Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)

Talking Heads, 1980, from Remain in Light. Solo by Adrian Belew.

Belew's squealing, synth-like bursts stab through the polyrhythms, sounding almost nothing like a traditional guitar solo.

Born Under Punches opens Remain in Light with a dense web of interlocking polyrhythms, and Adrian Belew's guitar bursts through it like nothing else on the record. Using the whammy bar and effects, he produces squealing, synth-like stabs that barely resemble a conventional guitar solo. Rather than building long melodic lines, his playing works as sudden punctuation, cutting across the steady groove. It showed how rock guitar could serve texture and shock as much as melody, a lesson many post-punk and art-rock players absorbed. Listen for the moments when a Belew squall erupts from the mix, bends wildly in pitch and then vanishes, leaving the tightly locked rhythm section to carry on as if nothing happened.

Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On) by Talking Heads is ranked #239 in our consensus of 79 guitar-solo lists. The solo is played by Adrian Belew and the song was released in 1980. It appears on 2 lists, placing as high as #5 (Medium (Dondestan)).

In our lists

• The 25 Greatest New Wave Guitar Solos — #3
• Rolling Stone vs. Everyone — #14
• The Best Talking Heads Guitar Solos — #4

Sources

• Medium (Dondestan): Greatest Guitar Solos, Ranked — #5
• Rolling Stone: The 100 Greatest Guitar Solos of All Time — #83