Now complete, it’s my Japanese pressing of Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” soundtrack, all framed up. I never in a million years thought I would get all four members of a favorite band that broke up in 1988 on it, but it happened. More importantly, I was fortunate enough to meet some true musical heroes and get to simply say thank you to them for half a second. David Byrne was the first to scrawl on it in October 2019, when his show American Utopia was on Broadway; he did the traditional “signing Playbills and stuff at the stage entrance door” thing and then rode off on his bicycle off into Times Square. Drummer Chris Frantz kindly signed above Byrne at a library event/book signing at the Westport Library in Connecticut last April. His wife, bassist Tina Weymouth, was not in attendance, but she and Frantz did an appearance at a punk Christmas/live karaoke community hootenanny thing in December and it was an appropriate, low-key setting to ask for a signature, which she placed above her hubby. Lastly, while the rest of those had been free or nearly free, seeing the chance to complete the album’s autographs, I splashed out to get a VIP pass for Jerry Harrison’s recent tour with Adrian Belew. While I read close to that day that he’d demurred from signing stuff for VIP attendees, he amicably signed for folks at the one I went to, adding the silver autograph next to the Stop Making Sense logo.
