Cover Alert | David Byrne Covers The Rolling Stones

We’re excited to see that David Byrne has launched a new column on his website dubbed “From The Archives -Music.” As you can probably guess by the name, Byrne’s team will comb his archives to share relics from David’s past in the new column.

The first installment of From The Archives -Music features a soundboard recording of Byrne and his band covering “Sympathy For The Devil” at a 1992 show in Montreal. Byrne shared the following about the hard-hitting cover:

I covered Sympathy For The Devil on a tour I did in ’92 with a large latin funk band. It was a late addition to the set list. This mix sounds like a board mix or maybe a monitor mix. Why did we do this? Because we could! We had a band lineup that could rock this tune… so why not? We did it as an encore number, which is where these oddball unexpected covers sometimes land. They lyrics (I had to research the real lyrics) are sometimes absolutely brilliant, sometimes silly (the Stones playing at being bad boys) and sometimes completely nonsensical. I covered Keith’s guitar solo as best I could. You can hear the audience doing the “woo wooh’s” in the 1st verse!

You’ll notice I go into a “funny” voice about two-thirds through for certain lines. I was trying to sing like Goofy, the Disney character. Why? Well, there actually was a reason, though maybe not one good enough to justify how weird this sounds. I have long believed that the devil, should one exist, would not be some scary guy, but someone who sweetly perverts our better natures by more surreptitious means… and for me, Disney is the perfect example of that, with maybe the Olsen Twins as his consorts. So, following that logic, Goofy (the “harmless” clown minion) would be the perfect one to suggest we have some “sympathy” for the devil.

David
NYC 2014

Take a listen: