Rare 70s Talking Heads Tee

INSANE and super rare Original late 70s vintage Talking Heads raglan on a paper-thin Russell Athletic tee. Classic black-and-white photobooth-style portraits framed in a jagged green graphic, with some light discoloration near the hem. Soft, broken-in, and museum-worthy for any true fan of art rock history.

Bust: 38-45" Length: 27" | M/L

About the Design

This design features a grid of monochrome portraits with green border graphics and the band's name in purple-pink text-iconography closely associated with Talking Heads' 1977 debut album Talking Heads: 77 and their follow-up, More Songs About Buildings and Food (1978). While not the exact album cover, the grid layout of faces reflects the band's visual obsession with anonymous identity, cultural uniformity, and the eeriness of media-saturated life-recurring themes in their music and art direction.

The artwork style is influenced by the aesthetics of Andy Warhol's repetitive portrait silkscreens and early video art, aligning with Talking Heads' collaborations with visual artists like Tibor Kalman and David Byrne's own background in art school.

Why the Faces?

The faces in the grid include a mix of real, staged, and possibly manipulated photos-likely referencing the band's satirical look at modern society's obsession with media figures and televised identity. This was a time when cable TV and image manipulation were just beginning to transform public consciousness, and Talking Heads were early critics of this shift.

David Byrne was deeply interested in derealization, affectless performance, and the tension between personal identity and public persona, which is why you'll often see this kind of "face grid" design across Talking Heads ephemera from the late '70s.