David Byrne - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: In Concert, London, Britain, 1994

Here's a David Byrne solo concert he did for the BBC in 1994. I'm pretty sure this one hasn't been in public circulation at all until now.

This concert is a big mystery to me, because I couldn't find any information about it whatsoever! It's clear that it has to be from 1994, due to the song list, which closely matches other 1994 concerts. He was promoting his 1994 album, simply called "David Byrne," and played some songs from it that he never played before or since.

I got this from musical friend Progsprog. He's sent me quite a few other things that haven't been in public circulation (including some I still have to post), so this fits that pattern. But unfortunately, he knew absolutely nothing about where it comes from. So the location of London is a TOTAL GUESS, based on the fact that probably 90 plus percent of the BBC concerts I post have taken place in London. But that could very easily be wrong. If anyone knows anything about this mystery concert, please let me know and I'll update the information. I'm posting this here in hopes that someone will be able to help.

The setlist.fm website indicates he toured Britain in September 1994, and played three concerts in London at that time. So this concert is probably from that month. However, there's evidence he also played a concert in London in May 1994, while also appearing on a TV there at that time. So I can't even be sure about the month.

But the lack of info about the when and where of this concert doesn't take away the fact that the performance is very good. This was early in Byrne's solo career, so he played a good number of Talking Heads songs. 

Oh, and since I had previously posted a 2002 BBC concert by Byrne, I just renamed that to "BBC Sessions, Volume 2." That meant changing the album cover art and so forth. So here's an updated link to that one:

https://albumsthatshouldexist.blogspot.com/2025/01/david-byrne-bbc-four-sessions-union.html

This album is 55 minutes long.

01 A Long Time Ago (David Byrne)
02 talk (David Byrne)
03 [Nothing But] Flowers (David Byrne)
04 This Must Be the Place [Naive Melody] (David Byrne)
05 Stay Up Late (David Byrne)
06 Strange Ritual (David Byrne)
07 talk (David Byrne)
08 Back in the Box (David Byrne)
09 Once in a Lifetime (David Byrne)
10 Angels (David Byrne)
11 talk (David Byrne)
12 Buck Naked (David Byrne)
13 Psycho Killer (David Byrne)
14 Burning Down the House (David Byrne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/26sdsr8E

alternate: 

https://bestfile.io/2JcV4NSTq2Kv661/file

The cover photo is from a concert in Gent, Belgium, on June 8, 1994. The original was in color, but the color was mostly washed out and just generally orange-ish. So I ran it through the Kolorize colorization program. I think it looks much better as a result.

David Byrne - BBC Sessions, Volume 2: BBC Four Sessions, Union Chapel, London, Britain, 7-2002

Here's the second of two BBC concerts by David Byrne that I could find. If you know of any others, please let me know.

This is from a TV program, called "BBC Four Sessions," that ran for a few years and generally was edited down to hour-long episodes. But this is a full concert this time, judging by the length, because it was released on DVD only in 1994.

The sound quality is excellent.. And if you want, you can find the DVD video of the full concert on YouTube. (Last I checked, anyway.) 

I've already posted a Byrne concert from 2001, which is only a year earlier. But this one is pretty different, mainly due to the fact that he was backed by a full orchestra for the concert. So he picked songs that worked well for that, including some from his Talking Heads years.

This album is an hour and 21 minutes long.

UPDATE: On January 6, 2026, I updated the mp3 download file. The music is exactly the same, but I renamed the album after finding an earlier BBC concert he performed. I also found out the concert took place in July 2002, not November as I'd thought. So that changed in the title as well. (I'm sure the November month was wrong because it was broadcast on the BBC for the first time in September 2002.)

01 talk (David Byrne)
02 [Nothing But] Flowers (David Byrne)
03 talk (David Byrne)
04 And She Was (David Byrne)
05 Once in a Lifetime (David Byrne)
06 talk (David Byrne)
07 God's Child (David Byrne)
08 The Great Intoxication (David Byrne)
09 talk (David Byrne)
10 Un Di Felice (David Byrne)
11 The Revolution (David Byrne)
12 talk (David Byrne)
13 Sax and Violins (David Byrne)
14 This Must Be the Place [Naive Melody] (David Byrne)
15 What a Day That Was (David Byrne)
16 Like Humans Do (David Byrne)
17 talk (David Byrne)
18 U.B. Jesus (David Byrne)
19 talk (David Byrne)
20 Life during Wartime (David Byrne)
21 Lazy (David Byrne)
22 I Wanna Dance with Somebody [Who Loves Me] (David Byrne)
23 talk (David Byrne)
24 Ausencia (David Byrne)
25 The Accident (David Byrne)
26 Road to Nowhere (David Byrne)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/pMWFwP7X

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/pf5DWhIrWsWRA56/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

The Talking Heads - The Kitchen, New York City, 3-13-1976

Now that I've finished posting the complete 1982 US Festival, I have a backlog of other albums I want to post. This is the one I'm the most excited about. It's a must have for anyone interested in the early years of the Talking Heads. What really makes this stand out is the jaw-dropping sound quality, considering how early this comes in the band's career, a year and a half before their first album was released.

