Anyone watching the superior FX/Hulu episodic show The Bear knows the music chosen for each episode is intentional, and seamlessly confluent with the visual narrative. Episode 7 Season 2-entitled Forks, The misanthropic character Richie Hero’s Journey episode utilized David Byrnes’s song, Glass, Concrete, and Stone, with great effect. This listener was sonically smitten with the orchestrally rhythmic, vocally nuanced pop masterpiece, “Everything Possible When You’re an Animal”, Glass, Concrete, and Stone song, to the precipice edge of obsession. Glass, Concrete and Stone woke up our Beginner’s Mind anew. Now you know, we have played this amazing track rut of groove, cognitive re-direct, new paradigm shift. Is this song worth our time, worthy of yours, and ready today for the world to hear? A resounding yes comes back from the Gods. A 2004 track is hardly a premier but when new to us, heard anew on a favorite show soundtrack, we divine it new to you as well. Enjoy.
“Anxiety and angst can certainly produce some interesting work, but it’s not the only way to make music. I’m also not as obsessive and crazy as I used to be.”
With David Byrne &
The Detroit School Of The Arts
Glass, Concrete & Stone
Provided to YouTube by Nonesuch
Glass, Concrete & Stone · David Byrne
Grown Backwards
℗ 2004 Nonesuch Records
Bass, Producer, Vocals: David Byrne
Percussion: David Hilliard
Masterer: Greg Calbi
Cello: Jane Scarpantoni
Mixer, Recorded by: Mark Saunders
Marimba, Percussion: Mauro Refrosco
Producer: Patrick Dillett
Composer, Writer: David Byrne
Grown Backwards
Grown Backwards, as the title suggests, skips whistling into maturity, and employs this concept as its thematic core. Here, endearing for his joyous, occasionally wrong-footed style-hopping, David Byrne gleefully releases himself to fate, both critical and existential, like a man who’s breathed in the dust of ceiling tile, cinder, faxes, and bone. He even wears Oshkosh overalls on the back. (Perhaps. They could be Miu Miu.)
If you hold the cover of Grown Backwards before your face at a precise angle, twisting your head to the right slightly, the mirrored finish of its packaging superimposes your visage over David Byrne’s remarkably unchanged face. Put the CD down and your fingerprints blemish the gloss with human grease. Intended or not, the album physically reflects and inserts the listener. With its themes centered on the amusing and tragic nuances of seemingly mundane human behavior, Byrne has crafted a personal album for all, confronting us with our greatest fears and flaws– mainly mortality.
The album’s sequencing even parallels a lifecycle: The opening is exciting, naively romantic, and carefree. Like adolescence, tracks four through seven strive awkwardly to follow trends and fit in. Regal trumpet blasts herald a diatribe of American imperialism on the unfittingly political “Empire”. And finally, “The Other Side of Life” arrives at adulthood, with arms wide before a Broadway melody. With signature wide-eyed sincerity, Byrne sings, “I don’t have any more problems/ All of my worries are gone/ Beautiful angels appear at my side/ And corporate sponsors will act as my guide,” dispensing any sarcasm these lyrics might imply. “Glad” revels in a laundry list of flaws: “I’m glad I got lost/ I’m glad I’m confused/ I’m glad when the sex is not that great/ I’m glad I know how my life will end/ I’m glad I’m a mess,” again, with ambiguously sincere delivery. Whether Byrne is mocking the shortcomings of the average man or rejoicing in his own averageness is unclear, but either way, it works.
“Glass,Concrete & Stone”- David Byrne
R.E.M. – Strange Currencies (Official Music Video)SONG