Who Is The Sky? by David Byrne

David Byrne released his first album, Talking Heads: 77, with is band of the same name in 1977. Talking Heads released four albums before Byrne released his first solo project in 1981 (his beautiful collaboration with Brian Eno, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts). The band released four additional records before officially splitting up in 1991, while Byrne continued to release solo albums and soundtracks for film and theater during and after the band’s short-but-fruitful existence. All told, then man has been a part of 30 records in the 48 years he’s been releasing music.

He is a true national treasure. (Despite having been born in Scotland, Byrne has triple citizenship between Great Britain, the US, and Ireland. He’s lived in NYC for decades.) He has gifted us with his art via recorded music and a myriad of media for nearly half a century. He’s stage-directed and choreographed dances throughout his musical career (if you’ve not seen the brilliant 1984 Jonathan Demme-directed Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, I highly recommended you put it at the top of your list – you will not be disappointed). He’s been the creative force behind multiple Broadway shows (The Catherine Wheel with Twyla Tharp, his own American Utopia, and a Broadway collaboration with Fatboy Slim called Here Lies Love). He’s written multiple books, on music and many other topics. Since 1990 he’s run a record label focused on bringing international sounds to a global audience, called Luaka Bop. In 2003 he toured a non-music presentation at college campuses called “I ♥ PowerPoint” that I had the pleasure of seeing live at Kane Hall at the University of Washington. He gave a TED talk in 2010. While not a true EGOT, he’s won an Oscar, a Grammy, a Tony, a Golden Globe, and has been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Byrne has a savant-like commitment¹ to making people feel connected, happy, and loved. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Byrne perform on stage six times since 2001, and each was filled with pure joy. One of those concerts was at Benaroya Hall, where the Seattle Symphony performs, promoting his collaboration with St. Vincent (the album, called Love This Giant, featured at #15 in 2012).

To promote his tenth solo album, the fantastic Who Is The Sky?, created in collaboration with a musical ensemble called Ghost Train Orchestra, Byrne built a stage set that saw him and 14 other musicians and dancers all performing on top of and surrounded by giant LED screens. The scenes surrounding the performers alternated through locales as varied as the surface of the moon (while playing Talking Heads’ “Heaven”), a NYC rooftop (performing “Strange Overtones” from Byrne’s second collaboration with Brian Eno, 2008’s Everything That Happens Will Happen Today), and a 360° view of the interior of Byrne’s Brooklyn apartment (while playing Who Is The Sky?’s “My Apartment is My Friend,” of course). Each song throughout the nearly 2-hour set featured choreographed dances for the entire 15-person crew, with even the musicians mobilized thanks to special mounts and harnesses for their instruments. It was magical.

Byrne’s solo music over the last 20 years has tended towards more “safe” territory than the Talking Heads ever did. “Everybody Laughs,” featured in the video above, is a prime example. There are no surprises, but there’s also nothing to dislike. Add in Byrne’s electrified presence, and you can see why why we all keep coming back. He’s released another video from the album, a black-and-white animated singalong for the song “What is the Reason For it?,” which features Hayley Williams, the lead singer of rock band Paramore. And then there’s a video for non-album track “T Shirt,” which I first heard and saw as part of the Who Is They Sky? concert.

While it doesn’t compare to the live stage show, you can get a small sense of it by watching the crew’s Tiny Desk Concert from December. They managed to fit all 15 of them behind the desk, performing a few key songs from the show.

Byrne is 73 years old, and showing no signs of slowing down. While his albums alone don’t “wow,” everything else he brings to the world more than makes for it, keeping him near the top of “must see” lists everywhere. I can’t wait to see what he can do in the second half of his century of performing.

^{1. Despite having never been formally diagnosed, Bryne said in 2012 that he felt that music was his way of communicating when he could not do it face-to-face “because of [his] autism”.↩}