The reason I'm posting this is thanks to musical associate MZ. When I posted the Talking Heads set from the US Festival, he said he had a better sounding version, and sent it to me. Sure enough, it did sound better, so I used that one. But at the same time, he also sent me a bootleg of this concert, saying that I should listen to it if I hadn't already. I did, and I thought it was great, so I decided to post this too. 

The sound quality is heads and shoulders above any other recordings of the band from this time. The reason is because it was professionally filmed due to sheer luck. It seems they were the only band to play the Kitchen, a venue for (non-musical) artists, and many public events were being filmed there at the time. Keep in mind the band only had their first public concert nine months earlier. And they still were lacking their fourth member, Jerry Harrison, who didn't join until a full year after this.

The one snag with the recording MZ sent me was that it was only half an hour long. I was going to post it anyway, due to the rarity of having such sound quality from that far back in the band's history. But then I looked on YouTube and found further videos. The timing was extremely fortunate, because it seems they were only made available to the public two weeks prior to when I'm posting this, in December 2024. I don't know why they were hidden for nearly fifty years, but better late than never. These videos were of the band's entire performance that evening!

I converted everything to mp3. Then I made some audio edits. The main one was to drastically boost the volume of lead singer David Byrne talking between songs. On the videos, one could barely hear him at all most of the time, but now he comes in clearly. He was unusually chatty back then, speaking before every song, although usually just a sentence or two. A couple of years after this, he rarely spoke at all during concerts. I also boosted the volume of the applause after every song.

Since this is so early in the band's career, many of these songs were played rarely. For instance, setlist.fm has the song "I Want to Live" only ever being played three times. And decent recordings of them are rarer still. Those include the cover songs "Sugar on My Tongue," "Love Is All Around," "1 2 3 Red Light," and "96 Tears."

So please enjoy this. And if you're really interested, watch the full video of it on YouTube.

This album is an hour and 13 minutes long.

01 talk (Talking Heads)
02 Artists Only (Talking Heads)
03 talk (Talking Heads)
04 First Week-Last Week... Carefree (Talking Heads)
05 talk (Talking Heads)
06 I'm Not in Love (Talking Heads)
07 talk (Talking Heads)
08 Love Goes to a Building on Fire (Talking Heads)
09 talk (Talking Heads)
10 Who Is It (Talking Heads)
11 talk (Talking Heads)
12 Thank You for Sending Me an Angel (Talking Heads)
13 talk (Talking Heads)
14 Sugar on My Tongue (Talking Heads)
15 talk (Talking Heads)
16 Warning Sign (Talking Heads)
17 talk (Talking Heads)
18 talk (Talking Heads)
19 The Girls Want to Be with the Girls (Talking Heads)
20 Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
21 talk (Talking Heads)
22 I Feel It in My Heart (Talking Heads)
23 talk (Talking Heads)
24 I Wish You Wouldn't Say That (Talking Heads)
25 talk (Talking Heads)
26 Stay Hungry (Talking Heads)
27 talk (Talking Heads)
28 I Want to Live (Talking Heads)
29 talk (Talking Heads)
30 Tentative Decisions (Talking Heads)
31 talk (Talking Heads)
32 No Compassion (Talking Heads)
33 talk (Talking Heads)
34 Love Is All Around (Talking Heads)
35 talk (Talking Heads)
36 1 2 3 Red Light (Talking Heads)
37 96 Tears (Talking Heads)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17514502/TTALKNGHDS1976ThKitchnNwYrkC__3-13-1976_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/2REkGH8T

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/RdvKL0ifH3D0dwi/file

In addition to this band having special music, I think it has a pretty special cover too. Luckily, there was a professional photographer, Kathy Landman, who took a bunch of photos of the band at this exact concert. You can see some of them here:

ON FILE: Talking Heads | The Kitchen

They all are in black and white, which is unfortunate for me, since I much prefer color. So I used a program to covert the best photo of the whole band into color. Since there also is low-res color film footage of the concert, I used that to make sure the colors matched what they actually looked like on that day. The only detail that isn't true is the back wall actually was a shade of blue. But it would have been too much of a pain in the rear to fix that.

In case anyone is interested, here's the full version of this photo, with greater resolution.

US Festival '82, Glen Helen Regional Park, San Bernardino, CA, 9-3-1982 - Day 1, Part 5: The Talking Heads

The fifth album from Day One of the 1982 US Festival is a set by the new wave band the Talking Heads.

Be warned, again, that most of the albums I'm posting from this festival are audience bootlegs with lower sound quality than the soundboard or FM radio bootlegs I usually post. This is another case of that. 

It seems the sun set during the B-52's set that just prior to this one. So it was dark during this whole set, which helped a ton considered it had reached 110 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, and was quite dusty as well.

Here's what Rolling Stone Magazine wrote about this set in an article that came out shortly after the festival: "Talking Heads didn't have to inhale quite as much dirt during their set... but they did turn in the day's best show – a tough, gritty set of percussive funk that found [lead singer] David Byrne hopping around the stage like a bunny rabbit, running in circles around its perimeter and introducing one unrecorded, as-yet-untitled new song whose chorus consisted of 'Hi hi hi hi hi hi.'" The song mentioned at the end is called "Swamp" and would appear on the band's 1983 album "Speaking in Tongues."

Note that when I first posted this album, the sound quality was slightly worse. But musical associate MZ sent me a better source. It's still an audience boot, but it sounds significantly better. Thanks, MZ!

At the time of this concert, the band hadn't released a new album since 1980's "Remain in Light." At that time, for a young band, that was a long time between albums. But lead singer David Byrne released a solo album in late 1981 called "The Catherine Wheel," and that effectively served as a new Talking Heads album for the purposes of their 1982 concerts. They played four songs from that album in this concert (tracks 93, 96, 98, and 103). Additionally, band member Jerry Harrison released a solo album in 1981 called "The Red and the Black." One song from that, "Slink," was a minor hit, and was also performed in this concert.

This album is an hour and 18 minutes long. 

090 Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
091 Love Goes to a Building on Fire (Talking Heads)
092 Cities (Talking Heads)
093 Big Blue Plymouth [Eyes Wide Open] (Talking Heads)
094 Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads)
095 Mind (Talking Heads)
096 My Big Hands [Fall Through the Cracks] (Talking Heads)
097 Slink (Talking Heads)
098 Big Business (Talking Heads)
099 I Zimbra (Talking Heads)
100 talk (Talking Heads)
101 Swamp (Talking Heads)
102 Houses in Motion (Talking Heads)
103 What a Day That Was (Talking Heads)
104 Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)
105 Take Me to the River (Talking Heads)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17485749/VA-1982USFstvlDay0105TlkngHeds_atse.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/PfEkEMbx

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/WIV7X1T10YZU74W/file

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

David Byrne - True Creatures Demos (1984)

In 1985, the Talking Heads put out the studio album "Little Creatures," which turned out to be their best seller. In 1986, they put out the album "True Stories," which was linked to a movie of the same name largely created by the band's main singer-songwriter, David Byrne. It turns out Byrne wrote most of the songs for both albums by 1984, and recorded demos of them. This is the entirely unreleased album of those demos. 

These demos have long been nicknamed the "True Creatures" (or "True Creature") demos, combining the titles of the "Little Creatures" and "True Stories" album. But that was almost certainly just an idea of some clever bootlegger, and not what they were actually called. They just as easily could be known as the "Little Stories" demos, I suppose. But I'm sticking with the name.

This album is also widely credited to the Talking Heads. But I'm changing that, because it's obvious to my ears that the only person on them is Byrne. Mind you, these aren't simply solo acoustic versions. He had incorporated drum machines into his songwriting since early in his music career, and there are drum machines all over this. Plus, he fleshed it out with backing vocals and other instruments. But still, it sounds like it's all him. For instance, the backing vocals sound like his voice as well.

These aren't radically different versions from the final ones. But still, it's interesting to hear how these songs originated. Plus, the sound quality is excellent. I'd had this in my music collection for many years. But I was inspired to finally post them after I saw a new version recently (April 2024) shared by someone named Mr. Sifter. This person used the recently developed AI tools of programs like Izotope to clean up the recordings. So even if you've had this already, this version sounds better than ever before. 

There are nine songs on "Little Creatures" and nine more on "True Stories." This has 12 songs. So it has a majority of songs from those albums, but definitely not all of them. I presume some were composed later.

This album is 54 minutes long. 

By the way, fun fact: the band Radiohead got their name from one of the songs here, "Radio Head."

01 Wild Wild Life (David Byrne)
02 Puzzlin' Evidence (David Byrne)
03 Love for Sale (David Byrne)
04 The Lady Don't Mind (David Byrne)
05 Hey Now (David Byrne)
06 Road to Nowhere (David Byrne)
07 Hey [Instrumental] (David Byrne)
08 Papa Legba (David Byrne)
09 People like Us (David Byrne)
10 City of Dreams (David Byrne)
11 Radio Head (David Byrne)
12 Give Me Back My Name (David Byrne)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16519362/DAVDBRYN1984TruCreturDmos_atse.zip.html

The cover photo is actually two images combined. I started with a photo of David Byrne, taken at a New York City party in 1986. The background was bland, so I came up with the idea of putting part of the cover to the "Little Creatures" album behind him.

Heatwave Festival, Mosport Park, Bowmanville, Canada, 8-23-1980, Part 5: Talking Heads

This is the fifth part of the 1980 Heatwave Festival.

The Talking Heads released their third album, "Fear of Music," in 1979. Their next album, the classic "Remain in Light," would come out in October 1980, two months after this concert. At the time of this concert, the band was finishing up the recording of the album. Their tour to support the album wouldn't start until mid-October, but this concert was an exception. 

The band started with five songs from previous albums, and finished with two more such songs. But between that, they did four songs from the upcoming "Remain in Light" album: "Once in a Lifetime," "Houses in Motion," "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)," and "Crosseyed and Painless." It turns out this concert was the very first time these four songs were ever played in public. Furthermore, this was the first time the band performed on stage with the many additional musicians who would be part of the "Remain in Light" tour, so even the older songs sounded quite different. The band was radically transformed, and this concert was the public debut of their new sound.

Like the other albums from this festival, the sound quality is excellent, even though this remains unreleased. And this set didn't have any sound problems.

As an aside, you can see from the covers I've posted that the earlier sets took place during the daytime, but by the time this band finished, it had grown dark.

This album is an hour and six minutes long.

077 talk (Talking Heads)
078 Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
079 Warning Sign (Talking Heads)
080 Stay Hungry (Talking Heads)
081 Cities (Talking Heads)
082 talk (Talking Heads)
083 I Zimbra (Talking Heads)
084 talk (Talking Heads)
085 Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads)
086 Houses in Motion (Talking Heads)
087 Born Under Punches [The Heat Goes On] (Talking Heads)
088 Crosseyed and Painless (Talking Heads)
089 talk (Talking Heads)
090 Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)
091 talk (Talking Heads)
092 Take Me to the River (Talking Heads)

https://www.upload.ee/files/17315603/VA-HtwveFstivlMsprtPrkBwmnvlleCnda__8-23-1980_05TlkngHds.zip.html

alternate:

https://pixeldrain.com/u/CoZTd52E

The cover photo is from this exact concert.

Luka Bloom, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash & Lou Reed - In Their Own Words, The Bottom Line, New York City, 2-19-1993, Late Show

Happy new year, everyone. At first glance, this may look exactly like the last album I posted, but don't be deceived. Yes, the cover is almost exactly the same, but the photo is slightly different. And the title is almost exactly the same, but this is the late show and the other post is the early show. 

What's important is that the performance is totally different. Although the format and the artists are the same, the vast majority of the songs performed are different from the early show. Plus, there's a considerable amount of talking between songs, and all of that is different as well. 

I believe these are the songs that were played in both the early and late shows: "Tentative Decisions," "Ready for This World," "Busload of Faith," "The Wheel," and "I Need Love."

Like the early show, this is an unreleased concert. Also like the early show, it's either a soundboard or an audience boot that sounds better than most soundboards. I'm guessing it's an audience boot due to the fact that the audience noise was much louder than the music or talking on stage, which is typical of audience boots. But seriously, it sounds fantastic. And I fixed all the songs so the music and talking is much louder and the cheering is much quieter. 

Also, there were a few snags with the recording of the early show, such as sections that were missing and had to be filled in from a different source. But there were no such problems with the late show.  The recording was basically flawless.

The one slight disappointment with this concert is that it's shorter than the early show. This is two hours and 14 minutes long. By contrast, the early show is two hours and 47 minutes long. But a lot of that time difference is due to more talking in the early show. The music only is an hour and 16 minutes here, just ten minutes less than the early show.

Like I did with the early show, since there's so much talking - about an hour - I've made two versions of this album, one with the talking and one without. I think the interview sections are quite good and worth listening to at least once. But the music only version has more repeat listening value.

Here's the version with the music and the talking:

01 talk (Vin Scelsa)
02 talk - Luka Bloom Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
03 Mary Watches Everything (Luka Bloom)
04 talk - David Byrne Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
05 Tentative Decisions (David Byrne)
06 talk - Rosanne Cash Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
07 Seven Year Ache (Rosanne Cash)
08 talk - Lou Reed Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
09 I'm Waiting for the Man (Lou Reed)
10 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
11 The Man Is Alive (Luka Bloom)
12 talk - David Byrne Q and A (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
13 Ready for This World (David Byrne)
14 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
15 The Wheel (Rosanne Cash)
16 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
17 Smalltown (Lou Reed)
18 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
19 Images (Lou Reed)
20 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
21 Fertile Rock (Luka Bloom)
22 talk - David Byrne Q and A (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
23 Something Ain’t Right (David Byrne)
24 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
25 This World (Rosanne Cash)
26 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
27 Dirty Boulevard (Lou Reed)
28 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
29 Bridge of Sorrow (Luka Bloom)
30 talk - David Byrne Q and A (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
31 [Nothing But] Flowers (David Byrne)
32 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
33 Roses in the Fire (Rosanne Cash)
34 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
35 Busload of Faith (Lou Reed)
36 talk (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
37 I’ll Be Your Mirror (Lou Reed)
38 talk (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
39 I Need Love (Luka Bloom)
40 talk (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
41 Gypsy Woman [She’s Homeless] (David Byrne)
42 talk (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
43 Wouldn't It Be Loverly (Rosanne Cash)
44 talk (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
45 The Tracks of My Tears (Lou Reed)
46 talk (Vin Scelsa)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/1w4EEKvu

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/wQUFt8L1wTPgFb6/file

And here's the version with just the music:

01 Mary Watches Everything (Luka Bloom)
02 Tentative Decisions (David Byrne)
03 Seven Year Ache (Rosanne Cash)
04 I'm Waiting for the Man (Lou Reed)
05 The Man Is Alive (Luka Bloom)
06 Ready for This World (David Byrne)
07 The Wheel (Rosanne Cash)
08 Smalltown (Lou Reed)
09 Images (Lou Reed)
10 Fertile Rock (Luka Bloom)
11 Something Ain’t Right (David Byrne)
12 This World (Rosanne Cash)
13 Dirty Boulevard (Lou Reed)
14 Bridge of Sorrow (Luka Bloom)
15 [Nothing But] Flowers (David Byrne)
16 Roses in the Fire (Rosanne Cash)
17 Busload of Faith (Lou Reed)
18 I’ll Be Your Mirror (Lou Reed)
19 I Need Love (Luka Bloom)
20 Gypsy Woman [She’s Homeless] (David Byrne)
21 Wouldn't It Be Loverly (Rosanne Cash)
22 The Tracks of My Tears (Lou Reed)
23 talk (Vin Scelsa)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/6dFe3eJV

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/fJkPOkFsozu9Yoa/file

As I mentioned above, the cover photo is almost the same, but different. Clearly, it was taken at almost the exact same time as the other photo. However, there are some differences, such as the way Luka Bloom's head is turned on the far right, or how David Byrne's head is turned on the far left. The other one is in color and this one was only in black and white. But I used the Palette program to colorize it. Then I did some further work in Photoshop to make sure the colors matched those of the other photo.

