I'm ashamed of this.' We all do grow and evolve and change, and let's hope that we can all be understanding in that way."īyrne says he hasn't written any new music inspired by this tumultuous year. "But rather than trying to have YouTube take it down or come up with some excuse, I thought, let me just be really transparent and go, 'I did this. "In retrospect, you look at it and go, 'What was I thinking? How could I have done that?' " Byrne says. He issued an apology on Twitter, calling it "a major mistake in judgment that showed a lack of real understanding." The promotional video was shot for "Stop Making Sense" in 1984, as Byrne "interviewed" himself and portrayed a number of Black and brown journalists. (Bicycles are his preferred mode of transportation, and he frequently biked to the theater during "Utopia's" nearly five-month run.) But the musician landed in hot water last month when a clip resurfaced of him online in blackface. Watch Video: David Byrne on his musical 'Here Lies Love'īyrne attended a number of bike protests for Black Lives Matter in New York this summer. Lee intercuts the performance with shots of victims' families and adds more recent names such as Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. chant the names of Black men and women lost to police violence. "Utopia" features slightly reworked but still joyous versions of Talking Heads crowd-pleasers including "This Must Be the Place," "Burning Down the House" and "Road to Nowhere." But one of the most powerful moments is actually a cover of Janelle Monae's "Hell You Talmbout," an incendiary protest song in which Byrne and Co. And that's part of what Spike does, too." It's about how all these people work together or trade places or each have a moment in the spotlight. Like the 1984 Talking Heads concert movie "Stop Making Sense," directed by the late Jonathan Demme, "Utopia" is "an ensemble film. "It was right in his wheelhouse," Byrne says. The songs, the choreography, everything we do generates that kind of feeling."īyrne first met Lee at the premiere of the filmmaker's 1989 race drama "Do the Right Thing," and reconnected in 2016 when Byrne appeared in his documentary "Michael Jackson's Journey from Motown to Off the Wall." Lee attended an out-of-town tryout of "Utopia" in Boston last year and was immediately taken with the show. "People would ask, 'Don't you get bored doing the same show every night?' Not that one," Byrne says over Zoom. "Everybody feels really great doing the show, it's hard to explain. For Byrne, 68, his experience performing "Utopia" was as life-affirming as it is to watch. Throughout the show, the former Talking Heads frontman delivers disarmingly poignant interludes about the importance of connection, community, immigrants and voting – topics that take on new resonance with the looming presidential election. The 105-minute film features a mix of Talking Heads favorites and songs from Byrne's 2018 "American Utopia" album, sprightly performed by Byrne and a group of suit-clad, barefooted dancers, most of whom also play handheld instruments. The vibrant concert movie, premiering Saturday on HBO and HBO Max (8 EDT/PDT), is directed by Spike Lee, capturing last year's hit Broadway production of the same name. " David Byrne's American Utopia" is the salve we all need right now. Watch Video: David Byrne talks turning Broadway show 'American Utopia' into a film
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |