More dream songs!
In 1986, David Byrne made a bizarre film called True Stories. It was backed by a major studio, but they apparently let him do whatever he wanted. Byrne described it as “60 Minutes on Acid”. Of course is didn’t do well. The film is a musical, and the songs are sung by the actors, including a young John Goodman. Talking Heads then released an album also called True Stories, where the band played the songs from the movie. A rare official soundtrack called Sounds From True Stories (subtitled Music for Activities Freaks) was released as well (vinyl and cassette), but this oddity contained mostly instrumental music from the film, so the actor versions have never seen a complete release (although select tracks have been included as various b-sides and compilation rarities over the years).
The song here is Dream Operator, sung in the film by actress Annie McEnroe during the ridiculous fashion show scene. Honestly we can do without that rendition as the album version is ace. In fact, the first minute of this track may be the prettiest thing they ever recorded. It’s always been an overlooked favorite of mine. Especially Jerry Harrison’s immersive 5.1 channel remaster from the 2005 special edition of the album.
Buy the expanded 5.1 channel version here
Fun fact: Radiohead got their name from the song Radio Head, performed in the film by Latin musician and “Jimi Hendrix of the accordion” Esteban Jordan and Tito Larriva and by Talking Heads on the True Stories album. It is quite possibly the worst Talking Heads song of all time.