Luka Bloom, David Byrne, Rosanne Cash & Lou Reed - In Their Own Words, The Bottom Line, New York City, 2-19-1993, Early Show

This is a very rare, unique, and interesting unreleased concert. It's also quite long, at nearly three hours, and the sound quality is great. Furthermore, it's just the early show, and I'll be posting the late show - with the same performers but mostly different songs - soon.

The key figure behind this concert appears to be radio DJ Vin Scelsa. In the early 1990s, he hosted many concerts in New York City that brought together combinations of singer-songwriters. (I previously posted a concert he hosted with Rosanne Cash, David Byrne, and Lucinda Williams.) This concert appears to be part of a series he hosted called "In Their Own Words." For this one, I read that he first got Lou Reed to participate, then had Reed pick the other artists. Reed picked Talking Heads leader David Byrne and Rosanne Cash, one of Johnny Cash's daughters and at the time still mainly seen as a country music star. The surprise choice was Irish singer-songwriter Luka Bloom. At this point, Bloom was relatively unknown, having only released three solo albums. But Reed and Bloom had crossed paths due to performing at some of the same festivals in Europe the year before, and Reed liked Bloom's music.

This concert just featured the four artists performing solo acoustic. The format was "in the round," meaning each artist would sing a song in turn until everyone was done, and then the process would repeat, going around and around. (There was only one exception, when Reed played two songs in a row.) But this concert is also unusual in that these was extensive talking between songs, mostly in interview format between DJ Scelsa and whoever was singing the next song. The theme of the evening was songwriting, so most of the questions had to do with that. There's so much talking, in fact, that it took up nearly half of the concert. That has less replay value than the songs, so I've created two versions, one with all the talking and one with just the music.

The sound quality is excellent. I suspect the source is an audience bootleg, because originally the clapping was way louder than the music or talking. But if that's the case, it's one of the best audience boots I've ever heard, and actually sounds better than most soundboards! I had to adjust every track to boost the volume of the music and especially the talking while lowering the volume of the applause, but now it all sounds great. 

There were a few missing parts of the recording. Luckily though, there's a second bootleg of the same concert. The sound quality is worse, but it was mostly just for talking parts, so it didn't matter much. Additionally, I ran those bits through Adobe's "Enhanced Speech" program, and that helped them sound nearly as good as the rest. Two tracks were I had to splice different versions together have "[Edit]" in their names.

This album (the talking and music version) is two hours and 47 minutes long.

01 talk - Luka Bloom Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
02 Dreams in America (Luka Bloom)
03 talk - David Byrne Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
04 Tentative Decisions (David Byrne)
05 talk - Rosanne Cash Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
06 What We Really Want (Rosanne Cash)
07 talk - Lou Reed Introduction (Vin Scelsa)
08 Busload of Faith (Lou Reed)
09 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
10 Wave Up to the Shore (Luka Bloom)
11 talk - David Byrne Q and A (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
12 Mind (David Byrne)
13 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
14 The Wheel (Rosanne Cash)
15 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
16 Heroin (Lou Reed)
17 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
18 Gone to Pablo (Luka Bloom)
19 talk - David Byrne Q and A (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
20 Sax and Violins (David Byrne)
21 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
22 Sleeping in Paris (Rosanne Cash)
23 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
24 Cremation [Ashes to Ashes] (Lou Reed)
25 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
26 What's Good (Lou Reed)
27 talk - Luka Bloom Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
28 Exploring the Blue (Luka Bloom)
29 talk - David Byrne Q and A [Edit] (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
30 Ready for This World [Edit] (David Byrne)
31 talk - Rosanne Cash Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
32 Dance with the Tiger (Rosanne Cash)
33 talk - Lou Reed Q and A (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
34 Romeo Had Juliette (Lou Reed)
35 talk (Vin Scelsa & Luka Bloom)
36 I Need Love (Luka Bloom)
37 talk (Vin Scelsa & David Byrne)
38 Sweet Old World (David Byrne)
39 talk (Vin Scelsa & Rosanne Cash)
40 Crescent City (Rosanne Cash)
41 talk (Vin Scelsa & Lou Reed)
42 Foot of Pride (Lou Reed)
43 talk (Vin Scelsa)

This is the link for the talking and music:

https://www.imagenetz.de/cox6C

Here's the song list for the "music only" version. This album is an hour and 26 minutes long.

01 Dreams in America (Luka Bloom)
02 Tentative Decisions (David Byrne)
03 What We Really Want (Rosanne Cash)
04 Busload of Faith (Lou Reed)
05 Wave Up to the Shore (Luka Bloom)
06 Mind (David Byrne)
07 The Wheel (Rosanne Cash)
08 Heroin (Lou Reed)
09 Gone to Pablo (Luka Bloom)
10 Sax and Violins (David Byrne)
11 Sleeping in Paris (Rosanne Cash)
12 Cremation [Ashes to Ashes] (Lou Reed)
13 What's Good (Lou Reed)
14 Exploring the Blue (Luka Bloom)
15 Ready for This World [Edit] (David Byrne)
16 Dance with the Tiger (Rosanne Cash)
17 Romeo Had Juliette (Lou Reed)
18 I Need Love (Luka Bloom)
19 Sweet Old World (David Byrne)
20 Crescent City (Rosanne Cash)
21 Foot of Pride (Lou Reed)
22 talk (Vin Scelsa)

https://pixeldrain.com/u/19rsZWnJ

alternate:

https://bestfile.io/en/VtJZCegr4J1qD2w/file

alternate:

https://www.upload.ee/files/16103356/VA1993_InThrOwnWrdsBottmLneNwYrkC__2-19__1993__ErlyShw_atse_MsicOnly.zip.html

I got really lucky with the photo on the cover here. The photo shows all the participants backstage either before or after the show. From left to right: David Byrne, Vin Scelsa, Lou Reed, Rosanne Cash, and Luka Bloom.

Rosanne Cash with David Byrne & Lucinda Williams - Columbia Records Radio Hour, New York City, 5-16-1993

Here's a particularly interesting concert by Rosanne Cash. It's rather short, less than an hour, but what makes it special is that David Byrne (of the Talking Heads) and Lucinda Williams take part as well. Both Byrne and Williams sing lead on at least one song, then sing a duet together, and also help Cash with vocals on other songs.

I don't know much about the "Columbia Records Radio Hour." From what little I've gathered, it was a weekly radio show based in New York City. It was run by the radio station WFUV, and was syndicated to about 100 other radio stations across the U.S. I think it only existed in 1993 and 1994 or thereabouts, and then got cancelled. I gather that it featured musical artists who were signed to Columbia Records, as Cash was at the time. 

What's unfortunate is that I've come across very few recording from this show. That's a shame, because lots of great artists had full hour shows, including Bruce Springsteen, Bruce Cockburn, Shawn Colvin, Lou Reed, Toad the Wet Sprocket, etc... There are two "best of" collections that have been officially released, "Columbia Records Radio Hour, Vol. 1," and "Vol, 2." The entire Jeff Buckley show has been officially released. I have the bootleg of the Leonard Cohen show, and I should post that here soon. But other than that, I've had a hard time even finding bootlegs of the other shows. If you have any, please let me know.

As for this show, I had a bootleg of it for many years. The sound is excellent. It was recorded in front of a small audience, so you get some applause, but the sound quality is more like a studio session than a concert. In 2023, five of the songs from this concert were released as bonus tracks on a 30th anniversary edition of Cash's 1993 album "The Wheel," but I didn't use those versions since the bootleg sounded great already.

If you're a Rosanne Cash fan, you should definitely listen to this, but it's good for David Byrne and Lucinda Williams fans too. What's especially great is hearing the rapport between the three of them. It's clear they were all friends, and singing together for fun.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 talk (Rosanne Cash)
02 Seventh Avenue (Rosanne Cash)
03 talk (Rosanne Cash)
04 Roses in the Fire (Rosanne Cash)
05 talk (Rosanne Cash)
06 The Truth about You (Rosanne Cash)
07 talk (David Byrne with Rosanne Cash)
08 Roll Back (David Byrne with Rosanne Cash)
09 talk (Rosanne Cash with David Byrne)
10 What We Really Want (Rosanne Cash with David Byrne)
11 talk (Rosanne Cash with David Byrne)
12 Wouldn't It Be Loverly (Rosanne Cash with David Byrne)
13 talk (Rosanne Cash)
14 Seven Year Ache (Rosanne Cash)
15 talk (Rosanne Cash)
16 Sleeping in Paris (Rosanne Cash)
17 talk (Lucinda Williams with Rosanne Cash)
18 Something about What Happens (Lucinda Williams with Rosanne Cash)
19 talk (Lucinda Williams & David Byrne with Rosanne Cash)
20 Tonight I Think I'm Going to Go Downtown (Lucinda Williams & David Byrne with Rosanne Cash)
21 talk (Rosanne Cash)
22 The Wheel (Rosanne Cash)
23 talk (Rosanne Cash with Lucinda Williams & David Byrne)
24 Wandering (Rosanne Cash with Lucinda Williams & David Byrne)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16082763/ROSANNC1993b_ClumbiRcrdsRdioHrNwYrkC__5-16-1993_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any photos of Cash, Bryne, and Williams together. There are only a few of Cash and Bryne together, and none of them very good. So I went with a photo of Cash and Williams. Unfortunately, it's from waaaaay after this concert. It's from a 2015 concert, in fact. But I honestly don't think they look that different in this picture than how they looked in the 1990s.

The Talking Heads - Berklee Performance Center, Boston MA, 8-24-1979

I've been meaning to post a Talking Heads concert from their 1979 tour in order to further render the official live album "The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads" further obsolete. I'm not a fan of that album because it tried to do too much, collecting live tracks from 1977 to 1980 instead of just focusing on one time period like most live albums. This is probably the best sounding concert recording of the band from 1979.

