David Byrne was responsible for one of the real watershed moments during my younger life.The epiphany came during a late night broadcast of The Old Grey Whistle Test; Talking Heads were making their British TV debut; their performance of 'Psycho Killer' that night was stunning and incredibly exciting.
The ordinariness of the band juxtaposed with the jagged, angular rhythm; Tina Weymoth's intense stare; and, above all, David Byrne's jerky, Tourettic-like, ticky delivery, made me realise you didn't have to look like you'd just stepped off an alien space ship to make new, noticeable, and far out music.
But that was all a long time ago.
(Still gives me a thrill when I watch it now though.
O YouTube...)
A more recent TV broadcast (2003, BBC4) caught Byrne on top form playing in the gorgeous surroundings of The Union Chapel in Islington, London, as part of his Lazy Eyeball Tour, 2002.
Employing a very percussive band (no keys or second guitar) and a sextet of strings that take the tunes back through time to the baroque; into the present with banging club sounds; journeying through space via North Africa, Europe, the USA and beyond, allowing all of Byrne's intermediate discoveries and influences to come together and shine.
David Byrne - Live at Union Chapel (2002 - first broadcast 2003).And She Was
Once in a Lifetime
The Great Intoxication
The Revolution
Uni De Felice
This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
What a Day That Was
U.B. Jesus
Life During Wartime
Lazy
Ausencia
Road to Nowhere
Excellent quality rip from broadcast @320kbs
An official DVD release of this concert has been made available, featuring more tracks than I have included here.
This is an audio rip from the TV broadcast, not from the DVD.
Grab a Talking Head here
