David Byrne Performing Live Spotify Playlist

Tonight, David Byrne will perform at Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey, debuting “the most ambitious show” the Talking Heads co-founder has staged “since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense.” Byrne is expected to play songs from American Utopia, his new studio album coming out next week, as well as “familiar” favorites from throughout his career.

This edition of Saturday Stream also surveys Byrne’s successful 40+ years of making memorable music. The Spotify Playlist below captures the idiosyncratic vocalist performing live both during his time with the influential new wave band Talking Heads and with various other artists as a solo performer.

Several selections in the playlist come from the extensive The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads live album issued in 1982. Byrne and the original Talking Heads lineup of Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz and Jerry Harrison can be heard in a variety of settings in 1977, 1978 and 1979. That album also features the expanded Talking Heads lineup with the likes of Adrian Belew and Bernie Worrell on recordings from 1980 and 1981. The playlist begins with a similarly expanded Talking Heads lineup that appeared on the aforementioned Jonathan Demme-directed concert film and live album Stop Making Sense.

The playlist contains some of Byrne’s Talking Heads hits, solo tunes and more recorded with Caetano Veloso at Carnegie Hall on April 17, 2004. Byrne is also featured on a one-off, live in-studio performance of “What We Really Want” with Rosanne Cash, Zev Katz and John Leventhal from the Columbia Records Radio Hour. Another one-off, a 1997 recording of the Talking Heads’ “I Zimbra” from the defunct PBS live concert program Sessions At West 54th, which Byrne hosted, can also be found in the set.

Byrne pulled from his solo catalog and Talking Heads songbook (along with a Whitney Houston cover) for his 2007 Austin City Limits taping that found him backed by Paul Frazier, Mauro Refosco, David Hilliard and the Tosca string sextet. Frazier and Refosco also supported Byrne, along with Mark De Gli Antoni, Redray Frazier, Graham Hawthorne, Kaïssa and Jenni Muldaur, on his Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour. Four tracks from that 2008 – 2009 tour close out the playlist.

Stream David Byrne performing live below: