David Byrne shares new song ‘The Fat Man’s Comin’
Back in the early 2010s, David Byrne was working with St. Vincent on the collaborative album Love This Giant when he came up with a Christmas song. Obviously not fitting into the material he had planned, Byrne fleshed out the idea with producer Jherek Bischoff in 2013, the same year Byrne was featured on Bischoff’s album Composed.
‘The Fat Man’s Comin’ was performed live by Byrne in 2014, but it remained a rarity for nearly a full decade. Byrne had some regrets from American Utopia, but his holiday song wasn’t one of them. Now, we’re getting an official studio version of the song as a fundraiser for his nonprofit news magazine Reasons To Be Cheerful.
“I always wanted to write a holiday song,” Byrne shares in a statement. “I wouldn’t call it a Christmas song, as the visitation of Santa (formerly known as St. Nicholas, who mainly did punishing) seems to have evolved to be a more secular consumer moment than a religious or spiritual affair.
“I believe the foundation of this music might have been written at the same time as the collaboration I did with St. Vincent a few years ago, but somehow a literal view of the Santa phenomena was what came out. It wasn’t right for Annie and me – the story of a fat man in rather odd attire who breaks into people’s homes and leaves mysterious packages,” Byrne adds. “I’d worked with Jherek before and enlisted him to arrange and record the “orchestra,” which I wanted to sound sort of old-school creepy. The old song “Teddy Bears Picnic” may have been a reference.”
“Back then, I thought I’d use the song as a means to raise money for a good cause, but to draw attention to this thing, I thought it might need a visual, so I storyboarded a video for the song, which eventually ended up getting shelved, “But maybe helping celebrate another year of Reasons To Be Cheerful might be a good reason to resurrect this song, and let the storyboards allow folks to imagine what the video might have been.
You can check out Bryne’s recording at the Bandcamp link down below.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.