The reason this sounds so good is because it was professionally recorded for a Boston radio station and broadcast on the air at the time. The was also the case for the opening act, the B-52's, and I just posted their set. Only one song from this performance has ever been officially released as far as I know. "Mind" has appeared on the expanded edition of "The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads."

The one flaw with this otherwise great sounding recording, in my opinion, is that the lead vocals were a bit low in the mix. But I used the audio editing program UVR5 to fix that, so this should sound better than it ever has been.

In 1979, the band was touring to support their latest album "Fear of Music." It was a very critically acclaimed album, for instance being named the best album of the year by NME, Melody Maker, and the Los Angeles Times. The band played most of the songs from that album, except for "I Zimbra," "Animals," and "Drugs." One interesting thing about this tour is that, even though the band's music was getting increasingly complicated, only the four band members played the concerts. For the next tour, that would drastically change, with more backing musicians than band members.

This album is an hour and ten minutes long.

01 talk (Talking Heads)
02 Artists Only (Talking Heads)
03 talk (Talking Heads)
04 Stay Hungry (Talking Heads)
05 Cities (Talking Heads)
06 Paper (Talking Heads)
07 Mind (Talking Heads)
08 talk (Talking Heads)
09 Heaven (Talking Heads)
10 The Book I Read (Talking Heads)
11 Electric Guitar (Talking Heads)
12 Air (Talking Heads)
13 Warning Sign (Talking Heads)
14 Love Goes to a Building on Fire (Talking Heads)
15 talk (Talking Heads)
16 Memories Can't Wait (Talking Heads)
17 Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
18 talk (Talking Heads)
19 Life during Wartime (Talking Heads)
20 Take Me to the River (Talking Heads)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15454912/TTalkngHs_1979b_BrkleePerformnceCentrBostnMA__8-24-1979_atse.zip.html

Since I also posted the opening set by the B-52's, I thought it would be fun to have the two album covers look similar. I chose a similar photo that had a dark black background, even though it's probably from a different concert. (I don't know the sourcing from this one, except it looks like it's from the 1979 tour, judging by the fact that there are no extra musicians.) I also used the same font style and colors for both covers.

The Talking Heads - Jaap Eden Hal, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 12-11-1980

Here's a really rocking concert from the Talking Heads. Great sound quality, great set list, great performance. It's an unreleased bootleg, but you'd never know, because it's in great shape, with no flaws.

In 1982, the Talking Heads officially released the live album "The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads." It's a double album, put together from concerts in 1977, 1978, 1979, and 1980. But I much prefer hearing entire concerts like this one. Even a later expanded edition of that album has more songs from 1980, but from three different concerts.

The Talking Heads really expanded their sound in 1980. In their early years, they toured as just a four-person band. But on their 1980 tour, they added six backing musicians, including guitarist Robert Fripp, to promote their classic album "Remain in Light." I don't have much more to say, except his should make you want to get up and dance.

This concert is an hour and 26 minutes long.

01 Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
02 Warning Sign (Talking Heads)
03 talk (Talking Heads)
04 Stay Hungry (Talking Heads)
05 Cities (Talking Heads)
06 talk (Talking Heads)
07 I Zimbra (Talking Heads)
08 Drugs (Talking Heads)
09 Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads)
10 Animals (Talking Heads)
11 Houses in Motion (Talking Heads)
12 Born Under Punches (Talking Heads)
13 Crosseyed and Painless (Talking Heads)
14 Life During Wartime (Talking Heads)
15 talk (Talking Heads)
16 Take Me to the River (Talking Heads)
17 The Great Curve (Talking Heads)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15301594/TTalkngHs_1980_JaapEdnHalAmsterdmNetherlnds__12-11-1980_atse.zip.html

I don't know much about the cover photo, except that it apparently was taken in August 1980. I picked it due to the unusual perspective, allowing you to see the band and part of the audience.

David Byrne - Ryman Auditorium, Nashville, TN, 8-20-2001

The other day, I found this concert on a bootleg torrent tracker, and I was impressed with the performance and the sound quality, so I've decided to share it here.

David Byrne, of course, was the lead singer and main songwriter for the Talking Heads. His solo career since that band fizzled out around 1987 has been more hit and miss, in my opinion, but he still has many quality songs. This concert is roughly evenly split between Talking Heads songs and his subsequent solo career.

There is an official live album from this tour, though a different date, called "Live from Austin, Texas." However, I prefer this. For one thing, at an hour and 26 minutes, it's about 25 minutes longer. And for another, the sound quality is every bit as good. The song selection is basically identical; it's just that you get more songs here.

There was only one sonic flaw with this album, and that was with the song "U. B. Jesus." The recording came to a halt about halfway through. I patched that with a version of that song taken from a bootleg from Denver on the same tour. That has similarly awesome sound, and the fix was so seamless that I doubt you'll notice it.

If you're a Talking Heads fan but you haven't paid much attention to Byrne's solo career, this is a good place to dip your toes in, since it has that mix of about half Talking Heads songs and half solo ones. It also has an interesting, unexpected cover of the Whitney Houston hit "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)."

