Acid Anthems: David Byrne’s favourite psychedelic anthems
As anybody who has ever listened to a few bars of Talking Heads can attest to, David Byrne has always favoured the weird and wonderful. Over the years, the songwriter has explored a vast range of genres and influences, and although he has rarely stepped foot in overt psychedelia, the style has always been incredibly close to his heart. This should perhaps come as no surprise, given the rebellious CBGB beginnings of Talking Heads can be linked back to the counterculture movement of the 1960s, which was closely tied to LSD.
Talking Heads were a truly unique band, and therefore, pinning them to a specific genre seems needlessly reductive and – above all else – complicated. For the most part, Byrne’s group leaned towards new wave, art rock, and dance-rock. However, the group incorporated everything from British post-punk to the funk stylings of Nigerian Fuji music. Talking Heads were as unique and wonderfully eclectic as Byrne himself.
Nevertheless, the band were no strangers to the mind-altering powers of acid. The 1985 album Little Creatures was particularly noted for its LSD inspiration, with the standout track ‘And She Was’ reportedly inspired by the psychedelic trip of a Baltimore hippie chick. As the songwriter wrote in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads, “She once told me that she used to do acid and lay down on the field by the Yoo-hoo chocolate soda factory. Flying out of her body, etc etc. It seemed like such a tacky kind of transcendence… but it was real!”
In the spirit of this tacky transcendence, Byrne created a wondrous playlist of psychedelic anthems back in 2022. Published through his website, the imaginatively named davidbyrne.com, the playlist collects 41 tracks of the songwriter’s most beloved acid anthems. While there are some obvious choices in there, including Pink Floyd’s ‘See Emily Play’ and The Beach Boys’ ‘Cabin Essence’, the bulk of the playlist is made up of expectedly eccentric tracks, which perfectly sum up the breadth of Byrne’s taste.
Of the playlist, Byrne commented, “The obvious suspects are not here – no Beatles, no Hendryx… But lots of others – and many from other parts of the world. It never went away, just keeps humming along, an antidote to conventional perception and understanding.” The ‘Hendryx’ that Byrne mentioned remains a mystery; Jimi Hendrix does indeed feature on the playlist, with his track ‘Little Wing’, and Nona Hendryx was never particularly psychedelic, favouring funk, soul and new wave.
Nevertheless, Byrne’s collection of psychedelic anthems leaves little to be desired. Modern psychedelia, by the likes of Khurangbin and Charlotte Gainsbourg, is held in equal importance to the genre’s 1960s progenitors such as The Yardbirds or Pink Floyd. Sprinkled within the tracklist, there are countless obscure gems, including William Onyeabor’s ‘Better Change Your Mind’, which seems fitting given that Byrne’s Luaka Bop label is partly responsible for the renewed popularity of the Nigerian synth master.
For ease of reference, we have collected Byrne’s favourite psychedelic tracks in a playlist, available to listen to below. Whether you are tripping on acid in 1980s Baltimore or simply living your life within the boring dystopia of the 21st century, the Talking Heads frontman has collated a perfect playlist to soundtrack your day.
