Rating: 
Summary: Some interesting things, but you can't trust 'em
Review: There's some insight here into the origins of David Byrne's lyrics, but it's tough to trust anything beyond that. The author can't spell "The Shaggs" or the German group "Can" or legendary Country singer "Cowboy Copas". He regularly misattributes songs to artists who didn't perform them. He apparently considers the B-52's an all-girl group - whether that's just stupid or some sort of slam against homosexuals is unclear. He makes statements about bands like Fun Boy Three (he doesn't get the name right either) being "obscure", despite the fact that they'd had more hits than the Talking Heads in the UK at that point.In short, he seems to know very little about music in general. The book concentrates disproportionately on artistic influences on the band rather than musical ones. It's interesting as one rarely gets that point of view.
On the other hand, I suspect his fact-checking relative to artists is as bad as his fact-checking relative to musicians. Early in the book, he quotes the band members quite heavily, though with a few dozen pages, this disappears entirely. There are hints that the band doesn't like him, with the implication being that all contact with band members is halted relatively early in the process. Much of the book is about the "battle" between Weymouth and Byrne, but it's tough to say whether this was the fundamental crux of the band's problems or not. Despite mentioning it frequently, there's not much substance behind any of it. In short, this is worth a quick glance, but borrow it from your library like I did. Spend the money on a record instead.
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