That’s how Todd Rundgren described “Deface The Music”, one of Utopia’s most polarizing albums – and an album that deserves a re-discovery by music lovers! Time to look at one of the most inventive pop albums ever released – and the album that many feel derailed Utopia’s drive to the top of the music charts! Two Utopia band members with polar opposite reactions to the most polarizing Utopia album ever released!Ī 36-Year Celebration Of Utopia’s Classic – And Controversial – “Deface The Music!” “I thought it was the biggest mistake we could have ever made” Todd Rundgren “Defaces The Music!” Todd’s Beatles Homage Divides Utopia! And for that I’ll always be grateful to him.Home › 70's Music › Todd Rundgren “Defaces The Music!” Todd’s Beatles Homage Divides Utopia! Byrne might not have set out to forge connections on a universal scale quite like this, but that’s what he’s inadvertently ended up doing. As Byrne appeared in the film, picking up a prop brain and beginning his setlist with a cerebral sermon, I thought of all of the people also watching in their rooms, moving aside furniture to dance and delight in the company of this barefoot ringmaster.
#UTOPIA BAND 1984 FREE#
The BFI London Film Festival hosted a free screening of American Utopia as part of its online programme earlier this month. He had grown up with Talking Heads, and I had formed my own relationship with their music while falling head over heels for Byrne’s awkward yet profound style of performance, as well as his trenchant fascination with the world.Īs we stood silently side-by-side, as many sons and daughters stand silently next to their fathers – only with him swaying serenely and me crying and throwing my hands in the air – I let Byrne and his 11-strong band carry the connection between us for those magic few hours. My dad and I went to see the live version of American Utopia on a balmy June night in Hammersmith in 2018. You would struggle to find an experience as sensory and unifying as American Utopia.
#UTOPIA BAND 1984 FULL#
They craved full sensory escapism and unity as the black hole engulfing the music industry continued to swirl and expand. They craved the parts that came before, after and in between the setlist. People weren’t just craving a fan’s experience anymore, but the sticky floors and £7 beers that came with it. All major festivals would be pushed tentatively to 2021, only to be pushed back again as COVID cases continued to swell. During the six months before American Utopia’s world premiere in September, live music would be shut off from the world entirely. When Lee shot American Utopia, a month before most of the world went into quarantine, no one on the stage could’ve entertained the value of what they were about to perform. ‘American Utopia’ is Spike Lee’s documentary of David Byrne’s acclaimed Broadway show. That said, fortified bonds between artist and audience in concert films are to be expected you need only watch the crowd at Paisley Park Studios bathe in the tangerine hue of Prince’s tangerine Sign O’ The Times suit, the transcendent onlookers swaying to ‘Love In Vain’ in The Rolling Stones’ Gimme Shelter, or the mute screams emitted by the Beyhive during Beyonce’s Homecoming. The connection between Byrne and his audience is palpable, as he stands open and barefoot in his spotlight, captured unobtrusively by director Spike Lee.
During American Utopia’s set of solo songs and cherished Talking Heads material – delivered with a self-deprecating and stately air – Byrne indulges his audience with findings, memories and calls to action that are both personal, political, and all intertwined even if they don’t seem like it at first. It’s funny, though not unintentional, that a man who’s so transparently at odds with other people is so focused on seeking and encouraging connections. The lamp is a gift, a connection to another moment in time that brought endless people – some in that room, many not – joy. “What if we could eliminate everything from the stage, except the stuff that we care about?” he suggests, explaining the modest composition of American Utopia to a bewitched audience. Instead Byrne – resplendent in a slightly more proportional grey suit – regards the exposed bulb as a warm notion to the past in a film otherwise committed to the idea of moving forwards. Read more: American Utopia review: Spike Lee presents David Byrne in all his glory.This time he doesn’t swing it around with the same anxious energy as he did in Jonathan Demme’s 1984 Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, a combustible and lauded milestone in performance cinema. At a quiet juncture in American Utopia – filmed during a pre-pandemic Broadway run of shows from former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne – the singer once again finds himself onstage with a detached, long-stemmed lamp.
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