Years active 1971–present Name Jerry Harrison | Role Songwriter | |
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Birth name Jeremiah Griffin Harrison Born February 21, 1949 (age 75)
Milwaukee, Wisconsin United States ( 1949-02-21 ) Genres New wave, indie pop, rock and roll, art rock Occupation(s) Musician, songwriter, record producer Instruments Vocals, keyboards, guitar Labels EMI, Sire/Warner Bros. Records Music groups Talking Heads (1977 – 2002), The Modern Lovers (1971 – 1974), The Heads (1996) Movies Stop Making Sense, True Stories, Take Me to the River Albums Casual Gods, The Red and the Black, Walk on Water, Remain in Light, Talking Heads: 77 | ||
Jerry Harrison - Man With a Gun video
Jeremiah Griffin Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is an American songwriter, musician and producer. He achieved fame as the keyboardist and guitarist for the New Wave band Talking Heads and as an original member of The Modern Lovers.
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Career
Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Harrison played with Jonathan Richman in The Modern Lovers when he was an architecture student at Harvard University. Harrison was introduced to Richman by mutual friend and journalist Danny Fields and the pair bonded over their shared love of the Velvet Underground. He joined The Modern Lovers in early 1971, playing on their debut album in 1972 (not released until 1976), and left in February 1974 when Richman wished to perform his songs more quietly.
Harrison joined Talking Heads in 1977; after the release of their debut single Love → Building on Fire.
Harrison's solo albums include The Red and the Black, Casual Gods, and Walk on Water.
After the 1991 breakup of Talking Heads, Harrison turned to producing and worked on successful albums by bands including Hockey, Violent Femmes, The BoDeans, The Von Bondies, General Public, Live, Crash Test Dummies, The Verve Pipe, Rusted Root, Stroke 9, The Bogmen, Black 47, Of A Revolution, No Doubt, Josh Joplin, The Black and White Years, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Bamboo Shoots, the String Cheese Incident and The Gracious Few. He also is Chairman of the Board for Garageband.com ("an internet music resource he co-founded in 1999").
Film work
Harrison, as a member of Talking Heads, is featured throughout the 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme. Also during the Talking Heads era, Harrison made cameo appearances as Billy Idol and Prince look-alike lip-synchers in David Byrne's 1986 film True Stories. Harrison also had a small part in the 2006 film The Darwin Awards as "Guy in Bar No. 1" alongside John Doe of the band X.
Singles
In recent years, Mr. Harrison has become more involved in business ventures and social causes such as snakebite, a severely neglected global epidemic being featured in the upcoming documentary "Minutes to Die," being narrated by Mike Rowe and in which Mr. Harrison appears.