David Byrne - The Catherine Wheel (The Complete Score from the Broadway Production) '1981 [1990]

Tracks list

The Catherine Wheel is David Byrnes musical score commissioned by Twyla Tharp
for her dance project. The Catherine Wheel premiered September 22, 1981, at the
Winter Garden Theatre in New York City.


Since the breakup of Talking Heads, David Byrnes solo work has been notoriously
inconsistent. But before that bands dissolution, he made a couple of very fine
albums on his own: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (with Brian Eno) and The
Catherine Wheel, a musical score commissioned by Twyla Tharp to accompany her
dance project of the same name. Byrnes score is always interesting and
frequently brilliant; it draws on the instrumental talents of such session
greats as drummer Yogi Horton, percussionist John Chernoff, guitarist Adrian
Belew (who had been recording and touring as a sideman with Talking Heads), and,
inevitably, Eno. Hortons drumming establishes a muscular funk foundation for
much of the material, which also showcases Byrnes underrated guitar playing.
Only the lyrics disappoint; they consist almost entirely of clichéd and
predictable depictions of domestic suburban angst. Highlights of the program
include The Red House, with its eerie use of deconstructed vocal samples, and
the lovely faux-juju Ade. Highly recommended.


Tracks:

1. Light Bath (01:09)
2. His Wife Refused (04:31)
3. Adé (03:22)
4. Walking (00:52)
5. Two Soldiers (03:31)
6. Under The Mountain (00:53)
7. Dinosaur (02:36)
8. The Red House (03:17)
9. Wheezing (03:12)
10. Eggs In A Briar Patch (03:31)
11. Poison (02:31)
12. Cloud Chamber (02:50)
13. Black Flag (02:29)
14. My Big Hands (Fall Through The Cracks) (02:46)
15. Combat (02:45)
16. Leg Bells (02:40)
17. The Blue Flame (03:25)
18. Big Business (05:06)
19. Dense Beasts (03:11)
20. Five Golden Sections (02:53)
21. What A Day That Was (05:30)
22. Big Blue Plymouth (Eyes Wide Open) (04:43)
23. Light Bath (01:10)

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