Song and Circumstance: The Work of David Byrne from Talking Heads to the Present Review

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(More customer reviews)Sytze Steenstra (an arts and social science professor from the Netherlands) has written an impressive book covering the art (mostly music, but by no means exclusively) of David Byrne. The book follows a roughly chronological path, but connects each section/part/era to conceptual themes. You need to be willing to put up with a little bit of academic theory and structure with those themes, but do realize that Byrne doesn't seem to shy from those theory labels, so there's some level of tacit approval. (In fact, the review of the book by Byrne himself shows up above on the amazon description of the book.) This is a look primarily at Byrne through the works of the Talking Heads, his films, solo music, visual art, and collaborations, so it is not strictly a biographer, least of all a "rock-n-roll" biography with smashed televisions, pregnant groupies, and piranhas being kept on the tour bus.
Parts four and six, the ethnography and Tropicalismo sections, were the strongest to me, at least in part because I was less familiar with that work. There are strong connections made throughout the book, and you definitely finish reading with a long list of music to track down. I'd highly recommend it to fans of Byrne from any era (Talking Heads on) and to readers of Wire Magazine (the British new music magazine which also has a willingness to use, and lack of fear of, critical theory).
Table of contents for "Song and Circumstance: The Work of David Byrne from Talking Heads to the Present" :
INTRODUCTION
A song and a face
Singer and conceptual artist
Mythology and methodology
Romantic conceptualism
The method of this book
Part One: STRIPPING DOWN ROCK SONGS
The tentative rejection of mimesis
Cybernetics as inspiration
The first years of Talking Heads
Ethological and neurological aspects of music
Experiments with rhythm, texture and persona
Part Two: A WIDER MUSICAL COMMUNITY
Music and dance as social exchange
Isolated voices embedded in rhythm
At the crossroads: "Remain In Light"
Comparative studies of myth, archetypes and ritual
Archetypal conflicts: "goin' boom boom boom"
Part Three: MOVIES, TV AND THEATER: THE RITUAL IN DAILY LIFE
Introducing performance theater
A concert in the cinema: "Stop Making Sense"
Music in context: "Talking Heads vs. The Television"
"The Knee Plays", music for Robert Wilson
"Little Creatures": television's naiveté
"True Stories", a generic Gesamtkunstwerk
A soundtrack for Mabou Mines' "Dead End Kids"
"The Forest", a Byrne-Wilson piece
"The Forest" as film script
Part Four: ROCK STAR AND ETHNOGRAPHER
Rock star and ethnographer
"Naked", Talking Heads' most `African' record
"Ilé Aiyé": a musical ethnographic documentary
"Rei Momo": incorporating Latin sensibility
Soundtracks for ethnographic art documentaries
Luaka Bop
In the mirror: Sex `n' drugs `n' electronic music
Critical responses
Part Five: IN THE VISUAL ARENA
The arena of visual communication
Photographic repertoires
"Strange Ritual": documents of sacralization
The voodoo of the business world
"The New Sins": a new mythology of chaos
Dressed objects and other furniture
Part Six: TROPICALISMO IN NEW YORK
The singer as imaginary landscape
"Between The Teeth"
New York Tropicalismo
TV presenter
"Live at Union Chapel"
Songs and choreography: coming full circle
Part Seven: AN EMOTIONAL EPISTEMOLOGY
Cloud diagrams
"Envisioning Emotional Epistemological Information"
Arboretum: the garden of correspondences
The representation of politics
Who owns our eyes and ears?
Philosophy in installments
Conclusion
Appendices
Index

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