David Byrne: Leg Bells [1981]
David Byrne: Big Business [1981]
From The Catherine Wheel, David Byrne's 1981 ballet with Twyla Tharp.
The positive DVD review from the FT:
"When Twyla Tharp's 'The Catherine Wheel' was premiered on Broadway, it was described by Arlene Croce of The New Yorker as "a major event in our theatre", with "dancing of astonishing beauty and power". David Byrne, the lead singer/composer of Talking Heads, wrote the original score with its relentless, shifting rhythms and poetically unspecific lyrics, which perfectly complement the non-stop flow of dance and the incorporation of mime and everyday movement. His collaboration with Twyla Tharp was described by the New Yorker as "the meeting of two of America's most original minds". It has certainly produced an unforgettable dance and video experience. If ever a programme demanded to be viewed again and again with a video recorder, this is it !"
And the not-so-positive review in Ballet Magazine:
"In her autobiography (also called Push Comes to Shove) Twyla Tharp has little to say about The Catherine Wheel, except that it lost her a lot of money...
In 1981 this might have been called a high concept work. Unfortunately now it just seems dated, rather crude and tiresome in its seriousness. Perhaps one should not judge it harshly on the basis of this TV version: on screen it looks very cramped and some of the action is lost - it would surely be much more appealing on stage. This DVD is really for Tharp students only, though the last 15 minutes is enjoyable."
Album credits:
DAVID BYRNE -- vocals, bass, guitars, OBX, Primetime, Prophet, percussion, fierce and high guitars, vibes, horses, mini synthesizer, Prophet strings, kitchen metals,
JOHN CHERNOFF -- Gung gong, congas, galloping guitar
YOGI HORTON -- drums, concert toms
Adrian Belew -- steel drum guitar, guitars, floating guitars
John Cooksey -- drums (9)
Brian Eno -- bass, piano, Prophet scream
Sue Halloran -- vocals (10)
Jerry Harrison -- clavinet, large drum
Dolette McDonald -- vocals (7)
Steve Scales -- congas (9)
Twyla Tharp -- water pot (8)
Bernie Worrell -- mini moog, piano, clavinet
Julie Last -- engineer
Doug Bennett -- engineer
Butch Jones -- mixing engineer
Jim Feldman (for Resource Manhattan) -- design
Buy the album.
5 comments:
Good work once again! I first became aware of TT through her work on the film "Amadeus": one of my all-time faves...and more recently, I heard she collaborated with Billy Joel, but had no idea she had worked with Byrne. What a cast of characters...Belew, Eno, Jerry Harrison : all to be expected, but Bernie Worrell - now that's a cool surprise! Thanks again!
js
www.myspace.com/jasonsteidman
Hye Jason - Check out "Stop Making Sense." Worrell is kind of the star of the movie.
Someone tell me what a "prophet scream" is!
http://www.talking-heads.net/revwheel.html
Mike -
Thanks. I've always know about the film, and have been meaning to see it...Had know idea about Worrell's presence on it. I"m going to rent it this weekend! :+)
js
www.myspace.com/jasonsteidman
Mike -
>Someone tell me what a "prophet scream" is!
Without having heard the track/audio in question, I'd hazard a guess that this is a reference to the Sequential Circuits' "Prophet" synth. A cool vintage analog synth from late '70s/early '80s
js
www.myspace.com/jasonsteidman
I saw TCW performed live in Boston early on, in the 80s somewhere. (I don't live there, but nice town). Good show, but in retrospect something analogous to the lesser moments of Disney's Fantasia, where the music and visuals don't quite cohere. (Of course,the best segments of Fantasia are superb). While I'm here: has anyone met Adrian Belew? Really friendly guy. Met him in the mid or latter 80s, just for 5-10 minutes, then several years later I happened to be at a store signing session of his and he picked me out of the crowd and asked what I'd been doing since we talked last. Photographic memory, I guess. His group The Bears were great fun.
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