Directed by Mike Mills, the visuals follow Ronan as she tries to make it through the daily work grind
Fifty years ago, the Talking Heads performed for the first time, opening for the Ramones at CBGB. They’d go on to become one of the most influential art-house bands in music history, leaving fans with tons of iconic songs over the decades. Today, they’re celebrating their anniversary by reminding people of one specific classic: They’ve released a video for “Psycho Killer,” the first song they ever wrote as a band.
“Psycho Killer” ended up on the band’s 1977 album Talking Heads: 77 but never got a video — until now. The newly released visuals were directed by Mike Mills and star actress Saoirse Ronan, following her as she goes through a spectrum of emotions before eventually losing it a little bit.
“This video makes the song better,” the band said in a statement. “We LOVE what this video is NOT – it’s not literal, creepy, bloody, physically violent or obvious.” To coincide with the anniversary, the band has announced the super deluxe edition of their album More Songs About Buildings and Food.
Trending Stories
Last September, the band released an acoustic version of the song recorded with the late musician Arthur Russell nearly five decades ago. “We knew cellist and singer/songwriter Arthur Russell from the downtown world. He died early from AIDS, and during his life, he released very disparate records,” David Byrne had shared in a statement then. “He left a huge legacy of recordings, which are still filtering out 40 years after his passing.”
That acoustic version of “Psycho Killer” is part of a reissue of Talking Heads: 77, which came out in November and features tons of unreleased material from the band’s archives.