Life During Christmastime: David Byrne Shares ‘Fat Man’s Comin’’ Original Holiday Single

David Byrne has joined the ranks of composers of original holiday music. The onetime Talking Heads frontman released his ode to Santa Claus, “Fat Man’s Comin’.”

The track was released exclusively through Bandcamp for the December edition of Bandcamp Friday (when the platform waives its fees each month). Full proceeds from “Fat Man’s Comin’” will be donated to the nonprofit Reasons To Be Cheerful, an online news magazine founded by Byrne.

Written in 2013, “Fat Man’s Comin’” features strings (Paris Hurley on violin, Alex Guy on viola and Lori Goldston on cello), woodwinds (Beth Fleenor on clarinet) and brass (Samantha Boshnack on trumpet/flugelhorn and Nelson Bell on trombone/bass trombone/tuba) recorded by Jherek Bischoff, who also contributed bass and percussion. Sleigh bells were played by Kurt Bischoff. Longtime Byrne cohort Mauro Refosco added additional percussion.

Byrne shared the following statement about the new song:

I always wanted to write a holiday song. I wouldn’t call it a Christmas song, as the visitation of Santa (formerly known as St. Nicholas, who mainly did punishing) seems to have evolved to be a more secular consumer moment than a religious or spiritual affair.

I believe the foundation of this music might have been written at the same time as the collaboration I did with St. Vincent a few years ago, but somehow a literal view of the Santa phenomena was what came out. It wasn’t right for Annie and me – the story of a fat man in rather odd attire who breaks into people’s homes and leaves mysterious packages.

I’d worked with Jherek before and enlisted him to arrange and record the “orchestra,” which I wanted to sound sort of old-school creepy. The old song “Teddy Bears Picnic” may have been a reference.

Back then, I thought I’d use the song as a means to raise money for a good cause, but to draw attention to this thing I thought it might need a visual, so I storyboarded a video for the song which eventually ended up getting shelved.

But maybe helping celebrate another year of Reasons To Be Cheerful might be a good reason to resurrect this song, and let the storyboards allow folks to imagine what the video might have been.

Enjoy and thanks for listening/watching
David

The track comes “accompanied by [Byrne’s] hand-drawn storyboards for a decade-old, never-produced Bandcamp-exclusive video now reconstituted into a fresh clip.” Available through a pay-what-you-can model (with a minimum contribution of $1) through December 31, “Fat Man’s Comin’” can be purchased via this link or by clicking below:

https://davidbyrne.bandcamp.com/album/the-fat-mans-comin