THE CATHERINE WHEEL

And the Byrne-lies down-on Broaaaoddway.

I hate to say it, but David Byrne had a prog peak. As the Talking Heads moved in a more commercial direction, David's work became rather dull. I still pick up his solo material on occasion, but primarily if I find it used while browsing a store.

This soundtrack album is one of his best along with the proggy Talking Heads albums and My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts. It really seems to be Byrne driven affair, but has a nice set of guest musicians: Adrian Belew, Brian Eno, Bernie Worrell. Twyla Tharpe even drops in doing water pot.

This is, of course, a score for a Broadway dance piece. If you take it for only it's musical value, there's a lot here to like. Most of the tracks are short, but there's a lot of purely instrumental bits. It's one of those musical things from the early '80's that doesn't suck.

A footnote (slight dance joke): A DVD is currently available, so you can either appreciate this as just a piece of music or see the spectacle of the original Broadway show. After all, it was ultimately a collaboration with Twyla.

David Byrne's collaboration with choreographer Twyla Tharpe produced this 1981 broadway album " The Catherine Wheel" Taking the album ,not the remastered version, and from the original vinyl release makes for a very pleasant album, almost a TH album with Eno/Belew influences, it sounds like a lite version of Remain In Light.The album more or less segues into one continuous track but independantly there are some real jewels on the Catherine Wheel.

" Eggs In a Briar Patch" has Byrne at his most sarcastic ..." little people don't mean anything, it's dope and liquor and...", stirring hypnotic rhythms in the background. " Big Business" has some nice guitar work and builds for about three minutes before Byrne unleashes some great vocals. " Cloud Chamber" is a wonderful instrumental which modern day band " The Flaming Lips" or " Mercury Rev would be proud of. " Big Blue Plymouth" and " My Big Hands ( Fall through the cracks" the other solid songs on a truly excellent work. I don't think David Byrne ever did anything remotely as good or as progressive as this as a solo artist so best check this one out. Four stars