“Mr. Jones” by Talking Heads

"Mr. Jones" turns up on Naked, the 1988 record that turned out to be Talking Heads' last studio album, and it's the band throwing the windows open after the tidier pop of Little Creatures and True Stories. Like the rest of Naked, it grew out of loose jams taped in Paris, with David Byrne adding words and vocals back in New York, and Steve Lillywhite produced alongside the band.

And what a racket: trumpets, saxophones and a bass trombone blaring over Chris Frantz's drums and Tina Weymouth's bass, Manolo Badrena rattling congas, cowbell and wood block, and Mory Kanté's kora slipping through the gaps, with Byrne on guitar and Jerry Harrison on keyboards. It's Latin funk run through an art-school brain, a party that doesn't know the band is about to go on hiatus.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.