Back in the late seventies, my friends and I were beyond tired of the disco and classic rock that droned endlessly over the radio waves. The popular music scene was sinking under the weight of formulaic blandness and exaggerated hair fashion. Finally along came a refreshing "new wave" of music talent that grew out of the British punk movement. Back then it was very hard to find new music, but somehow my friends and I stumbled on some great new acts that made us really excited about music again. These included groups like Patty Smith Group, the Smiths, Echo and the Bunnymen, and the Talking Heads. All of these musical groups had distinctive new sounds with highly intelligent lyrics. Among them the Talking Heads, lead by front man David Byrne, was our favorite.
The Talking Heads came together as students at the Rhode Island School of Design. As an architecture student myself, this appealed to me. I felt some kinship to these designer musicians, and in fact many of their songs are about cities and sense of place - an important aspect of architecture. Even so, I thought that the Talking Heads and David Byrne in particular were basically just big time musicians.
As it turns out, David Byrne is also a big time urban thinker with an amazingly deep appreciation for cities and how we experience them. Over the last week I have read several stories about Byrne's thoughts on cities as he promotes his new book entitled Bicycle Diaries. I have not yet read the book, but intend to soon. What I have read about it and his thoughts on urbanism is extremely impressive.
The book is Byrne's account of riding his bike through cities around the world. As a musician, Byrne has had the opportunity to visit a vast array of places. He says that as he traveled on tour, he realized he could get out and experience the many places they stopped more easily and deeply on a bike, and subsequently could keep his sanity while on the road. He began packing a folding bike with the band's sound gear, and he used his free time to explore rather than hang in hotel bars. He notes how exploring a city by bike leads to unexpected lines of thought and action. As an example of this, the Chicago Tribune (as part of a recent Byrne interview) notes how the book moves through diverse subjects such as prehistoric Australian animals, a shrine surrounded by water bottles in Buenos Aires, the gorges in downtown Rochester and a tour of Imelda Marcos' palace.
Byrne has also recently designed a series of art bike racks that have been installed in New York City, his hometown. They are fun and graphic and quite witty, once you read the name given to each rack style. For instance a car shaped rack is called "The Jersey" and a reclining and xxx woman is called "The Olde Times Square". Check out more on the bike racks here and also here.
Look for the book locally at Talking Leaves.
Like the album states, The name of the band is Talking Heads.
You do not need the definitive article.