![]() Byrne’s subsequent career has produced 10 solo albums, collaborations with figures such as Brian Eno and choreographer Twyla Tharp and even a “disco opera” about Imelda Marcos, co-written with Fat Boy Slim. Talking Heads’ sound continued to evolve from album to album, drawing on a bewildering range of musical influences, until the group drifted apart at the end of 1991. Why, for instance, was much of Psycho Killer in French? The music was rhythmic and quirky, the lyrics undeniably idiosyncratic. The first shock of punk rock had passed and the New Wave was tossing up all kinds of strange offshoots, but Talking Heads was a unique phenomenon. When Psycho Killer hit the airwaves back in 1978, it was like nothing we’d ever heard. He is very much the master of ceremonies, using the breaks between songs to make asides and allude to topical issues, even encourage audiences to register to vote at the coming elections.įrom his first appearance with Talking Heads, Byrne has never been your standard rock‘n’roll musician. APĪt the age of 68, Byrne is by far the oldest figure on stage but remains impressively agile. ![]() We can appreciate the quality of the performance even as the songs nibble at the corners of our social conscience. Everyone carries their instruments, even the drummers and keyboard player, dancing and parading in movements mapped out by choreographer Annie-B Parson.įor all of its complexity, American Utopia is more bacchanal than sermon. Byrne and a multicultural group of musicians wear identical grey business suits but perform barefoot. Although temperamentally unsuited to rock concerts, I was bowled over by the precision of planning and execution that had gone into the show.Īmerican Utopia takes that planning to new levels. Vincent performing at the State Theatre in Sydney in 2013. I was primed by having seen Byrne and St. This may sound dogmatic but Byrne’s ear for rhythm gives this concert an exhilarating, celebratory thrust. It’s a remarkable spectacle, not just for its innovative stagecraft and choreography but because each number seems to address issues that relate to the very texture of contemporary American society. The American “utopia” refers to both past and future: from the great – albeit flawed – dream of the Founding Fathers that still fuels the myth of national exceptionalism, to the hopes of a new generation for a better, fairer society.Įach number in American Utopia seems to have David Byrne, right, addressing issues that relate to the very texture of contemporary American society., APĭavid Byrne’s American Utopia, directed by Spike Lee, is a live recording of a 2020 Broadway show that features Byrne and 11 musicians performing songs drawn from the singer’s solo career and his years with the band Talking Heads. Byrne disavows an ironic intention, although coming from him this is a little hard to accept. These questions, which echo the lists of questions in well-known songs such as Once in a Lifetime ( And you may ask yourself, “Well … how did I get here?”), are answered both in the words and the music. In the liner notes to his 2018 album, American Utopia, David Byrne reflects on the title: “Is this meant ironically? It is a joke? Do I mean this seriously? Am I referring to the past or the future? Is it personal or political?” ![]()
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