“Flavor of the month” Arcade Fire were fantastic last night. Win claimed it was the band’s first time playing New York; he loves to fuck with his fans. Anyway, I’ve already dedicated enough posts to Arcade Fire. In lieu of a show review, I’m gonna write about David Byrne.
The Talking Heads frontman was at the show last night, bopping along to “Haiti,” as I stood silently, staring at the back of his gray head. He’s one of my favorite musicians of all time. Arcade Fire (presumably tipped off about David’s appearance) even performed “This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody).”
Here’s a photo I took of Mr. Awesome at Bonnaroo this past summer.
I have been trying to track down a decent recording of following song for YEARS, ever since I saw David perform it at the Apollo. It’s a brilliant cover of Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” I even converted to .wav first in order to edit out the extraneous stuff … just for you fine Stereogum readers. I’m confident you will enjoy it. If not, feel free to discuss Interpol, The O.C., Arafat, or what have you.
David Byrne – “I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Live In Paris 6/13/01)” (MP3 Link Expired)
UPDATE: Bowie AND Clapton were there too?! Wow.
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Thanks for posting about Mr. Byrne. The guy is neverendingly brilliant. Do you ever check out his tour diary? The guy is neverendingly brilliant there, too.
delicious cover!
everyone should go see my friend fiona’s band horses play the knitting factory’s old office on saturday night. horses is opening for arcade fire when they play in philly this sunday night.
Arcade Fire was great! Loved the Heads cover. I did not see David Byrne however, i did see David Bowie!
So what’s everyone think of this season of the OC so far? I’m really hoping they kill off Marissa.
David Byrne should produce the next Arcade Fire album. That would be amazing. Anyone happen to record their cover of This Must Be The Place?
If any Byrne fans haven’t checked out his solo soundtrack for the ballet The Catherine Wheel, they should go find it on iTunes. Great stuff from the mid-period Talking Heads era.
I think that cover song is poo. (thanks for posting it all the same though, that Ed Harcourt song is great, back to byrne) I was hoping for a sweetly desperate sincere, melodic plea to dance with somebody (Byrne could pull that off), but instead it sounding like some crappy Lite 107.2 version of an already craptacular song…yuck. We don’t need another Paul Simon.
Ummmm, and Arafat was, at best, a huge failure in his aspirations as a peacemaker.
Weird… he was sitting behind me at I Heart Huckabees on Monday night, and we both got up and went for the manager when the projector fucked up. My younger legs got me there first. It’s probably the only thing I’ll ever do better than David Byrne… run for the theater manager.
when the arcade fire played tufts university (win’s alma mater) wednesday night they said they had just received an e-mail from david byrne & were really excited to hear he’d be in attendance at the NYC show.
in other news, arcade fire show #2 for me this week tonight at tt the bears in cambridge. ###
That cover is fantastic… I <3 Stereogum’s cover gems. The O.C. sucks.
love davidbyrne.
love him.
did you get his new dvd yet?
do it.
do it.
Was at the show last night, and was too pre-occupied staring at david bowie. I was also at the Apollo David Byrne show at the Apollo shortly after 9/11. One of my favorite shows of all time. Thanks for the mp3. Killer.
I just got around to picking up Funeral this week and am now in love with it. Can’t decide which song I like best – there’s about 4 to choose from and the rest right behind. Ahhhh.
Yeah, the OC does suck, but in that “so bad…its good” sort of way. I went to school with a lot of kids that grew up there, and they are exactly like the shows characters.
Anyway, I just got the new David Byrne and that has been on constant rotation. The Talking Heads are in my top 3 favorite bands, and Mr. Byrne never fails to impress me. Its amazing that he can compose all styles of music convincingly, from Salsa to Opera. That duet with Rufus Wainwright is the shit.
i love david’s solo stuff, but my favorite song is still the talking heads’ lifetime piling up. love it.
i’m glad the arcade fire are getting tons of press. i think they deserve it.
Most surprising celebrity at the AF show last night: Melissa Etheridge.
I’ve felt guilty about David Byrne ever since I sat next to him at BAM (the awful Lou Reed does Poe thing), stumbled, and stepped on his foot. Not my finest moment of idol-meeting.
i have a setlist from when they played here in september and it has “naive melody” on it, so i think they play that one a lot.
David Byrne gave me the best concert and one of the best times of my whole life. It was at a muddy Glastonbury and he finished off with Psychokiller wearing a skintight suit depicting the organs and insides. It really sent me into outerspace. A good pick-me-up after the ax handle I’d just got hit with. The hash truffle didn’t hurt none.
God damn, I was there last night and I didn’t see David Bowie or David Byrne! I would’ve freaked out like a little girl if I saw Bowie…
For those of us that are uninitated with the greatness of David Byrne or the Talking Heads, what would you fine folk recommend me to start out with?
Forgive me, I’m “young.”
I love you.
. . . David and Stereogum.
mike k –
Sand in the Vaseline, Talking Heads “popular hits” set, is perfect from first track to the last. Otherwise, a classic live set (released on DVD, Stop Making Sense) is archived here: http://pendejo.bombora.net/Swoop/talking_heads.html
If you can find the tracks “Blind,” “Sugar on My Tongue,” and “City of Dreams,” you couldn’t do much better.
Enjoy!
” I was hoping for a sweetly desperate sincere, melodic plea to dance with somebody (Byrne could pull that off)”
The song is called I wanna with sombody. What did you expect?
dont convert and then reconvert music. bad! there are mp3 trimmers out there that dont need to convert to work.
> dont convert and then reconvert music. bad!
> there are mp3 trimmers out there that dont need
> to convert to work.
any recommendations?
Clapton was at the Arcade Fire show at the Bowery? Didn’t see him there. Anyone?
There is a new David Bryne Live DVD with the song I wanna dance w/ somebody on it. Came out last week I think…
i couldn’t get the download to work. i’d love love love to hear this cover and i’d love even more to include it in a covers radio show i’m doing tomorrow morning. please help!
Naive Melody is my Fav. Heads song, and the Arcade Fire did an awesome job with it!
dave t
Where can I find a copy of Arcade Fire’s David Byrne cover?
If u guys are huge Byrne fans like I am, and don’t mind a smattering of Roxyish Bowieish brand new pop, u have to check out this guy in NYC, Ezra Reich..I caught his show at Don Hills a few weeks back and he blew me away..amazing charisma, great songs, killer band…anyway, I bought his “Milkshake Arcade” record after the show and it has been in constant rotation since then..this boy is good…and for u ladies he’s cute….Anyway, he has tunes up online at myspace.com/ezrareich and on his website ezrareich.com
Help! Link doesn’t work and I am desperate to hear Byrne’s Houston cover! My friend has been going on and on about it. Thanks.
Hello David Byrne,
I have pictures of my praying mantises for you. Why don’t you come to Las Vegas? I am five and a half and I wrote a poem for you and my grandma. I don’t know where to send it to you. I am Mad
Hello David Byrne,
I have pictures of my praying mantises for you. Why don’t you come to Las Vegas? I am five and a half and I wrote a poem for you and my grandma. I don’t know where to send it to you. I am Mad
The link for the David Byrne Whitney Houson cover expired…can you repost it!?
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