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List Price: $18.98Amazon.com's Price: $14.99 You Save: $3.99 (21%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0075597996784
Format: Enhanced
Label: Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch
Manufacturer: Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch
Release Date: November 06, 2007
Sales Rank: 22271
Studio: Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch
Disc 1:- Tree (Today Is an Important Occasion)
- In the Upper Room - David Byrne, Traditional
- The Sound of Business
- Social Studies
- (The Gift of Sound) Where the Sun Never Goes Down - David Byrne, Traditional
- Theadora Is Dozing - David Byrne, Traditional
- Admiral Perry
- I Bid You Goodnight - David Byrne, Traditional
- Things to Do (I've Tried) - David Byrne, Traditional
- Winter
- Jungle Book
- In the Future
- Tree (Reprise)
- I've Tried (Things to Do)
- Tic Toc 2 (In the Future)
- Whisper
- Misterias
- Faust Dance
- Ghost
- Super Natural
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Editorial Review:
Amazon.com:
The Knee Plays were commissioned in 1985 by avant-garde theatre director Robert Wilson for his 12-hour opera, CIVIL warS. David Byrne was one of six composers hand-selected for the opera, and his interludes were the joints between the larger acts. CIVIL warS was never performed in its entirety, but The Knee Plays did just that in various U.S. and European cities. The brass stars in this show, on both the rhythm and melody fronts, yet most of the songs mope along like a funeral march when they aren't providing dramatic tension. For all of Byrne's heady explorations, the man has an ample populist streak, and one needn't comprehend this music so much as merely sit back and enjoy it. In his peculiar deadpan, Byrne speaks in several pieces: a geeky, meticulous parsing of our daily the minutia (getting dressed, grocery shopping, writing letters, etc.). Subtly droll observational humor (or implicit criticism) reigns, just as Byrne fans expect. In treating The Knee Plays to their first release on CD, Nonesuch adds eight instrumental versions and a bonus DVD, featuring the original 57-minute theatrical performance as a slideshow with music. In all, it's an unearthed essential for Byrne fans. --Jason Pace
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Another side of Byrne
I first bought this album back in '84 as an LP. I had long been a fan of Talking Heads and was curious of this new piece of material by Byrne. The person behind the counter of the music store warned me that this most likely would not be what I expected - this was no ordinary Byrne music, he said. And indeed it was not! Ever since I have been listening to this album over and over again. It is amazing how these somewhat simple compositions can make such impression. A pity that the album was not available ... Read More
Rating: - At last, a CD! A great album returns
I can't comment on the CD's extras, but as someone who _wore out_ a cassette copy of this wonderful album I can vouch for the variety, skilled composition, and sheer joyfulness of the music. The tunes, some of them overlayed by peculiar Byrne narrations, are based on New Orlean's brass bands, Bulgarian folk music, and more.
Tracks from "Music from the Knee Plays" turned up on several of the mix tapes (remember those?) I put together for car trips, and I always got a kick out of hearing snippets ... Read More
Rating: - At Last, It's Arrived!
Firstly, let me say that finally having this on CD is an astonishing thing. I had the vinyl all those years ago, but haven't heard it for many years. So here it is, ready for reappraisal. I must be honest, it is far better than I recall. This is a Byrne album through and through, and fans of his work (especially solo work such as Catherine Wheel and even later works like Grown Backward) should have no heistation in picking it up. It's just perfect.
Of course, this edition includes a DVD (of ... Read More
Rating:  - What Byrne did on his summer vacation: A trip to Dixieland
In the mid-80s David Byrne took a break from exploring the frontiers of Mental-Funkadelic to pursue a passing fascination with regional American musical forms. I think he was trying to draw a connection between the simple artfulness of the American folk tradition that produces this music and the simple-minded commercial culture that consumes it. The results were varying degrees of interesting: the sweetly entertaining Talking Heads album Little Creatures, the unmemorable True Stories mockumentary he wrote ... Read More
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Copyright © 2003-2008 Gunnar Bengtsson, Poetry Connection. All Rights Reserved.
EAN: 0075597996784
Format: Enhanced
Label: Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch
Manufacturer: Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch
Number Of Discs: 2
Publisher: Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch
Release Date: November 06, 2007
Sales Rank: 22271
Studio: Wea/Atlantic/Nonesuch