01 The Revolution (David Byrne)
02 talk (David Byrne)
03 [Nothing But] Flowers (David Byrne)
04 talk (David Byrne)
05 Buck Naked (David Byrne)
06 Broken Things (David Byrne)
07 talk (David Byrne)
08 And She Was (David Byrne)
09 Once in a Lifetime (David Byrne)
10 talk (David Byrne)
11 The Great Intoxication (David Byrne)
12 talk (David Byrne)
13 Marching through the Wilderness (David Byrne)
14 talk (David Byrne)
15 Dura Europas (David Byrne)
16 talk (David Byrne)
17 Sax and Violins (David Byrne)
18 talk (David Byrne)
19 This Must Be the Place [Naive Melody] (David Byrne)
20 talk (David Byrne)
21 What a Day that Was (David Byrne)
22 talk (David Byrne)
23 Desconocido Soy (David Byrne)
24 Like Humans Do (David Byrne)
25 talk (David Byrne)
26 U. B. Jesus [Edit] (David Byrne)
27 talk (David Byrne)
28 I Wanna Dance with Somebody [Who Loves Me] (David Byrne)
29 Life during Wartime (David Byrne)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15274974/DavicByr_2001_RymnAuditoriumNashvilleTN__8-20-2001_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Byrne was taken backstage at the Warfield in San Francisco in 2001.

The Talking Heads - Jabberwocky Club, Syracuse, NY, 10-13-1977

Yesterday, I posted a live album by James Taylor, where he played at the Jabberwocky Club in Syracuse, New York in 1970. I'd previously posted a live album by Bonnie Raitt at that same club in 1971. That reminded me that I have another excellent concert at the same venue, this one by the Talking Heads. What makes this venue special for bootlegs is that while the club was in existence, from about 1969 to 1985, the club management regularly recorded the concerts there and played them on the local college radio station. That's the case here, so once again the sound quality is excellent.

The Jabberwocky Club was small, only holding about 250 people at most. It was so small that bigger bands couldn't even get all their band members on the stage, and some would have to stand with the audience near the stage. Because it was such a small place, big name acts wouldn't play there. But occasionally a future big name act would play there when they were starting out. That's the case with the Talking Heads. In October 1977, at the time of this concert, they had just released their debut album, "Talking Heads: 77" the month before. So we're very lucky to get this soundboard quality recording at this point of the band's career.

It was a bit tricky for me to figure out what and when this recording was frin, exactly. There are a number of different recordings claiming to be from the Jabberwocky Club, but often giving different dates (including in 1976) and different sets. After doing some research, I figured out that the Talking Heads played the Jabberwocky Club twice in 1977, once in January and again in October. The two dates had very similar set lists, and they played two sets each night. Recordings for most of the sets exist, but I've chosen the best set in terms of sound quality, performance, and song selection, which is the late set from October, because I don't want lots of repetition. However, they played three songs at the January date that they didn't play at the October one, so I've added those three in at the start.

Most of the songs played were released on that first album, "Talking Heads: 77." But they did some non-album originals, like "Love Goes to a Building on Fire," "A Clean Break," and "I Wish You Wouldn't Say That." They also played some covers, like "Sugar on My Tongue," "Love Is All Around," and "Take Me to the River." Also, a few songs would appear on their second album in 1978, such as "Artists Only," "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel," and "I'm Not in Love."

There were a couple of minor problems that I fixed. For the intro to "Artists Only," the sound wobbled in parts, probably because it was the very first song of that particular recording. Luckily, there was a section of the intro that didn't wobble, so I used that to patch in the repeats of that section. Also, for "No Compassion," about five seconds of the song was missing in the middle. Again I got lucky, because it was another case of a repeating section, and I was about to patch that too. I also boosted the volume of the banter between songs. Plus, in some cases, I boosted the volume of the audience applause, or extended it when it got cut off prematurely.

This album is an hour and 12 minutes long, including the three songs at the start from the earlier concert.

01 talk (Talking Heads)
02 Artists Only (Talking Heads)
03 talk (Talking Heads)
04 Sugar on My Tongue (Talking Heads)
05 I Wish You Wouldn't Say That (Talking Heads)
06 Love Goes to a Building on Fire (Talking Heads)
07 talk (Talking Heads)
08 Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town (Talking Heads)
09 Don't Worry about the Government (Talking Heads)
10 Take Me to the River (Talking Heads)
11 The Book I Read (Talking Heads)
12 talk (Talking Heads)
13 New Feeling (Talking Heads)
14 A Clean Break [Let's Work] (Talking Heads)
15 Stay Hungry (Talking Heads)
16 talk (Talking Heads)
17 Thank You for Sending Me an Angel (Talking Heads)
18 Who Is It (Talking Heads)
19 Pulled Up (Talking Heads)
20 No Compassion (Talking Heads)
21 Psycho Killer (Talking Heads)
22 talk (Talking Heads)
23 I'm Not in Love (Talking Heads)
24 talk (Talking Heads)
25 Love Is All Around (Talking Heads)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16701092/TTALKNGHDS1977b_JbberwckyClubSyrcuseNY__10-13-1977_atse.zip.html

I couldn't find any photos of the band playing at this particular club. But I did find a good one of them playing at CBGB's in New York City some time in 1977, so I used that.