Loving David Byrne

If you haven’t heard of the David Byrne/Fatboy Slim project, “Here Lies Love,” then you’re probably a pretty normal person.

The album, touted as a song cycle about the life of Imelda Marcos, was originally conceived as a musical. I can’t even get into the specifics, but suffice it to say that it is an outrageous and ostentatious undertaking.

Being the extremely judgmental person I am, I approached the album with a wall of dubiousness. I mean, if you have to include a 16-page booklet with your album just to explain what the hell it is you are doing, then maybe you’ve gone just a little too far with your creative liberty. There is also, of course, the question of, “Why Imelda Marcos?”

I thought maybe that Byrne was attempting to establish a new gay icon, like Liza, Madonna, Cher, etc. Imelda could fit the bill. She was a bit of a paparazzi target, and she was, excuse the phrase, pretty fabulous. (I apologize to my gay readers…this is my weak attempt to read between the lines). It just smacked of publicity stunt.

What I failed to see was the most obvious character: we’re talking about David Byrne. No one in the music business has been able to pull off outrageous creative concepts like Byrne (well, maybe Prince, but that’s a whole new topic).

In the late 70s and throughout the 80s, David Byrne and the Talking Heads created something completely new. And they did it with integrity. Byrne’s importance is that he is able to bring avant guard visual/performance art to troglodytes like me. God bless him.

The music on this album isn’t for everyone. To be honest, it’s not my cup of tea. But when you hear it as the whole package it’s goose bump inducing.