Friends,
Greetings from rainy Marin County. I’m spending a few days in the Bay Area with friends. I’ll spare you the gory details of my flight. This time.
I have written about Elizabeth Zharoff, the host of The Charismatic Voice YouTube channel, in the past. I’m a big fan. If you’re not familiar with Elizabeth, she’s an accomplished opera singer who graduated from the Berklee College of Music and has performed throughout the world in 18 different languages. Her channel takes a deep dive into music videos—breaking down the vocal performances in an academic, but highly entertaining way.
I love all of her work, but I especially love when she breaks down a band in a genre that I dabble in. She recently published a reaction video to “Life During Wartime” by the Talking Heads, which is must see TV for me. The performance was from the band’s critically acclaimed documentary, Stop Making Sense, which I ranked number one on “The 15 Best Music Documentaries - That don’t include The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, The Last Waltz, or Woodstock.” Elizabeth noted she had read the lyrics in advance, but had never heard the song before. She was completely flabbergasted. She had never witnessed David Byrne’s stage antics before and didn’t expect the song to be so funky and quirky after reading the lyrics.
My dad worked at RISD, where David Byrne and the Talking Heads first formed, for four decades. I grew up on the Talking Heads and they have always been one of my favorite bands. I even had the opportunity to meet David Byrne some years ago. It was backstage after his concert at Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel in Providence, Rhode Island. To say the encounter was awkward would be a gross understatement. David Byrne is a brilliant artist, but not the most extroverted fella if you catch my drift. Anyway, check out the video below. It’s worth 28 minutes of your time.
Life During Wartime is also one of my favorite Max Creek covers. In fact, I was just listening to a blistering version from April 6th, 2001 at The Starlight Theatre in Fort Collins, Colorado (right in my backyard). Unfortunately, The Starlight closed in 2006 and reopened a year later as Hodi's Half Note, which ultimately closed in 2020. The show was recorded by Steve Kurtzman and transferred to the Archives by John Shepherd. Enjoy!
I discovered Elizabeth Zharoff, and her youtube stuff a few years ago- I love to watch her reactions!