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When someone (I'll call him George) says of an artist, "I think [artist] really understands the human condition," what George is telling you (I think), is that the way [artist] seems to understand the human condition is similar to the way George understands the human condition, just more compelling. That said, I want to tell you that David Byrne is a great artist, and he really understands the human condition. My first novel used his lyrics as an epigraph. (See "Angels" to the side.) I am always struck with how correct his lyrics seem to me. "Sometimes, dear, you tell me I'm an asshole, sometimes you're an asshole, too." This from a song called "My Love is You." Jerry hipped me to Byrne's solo-work in June of 1994. I was dropped out of school and trying to stay sober. I lived with my parents for nine months, and during the summer vacation, Jerry came back to town. His parents went to Mexico, Jerry and I got super-fucking stoned in the woods behind his house, and then, inside, I collapsed on a puffy couch while he put on David Byrne's self-titled solo album, the second side, which (on cassette tape) goes like this: "Nothing at All," "Lilies of the Valley," "You and Eye," "Strange Ritual," and ends with the sweetest statement of religious rapture I've ever heard, "Buck Naked." These songs are so good, so intense, build with such power and strength toward the evil, pulsing, twisted fly-by nightmare of "Strange Ritual," that I was nearly levitating off the couch. I think I made some odd noises, too, because Jerry said, "It's cool, Nick, don't worry, it'll end okay." And it did. "Buck Naked," just a few little guitar flickers, an organ, and Byrne singing his heart out, cleared me and comforted me and made everything okay. We went to see Byrne on his tour for that album, at the end of the summer, right before Jerry and I went back to our respective schools. We drove down the Virginia coast, into the Tidewater country, into the backwoods. This is when I began to think about Seven Time, but I didn't know that until much later. There is sadness in Byrne, and that is what I relate to the most. I fell in love with Michele the next year, and I listened to David Byrne when she said there was this other guy she'd been dating, but that she and I could be friends. |
What're they after? -- from "Angels" Naked in my heart -- from "Buck Naked" |