employee salary. By 1983, though, he was handling rattlesnakes and Speaking In Tongues.

Generally speaking, he was a big fan of the band Talking Heads back then.  Thirty-one years later, he was quite pleasantly surprised to hear that young, local bands would be performing a song-by-song cover of the album Speaking In Tongues in its entirety.  Reviewing that show, he wrote:

From my perspective, Talking Heads' artistic pinnacle was their previous album, Remain In Light, but Speaking In Tongues still holds a special place in my heart.  I was 29 years old when the album came out in 1983, and for some reason, it's always felt to me like "my" Talking Heads album - the one written and recorded by the band with me in mind. This is purely projection, I know, but it was released when I was at that precipice in life when I was finally old enough to critically discern and select among the bands to which I listened but still young enough not to feel self-conscious about my enthusiasms, and to believe that the band was performing, if not for me directly, at least with someone like me in mind.  In any event, I loved the album and played it incessantly for several months of 1983.

The picture above was taken by one of those friends who had also moved down south after he had arrived. She became a co-worker, and even though the girlfriend he left behind in Boston never moved down, the co-worker who did eventually became his new girlfriend.