David Byrne is currently on tour and my wife took me to the show as a bit of a backup plan (her usual concert-going friends fell through). I think concerts are okay, but I usually get bored after awhile, which is why I serve as a backup guest. I’m much more of a visual person, I suppose.
I was unprepared for how wonderful the show was. I was quite literally tearing up during the very first song from the beauty of the visuals that accompanied the musical performance, and it maintained almost that level for the entire show.
The Byrne 'solo album' number Big Business [1] has long been my favourite track (actually outtake) from Stop Making Sense. Byrne's eclectic collaborations and willingness to learn from others (eg Fela Kuti) have always amazed me.
The story Stephen Tobolowsky tells (and Byrne confirms) about how Tobolowsky inspired the song Radio Head, which gave the eponymous band their name, is so good and complex that a comment cannot do it justice. Google it and sink in if this is your thing.
For the anecdote, David Byrne’s “Like Humans Do” was included by default in Windows XP’s Media Player. I kinda like that song, but many people I knew hated it or were quite indifferent.
You may ask yourself, "What is that beautiful song?"
You may ask yourself, "What's next in the playlist?"
And you may ask yourself, "Am I right, am I wrong?"
And you may say to yourself, "My God, what have I done?"
The 10-year-old me is still trying to understand why altering the lyrics of his song, in the metadata of a WMA file, does not change what's heard on the record...
Byrne has to be a landmark in the personal history of many of us with computers.
I'm new to Mr. Byrne and am looking forward to exploring this, but I do wish there was a stream I could put into my AntennaPod. I notice the term radio is shifting towards separate podcasts nowadays.
I was unprepared for how wonderful the show was. I was quite literally tearing up during the very first song from the beauty of the visuals that accompanied the musical performance, and it maintained almost that level for the entire show.
He’s really a generational talent.