''Grown Backwards'' is the seventh studio album by the American musician

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

, released on March 16, 2004.

Reception

In 2010, Byrne wrote in his book '' How Music Works'' it has sold 127,000 physical albums, 8,000 digital albums and 53,000 digital singles (overall 140,000 units sold of albums). The album peaked at #178 and #88 in the US and UK respectively. The album was released on vinyl for the first time on March 15, 2019.

Track listing

All tracks written by David Byrne, except where noted. #"Glass, Concrete & Stone" – 4:13 #"The Man Who Loved Beer" ( Donald Charles Book and Kurt Wagner of Lambchop) – 2:41 #"" (From ') – 4:49 #"Empire" – 4:12 #"Tiny Apocalypse" – 4:03 #"She Only Sleeps" – 2:57 #"Dialog Box" – 3:30 #"The Other Side of this Life" – 4:00 #"Why" – 2:54 #"Pirates" – 3:52 #"Civilization" – 3:17 #"Astronaut" – 2:55 #"Glad" – 1:58 #"" (

Giuseppe Verdi Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi ( ; ; 9 or 10 October 1813 – 27 January 1901) was an Italian composer best known for List of compositions by Giuseppe Verdi, his operas. He was born near Busseto, a small town in the province of Parma ...

, from ') – 2:51 #" Lazy" (bonus track) (Byrne/ X-Press 2) – 9:35

Personnel

"Glass, Concrete & Stone" *David Byrne –

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

nylon-string guitar The classical guitar, also known as Spanish guitar, is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor of the modern steel-string a ...

*David Hilliard –

hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock music, rock, popular music, pop, jazz, an ...

* Mauro Refosco –

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a percussion mallet, beater including attached or enclosed beaters or Rattle (percussion beater), rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or ...

* Jane Scarpantoni –

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

Recorded at Loveshack Studio,

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

"The Man Who Loved Beer" * Elaine Barber –

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orchestras or ...

*David Byrne – vocals,

electric guitar An electric guitar is a guitar that requires external electric Guitar amplifier, sound amplification in order to be heard at typical performance volumes, unlike a standard acoustic guitar. It uses one or more pickup (music technology), pickups ...

* Paul Frazier –

bass guitar The bass guitar (), also known as the electric bass guitar, electric bass, or simply the bass, is the lowest-pitched member of the guitar family. It is similar in appearance and construction to an Electric guitar, electric but with a longer nec ...

* Mike Maddox –

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

* Freddie Mendoza –

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

euphonium The euphonium ( ; ; ) is a tenor- and baritone-voiced valved brass instrument. The euphonium is a member of the large family of valved bugles, along with the tuba and flugelhorn, characterised by a wide conical bore. Most instruments have thr ...

John Mills Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portray ...

–

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

bass clarinet The bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common Soprano clarinet, soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B (meaning it is a transposing instrument on which a written C sounds as B), but it plays no ...

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

*Mauro Refosco – percussion * The Tosca Strings: :* Ames Asbell –

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

:* Jamie Desautels –

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

:*Douglas Harvey –

:* Leigh Mahoney – violin :* Sara Nelson – cello :* Tracy Seeger – violin Recorded at

Avatar Avatar (, ; ) is a concept within Hinduism that in Sanskrit literally means . It signifies the material appearance or incarnation of a powerful deity, or spirit on Earth. The relative verb to "alight, to make one's appearance" is sometimes u ...

, New York City "" *Elaine Barber –

* Stephen Barber –

prepared piano A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Works for pr ...

* Tom Burritt – marimba, tympani *David Byrne – vocals * Pamelia Kurstin – theremin *Mike Maddox – accordion *Freddie Mendoza – trombone, euphonium *John Mills – clarinet, bass clarinet, flute *The Tosca Strings *

Rufus Wainwright Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian and American singer, songwriter, and composer. He has recorded eleven studio albums and numerous tracks on compilations and film soundtracks. He has also written two classical opera ...

– vocals "Empire" * Ray Anderson – trombone *David Byrne – vocals,

dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

* Alex Foster –

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (whi ...

* Earl Gardner –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz musical ensemble, ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest Register (music), register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitche ...

* Vincent Herring –

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

* Karen Mantler –

organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...

* Keith O'Quinn – trombone * Bob Routch –

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most o ...

* Gary Smulyan –

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone (sometimes abbreviated to "bari sax") is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass saxophone, bass. It is the lowe ...

Lew Soloff Lewis Michael Soloff (February 20, 1944 – March 8, 2015) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and actor. He was a founding member of the band Blood, Sweat & Tears. Biography From his birth place of New York City, United States, he studie ...

– trumpet * Bob Stewart –

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

Steve Swallow Steve Swallow (born October 4, 1940) is an American jazz bassist and composer, known for his collaborations with Jimmy Giuffre, Gary Burton, and Carla Bley. He was one of the first jazz double bassists to switch entirely to electric bass guitar. ...

