Thoughts on David Byrne

The Talking Heads and David Byrne have been getting a lot of media attention lately, inspiring me to listen to all my recordings and to recap my own recollections of the band and band leader. I first heard of the Talking Heads when I was living in Denver. Saturday nights on KGNU Boulder there was a series on the history of punk rock and new wave music. There I learned about Pere Ubu, Devo, the Ramones, and Talking Heads. There was also a record store I went to, Wax Trax, where you could listen to and buy singles by various new wave type artists. 

The Talking Heads evolved into incorporating a funky world music sound, influenced by Brian Eno.  It was when I saw the MTV video of Once in a Lifetime that I was first impressed by the band. Over the years I bought LPs Fear of Music, Little Creatures and at some point bought a bootleg of a live 1977 performance, In the mid-nineties I went to a party and Stop Making Sense was playing on the tv, I guess from a DVD. If the party got dull you could walk into the Talking Heads Room and then gravitate back to the kitchen for beer and potato chips. 

My next exposure to David Byrne was in 2008 when I saw the exhibit Playing the Building in New York. I bought a poster then but I can't find it. It was sort of fun. There was a piano and everyone, including myself, got to play a few notes. After Covid, I saw American Utopia on Broadway and it was a great show. 

I also bought the cd's Rei Momo and I found Feelings in a bargain bin somewhere. I also recently discovered in my collection a home made CD of Grown Backwards that I probably got as a gift. Not bad. One Christmas I got the Here Lies Love box set. It came with two cd's, one DVD and a book. It featured Florence (without the Machine), Steve Earle, Cyndi Lauper and lots of others. Now Here Lies Love is on Broadway. This project has always been a mystery to me. I don't care for the songs, except for the title number, and I never understood why anyone would care about Imelda Marcos. Old news.

I suppose the Latin influenced Rei Mono is my favorite David Byrne credited record. I also got the soundtrack of Stop Making Sense. Okay but the songs sound a lot like the studio recordings. At some point I acquired a Tom Tom Club record. The Tom Tom Club was hip for a brief period. 

Now the critics are raving about the re mastering of the Stop Making Sense movie. It might be fun to see it in a theatre but I'm too lazy to go the places where it is showing. He was on Colbert recently and taught the tv host how to dance. For an autistic guy he seems to have developed his public social skills. He didn't mention the Stop Making Sence movie. Yesterday I turned on the tv and there was the entire Talking Heads also on Colbert. They didn't play although they were coerced to attempt it. Maybe it was because they haven't played together in eons and didn't want to embarrass themselves. Instead, they plugged the Stop Making Sense movie. Yesterday I noticed he plays the doctor in season two of Amy Schumer's Hulu show.  

I almost forgot the book.  Talking Heads by David Gans is a nice history and discography of the band as of 1985. You can get it used on Amazon. I probably bought it in a used bookstore. So those are my thoughts on David Byrne.