David Byrne's Solo Career? Waste of Flesh or work of Mad Genius

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Step One: Give us your "Classic or Dud" opinion of his solo career, and if you choose Classic, offer us a hypothetical C30, C60 or C90 track listing.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Sunday, 11 May 2003 12:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Too much work. He's hit and miss. I like Rei Momo quite a lot, though.

― Kenan Hebert (kenan), Sunday, 11 May 2003 13:56 (twenty-two years ago)

(Custos - you should have those CDs any day now, sorry for slackness...)

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Sunday, 11 May 2003 14:44 (twenty-two years ago)

This is great. I saw him read from one of his books a couple of years ago. I love David Byrne. So I ask him to autograph it, "I Changed Your Life". I guess he was smoking something backstage because he smiles and writes, "I Change = You Like". No! No! No!

I hand the damn thing back to him, make him cross it out and rewrite it.

This is not one of BurmaKitty's embellished stories.

Really. An obsessive fan demands that autographs be correctly written.

― BurmaKitty (BurmaKitty), Sunday, 11 May 2003 14:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I guess he was smoking something backstage

B-b-b-but David Byrne doesn't do drugs - he's just a kerrazy guy, high on life.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Sunday, 11 May 2003 15:09 (twenty-two years ago)

But "I Change = You Like" is brilliant! I'm a pretty big fan and I was pretty sure he'd done a lot of drugs. What evidence do you have, Nordic?

I think his solo albums are admirable, and his live show is incredible. Classic, for keeping creative and growing long after his "artistic peak".

― Adam A. (Keiko), Sunday, 11 May 2003 15:43 (twenty-two years ago)

B-b-b-but David Byrne doesn't do drugs - he's just a kerrazy guy, high on life.
the dude's so sssstifff...the ganja would do him good.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Sunday, 11 May 2003 17:16 (twenty-two years ago)

it depends on who he's working with. even on his solo records.

'catherine wheel' is as good or better than any of the classic talking heads albums, in no small part due to the band he'd assembled. the album with eno sounds more astounding by the year.

― jleideck, Sunday, 11 May 2003 22:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I was kinda turned off initially by his self-styled "world beatnik" shenanigans, but I went and saw him at the Supper Club in 1993, and he was actually pretty great....and played a lot of old Talking Heads stuff, so I was happy.

SUB-THREAD: No Talking Just Head by the Heads: Classic or Dud?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 11 May 2003 22:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I was trying to recall any of the post-Talking Heads solo albums and was soundly drawing a blank. However the Byrne/Eno album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts is unbelievably classic.

― Chris Barrus (Chris Barrus), Sunday, 11 May 2003 23:22 (twenty-two years ago)

You guys don't realize how important it is to me that we solve the Byrne/drugs question..

― Adam A. (Keiko), Monday, 12 May 2003 00:22 (twenty-two years ago)

Byrne has "done" drugs, I'm quite sure. I seem to remember reading either an interview with him or an essay by him that mentioned him trying out various drugs to see if it would help him write songs. The quote that sticks in my mind goes something like, "tried heroin, but it was pretty obvious that I wasn't going to get any songs written on that."

It may have been in this book that he mentions it, can't quite remember.

― charley, Monday, 12 May 2003 02:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn this short-term memory loss...

― charley, Monday, 12 May 2003 02:43 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sand in the Vaseline" has little essays by and photos of all the T. Heads and DB rattles off some brief drug stories...
-his trying marijuana and not liking the paranoia (see also "Lifetime Piling Up"
-they all started buying coke from the road crew and it didn't work at first and then it was just "Yak yak yak"
-they all smoked a PCP cigarette with someone they were out to dinner with and how they all sure didn't want to eat afterwards but hey it's cheaper than dinner for 5
-they went to some weird Hollywood producer's big house in the hills (Julia Philips?) and she had a lab in the back
-the heroin thing, how the French were into it, but he wasn't able to get much writing done with it

That's about all I can remember. It was the first cd I ever bought. I used to just open up the booklet and pore over it religiously.

― Elliott Brennan (ebb), Monday, 12 May 2003 02:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Byrne has "done" drugs,..., "tried heroin, but it was pretty obvious that I wasn't going to get any songs written on that."
...
-- charley

My point exactly. He couldn't even get the signature line for autograph correct! Good thing he didn't try to write songs on drugs.

No stories about what influenced him writing "Drugs" eh?

― BurmaKitty (BurmaKitty), Monday, 12 May 2003 04:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Like Paul Westerberg, Dave's had a patchy solo career, but he's still totally loveable, despite hooking up with Morcheeba and also releasing "Girls on my Mind".

And of course he gets major plus points for discovering Jim White.

Look into the Eyeball was rather blah, but I swear by "Feelings" -- it's the only DB album I can still listen to outside of the first two heads albums. Check out Amnesia and Finite=Alright.

Sub-thread: Those Heads/Eno albums -- Listenable or too much godawful slap bass?

― Chuck Tatum (Chuck Tatum), Monday, 12 May 2003 09:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Slap Bass is ordained by God, ye heathen.

Virtues: "Make Believe Mambo" and the bodystocking that makes him look like he has no skin over his musculature.
Faults: In interviews he always sounds like Mr Rogers on quaaludes.

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 12 May 2003 10:38 (twenty-two years ago)

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