How Music Works by David Byrne

I saw David Byrne for the first time on the Talking Heads '77 tour in Providence, Rhode Island--the band was made up largely of Rhode Island School of Design former students, so the city was familiar to them even if the venue was not (they went from playing in dorm rooms to CBGB's in New York, and to my knowledge never played on the Brown campus prior to the night I saw them).

They were something to see--they had a jerky stage presence, a stark stage set up, and a sound that was all it's own--developed by Byrne as the majority composer of their repertoire.  I went on to see them several times more over the next decade, and always enjoyed them very much as performers.  This is a book that David Byrne wrote about the components of music, and it was on the New York TImes 100 Notable Books list for 2012, so I read it.

The book is as quirky as it's author--which in retrospect really should not have come as a surprise, but it is just uniquely written and put together.  Do not get this book as an audio book (even though it is available in that format) because there are dozens of pictures in it and they are important to look at in following the points that the author is making.  It also helps to be familiar with the Talking Heads music, because he uses that as the basis for some of his explanations.

Now to the content--it helps to know (and the author discloses this in Chapter 2) that Byrne self-describes himself as having Asperberger's syndrome--there is an abruptness to everything that he says that you will be better prepared for if you know that up front.  The other is that this is no touchy-feely book about the magic and artistry of making music.  It is about the nuts and bolts of making music.  The business, the recordings, the music itself, the performance, the costs, the professionalism, and the venue that it all happens in.  Each component is examined separately, and then the author moves on to the next piece.  There is a lack of sentimentality that I was surprised by, but overall, the book is a very interesting read.  It made me think about music (which I know almost nothing about) in a new and different way.