David Byrne on The Colbert Report.
An interview and a performance. He is truly one of my favorite people on earth.
Comments
That’s it. I’m totally listening to The Talking Heads for the rest of the day. Not the nee Byrne/Eno album, though. I didn’t like it very much.
Pardon me if I rant about the dude for a bit, but I love the fact that he’s always so willing to try something and put it out there, even if it doesn’t work. It’d be one thing if his output was less prolific and the first we heard of him was this album and these chair dancers, but it seems every coupla months, he’s doing something new. And even when I think his ideas fall flat, it’s never for lack of trying or for lack of concept. He’s always going for something admirable.
What a guy, that David Byrne. He really do find him incredibly inspiring. Makes me want to go create things.
I saw these videos yesterday and kept them to myself. I am definitely intrigued by him and his personality makes me like his music even more.
Paris, did you ever watch any of the DVD extras for Stop Making Sense? That was what really turned me on to the guy as an artist and not just as that dude from the talking heads. Everything had a concept. Everything was an attempt to communicate something. It really showed off how great something can be when you approach it right.
Sidenote, if anyone hasn’t listened to the Byrne/Eno album, head to http://www.everythingthathappens.com/ and click forward in the player to Strange Overtones. Sadly, I think it’s the only good song on the album, but it is really good.
I want to watch this when I get home. I love the Talking Heads. Always have. But Byrne alwayst struck me as a self important and pretentious asshole. But since Colbert interviews usually bring out people’s true essence maybe this will change my mind. Especially since that recent blog rant he made about the bad review in the NYT kind of leans more towards my take on him.
It’s interesting that you see pretense and self-importance where I see enthusiasm and a desire to try new things. I honestly don’t get a shred of those negative qualities from him, especially not in the blog post you mentioned which I thought it was a pretty honest response with some interesting points, and all-around much better than can be expected from someone hearing about someone attacking their work.
Keep in mind it’s partially an age thing and I’ve not kept up with anything he’s done since the Talking Heads and back then he really was a self important and pretentious asshole by almost every account (including his own band and peers). Which is fine and can actually make for some interesting music.
See I thought that blog post was just far too serious in it’s tone for dealing with a bad review. I always appreciate an artist either not giving a shit, or responding with humor. The whole “it still hurts” thing just seemed to whiny. Although the last line about maybe he’ll get it in another 30 years was good, it was all just far too serious for 1 shitty review.
Again, I like the guys music just fine. But as a personality he’s decidedly less appealing to me.