It's the 40th anniversary of Talking Heads' masterpiece concert film, Stop Making Sense. A24 remastered and rereleased the movie, bringing it to new audiences and longtime fans. Talking Heads frontman David Byrne returns to Fresh Air to speak with Terry Gross about songwriting, dancing, and yes, the big suit. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted Radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I am Terry Gross.
My guest is David Byrne.
He was a founding member of the band Talking Heads, one of the seminal bands of the punk new wave period of the seventies.
The Talking Heads weren't exactly punk, but they weren't like any band that came before them.
They recorded eight albums between 1977 and when they stopped playing together in 1988.
If you love their music or if you never saw or heard them, this is a great time to watch the 40th anniversary edition of their concert film Stop Making Sense, which is playing in theaters.
It's newly restored with a remastered soundtrack.
Many music critics and fans consider it among the best concert films ever made.
Byrne went on to record solo albums, collaborate on experimental theater pieces with Robert Wilson and Spaulding Gray, and a ballet with choreographer Twyla Tharp.
He still has the record label he founded in 1988, Lwaca Bopp.
His first releases were compilations of brazilian music, but then he expanded into african pop and later jazz and gospel, as well as his own solo albums.
Spike Lee directed the film version of his 2019 concert Broadway show American Utopia.
Byrne's musical here lies Love is currently on Broadway.
He won an Oscar as one of the composers of the score for the Bertolucci film the Last Emperor and was nominated for one for the song he co wrote with Mitsky and Son Lux for the 2022 film Everything Everywhere all at once.
That's a long way to go from CBGB.