David Byrne and Brian Eno: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

I remember when this first came out, and it was reviewed in Sounds. It was a good review, as far as I remember, but it was the photo — the one below — next to the review that I remember particularly clearly. The hair, the teacup, but most of all the shiny shoes. These don't look like men who could make a rock record. I didn't know them, and I was suspicious of them.

Sometime over the next six or seven years, I found out more about these characters, and came to buy two vinyl versions of this album. Yes, I'd heard that there was an early version that had been withdrawn — but I couldn't remember the details when I was out in the store and found another copy that might, or might not, be different from the one I had at home. As it turns out, the covers are different. The one on the left indicates that it has the track Qu'ran, which was withdrawn, while the other one shows this replaced with Very, Very Hungry. Only the records themselves are the same: they both have Very, Very Hungry on Side 2.

The album has just had its 25th anniversary issue with extra tracks and a different cover, plus a dedicated web site. I haven't got that one, though I probably will relent and buy it again at some point. Did I imagine it, or was David Byrne quite active in promoting the re-issue and bigging up its 'landmark' status, while Eno stayed quite quiet? Brian was probably just keeping his powder dry for his next PR assault. Very shrewd.

It's funny how even an album like this has its 'hits' — America is Waiting, Jezebel Spirit and maybe Mea Culpa, which I seem to hear quite frequently (I don't know where? the radio? but I'm sure I have heard them). Playing the album all the way through draws attention to the other tracks that I haven't heard for ages. I particularly liked Mountain of Needles, which doesn't have any samples or vocals on it.

MusicBrainz entry for this album