David Byrne, Post-Talking Heads
Spike Lee’s “American Utopia” has collective vision & a star
BY STEVE ERICKSON
“David Byrne’s
American Utopia”
has some
enormous shoes
to fi ll. A de facto sequel to Talking
Heads’ 1984 concert fi lm “Stop
Making Sense,” directed by Jonathan
Demme, it’s based on Byrne’s
Broadway performances, which
ended this past February. Spike
Lee proves to be a showier director
than Demme was.
Now 68, Byrne is self-consciously
establishing a legacy beyond Talking
Heads. The set list for “American
Utopia” mixes that band’s
songs with his solo material. The
fi lm plays “Everybody’s Coming
To My House,” which landed him
a rock radio hit in 2018 after decades
of absence, in his version as
well as a high school choir’s.
Byrne speaks onstage about
the difference between the two.
Despite the lyrics, his voice can’t
help sounding slightly agitated,
as though he’s striking up the
courage to remain at a party. The
teen choir sounds like they really
do want everyone to come to their
house, offering a warm embrace.
Byrne mentions he’s an immigrant
— his parents brought him to the
US from Scotland as an infant —
and so are many of his band members.
After that intro, the meaning
of “everybody” and “my house”
then seems much broader.
Without being a narrative fi lm,
“Stop Making Sense” told a story. It
began with Byrne performing “Psycho
Killer” alone. Talking Heads
bassist Tina Weymouth then joined
him for the next song. The band
quickly ballooned to their expanded,
multi-racial touring lineup. The
anxiety behind Byrne’s voice and
lyrics always made Talking Heads
sound different from earlier white
musicians inspired by soul and
funk. Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart,
and Robert Plant lifted from Black
music because they thought it
made them sexier. Byrne sounded
much more vulnerable, like he was
on a quest to fi nd a solution to his
angst instead.
David Byrne in “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” directed by Spike Lee.
David Byrne and Spike Lee outside the Hudson Theatre.
One reason “American Utopia”
feels like a slightly weaker sibling to
“Stop Making Sense” is that it copies
much of its set list from Talking
Heads songs, while the material
from Byrne’s solo career doesn’t
match the exhilaration of “Once
in a Lifetime,” “Burning Down the
House,” or “Road to Nowhere.” But
it benefi ts from the fact that many
songs are now well-worn palimpsests.
For example, the original
clip for “Once in a Lifetime” presented
Byrne as a nerdy businessman,
awkwardly dancing over
primitive video effects. His performance
of the song in “Stop Making
Sense” expanded on the song with
a greater sense of theatricality, but
still involved him donning glasses
and an oversized white suit. The
song’s roots in Byrne and Brian
Eno’s days watching televangelists
DAVID LEE
PHOTO DAVID LEE
are clearer in the “American Utopia”
version, where the lyrics come
across like a sermon.
Lee uses the whole space of the
Hudson Theatre, where “American
Utopia” was performed. The fi lm
uses overhead shots, revealing that
the whole band performed barefoot.
His fi lms have long incorporated
music as a structural device more
sensitively than most directors. He
made a musical, “School Daze,”
as his second feature out of fi lm
school. Where would “Do the Right
Thing” be without Public Enemy’s
“Fight the Power?” The fi rst Spike
Lee joint of 2020, “Da 5 Bloods,” relied
on an atypically weak Terence
Blanchard score but played Marvin
Gaye’s album “What’s Goin’ On”
(often in a capella versions) over
images of his characters’ Vietnam
experiences to great effect. This is
STREAMING CINEMA
Lee’s seventh fi lm based on a stage
performance.
“American Utopia” is more overtly
political than “Stop Making
Sense,” with a cover of pansexual
singer Janelle Monae’s protest
song about racist police violence
“Hell You Talmbout” and Byrne’s
own anti-gun violence “Bullet.”
Still, fi lmmaker and critic Scout
Tafoya put “Stop Making Sense”
on a list of socialist movies. While
that makes sense, the limits of the
movie’s political vision are suggested
by the fact that Talking Heads
went back to their original lineup
of four white people for “Little Creatures,”
their next studio album.
Byrne takes pains to introduce his
band members to the audience. He
even has them start “Born Under
Punches (The Heat Goes On)” by
playing each instrument to prove
that the show isn’t using backing
tapes.
As much as “American Utopia”
suggests a collective vision, however,
Byrne is still the star, down to
having his name in the full title.
The fi lm’s ending opens things
up. “Road to Nowhere” is Byrne’s
fi nale. It begins with him and his
band singing a capella in a circle,
lit from underneath. To fi t the
marching-band beat, they dance
in a circle onstage while playing it,
and then head into the audience
to fi nish the song. Byrne gets on
a bike to ride home after the performance
ends, but the fi lm isn’t
over. The closing credits depict the
entire band riding bikes through
Manhattan, as the choral version
of “Everybody’s Coming to My
House” plays.
Byrne describes “Road to Nowhere”
as “a resigned, even joyful
vision of doom.” But if its lyrics
are skeptical, the arrangement is
excited. Yet the sheer joy of performance
comes through most of all,
despite a much stronger suspicion
now than in 1984 that we’re racing
down a road to nowhere.
DAVID BYRNE’S AMERICAN UTOPIA
| Directed by Spike Lee | Airs
on HBO, starts streaming on HBO
Max Oct. 17
GayCityNews.com | October 8 - October 22, 2020 29
/GayCityNews.com