– bass guitar Recorded RPM Studio, New York City "Tiny Apocalypse" * Lisa Aferiat – violin * Georgia Boyd – viola * Barry Burns – spacey guitar, Rhodes *David Byrne – vocals, Rhodes * Donald Gillan – cello * Robert Irvine – cello * Greg Lawson – violin * Una McGlone – bass *

Johnny Quinn Johnny Quinn (born November 6, 1983) is an American bobsledder and former gridiron football player. He is a member of the U.S. National Bobsled Team and competed in the 2014 Winter Olympics. Quinn is a former wide receiver for the Saskatchewa ...

–

drum kit A drum kit or drum set (also known as a trap set, or simply drums in popular music and jazz contexts) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and sometimes other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one p ...

* Fiona Stephen – violin Recorded at CaVa Sound Workshops,

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

"She Only Sleeps" *David Byrne – vocals, electric guitar * Joe Cooper – percussion *

Paul Godfrey Paul Victor Godfrey, CM, OOnt (born January 12, 1939) is a businessman and former Canadian politician. During his career, Godfrey was a North York alderman, Chairman of Metro Toronto, President of the ''Toronto Sun'' and head of the Toronto B ...

– sequencing * Ross Godfrey – keyboards * Andy Waterworth – bass guitar Recorded at Cheeba Central,

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

Produced by Morcheeba Productions "Dialog Box" * Jon Blondell – trombone *David Byrne – vocals, electric guitars *Paul Frazier – bass guitar *John Mills – baritone sax *Mauro Refosco – percussion * Steve Williams – drum kit Recorded at Avatar, New York City, horns recorded at Congress House Studio,

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

"The Other Side of This Life" *Elaine Barber – harp *David Byrne – vocals, semi-nylon guitar *Paul Frazier – bass guitar *Mauro Refosco – percussion, samples, kitchen implements *The Tosca Strings *Steve Williams – drum kit,

cowbell A cowbell (or cow bell) is a bell (instrument), bell worn around the neck of free-roaming livestock so herders can keep track of an animal via the sound of the bell when the animal is grazing out of view in hilly landscapes or vast plains. ...

Recorded at Avatar, New York City "Why" *David Byrne – vocals, electric guitar, programming *Paul Frazier – bass guitar *Mauro Refosco – percussion *Jon Spurney – keyboards *The Tosca Strings * Kenny Wollesen – drum kit Drums recorded at

Skyline A skyline is the wikt:outline, outline or shape viewed near the horizon. It can be created by a city's overall structure, or by human intervention in a rural area, rural setting, or in nature that is formed where the sky meets buildings or the ...

, New York City "Pirates" *Jon Blondell – trombone *David Byrne – vocals, acoustic guitar *Paul Frazier – bass *John Mills – baritone sax *Mauro Refosco – percussion *The Tosca Strings *Kenny Wollesen – drum kit Drums recorded at Skyline, New York City, horns recorded at Congress House Studio "Civilization" *David Byrne – vocals,

acoustic guitar An acoustic guitar is a musical instrument in the string family. When a string is plucked, its vibration is transmitted from the bridge, resonating throughout the top of the guitar. It is also transmitted to the side and back of the instrument, ...

*Paul Frazier – bass * Alan Ford –

vacuum cleaner A vacuum cleaner, also known simply as a vacuum, is a device that uses suction, and often agitation, in order to remove dirt and other debris from carpets, hard floors, and other surfaces. The dirt is collected into a dust bag or a plastic bin. ...

John Linnell John Sidney Linnell ( ; born June 12, 1959) is an American musician and multi-instrumentalist, and is one half of the Brooklyn-based alternative rock band They Might Be Giants, with John Flansburgh, which was formed in 1982. In addition to sing ...

– accordion *Mauro Refosco – percussion *Kenny Wollesen – drum kit,

slit drum A slit drum, or slit gong, is a hollow percussion instrument, often made out of wood or bamboo. In spite of its often being called a drum, it is not a true drum, because it lacks a ''drumhead'', the membrane (made out of animal skin or plastic) ...

Drums recorded at Skyline, New York City "Astronaut" *David Byrne – vocals,

*Paul Frazier – bass guitar *Pamelia Kurstin –

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

*Mauro Refosco – percussion *Steve Williams – percussion "Glad" *Jon Blondell – trombone *David Byrne – vocals, nylon-string guitar *Paul Frazier – bass *John Mills – clarinet, bass clarinet *Mauro Refosco – percussion *The Tosca Strings *Steve Williams – spaghetti percussion Horns recorded at Congress House Studio "" *David Byrne – vocals * David Creswell – viola * Katherine Fong – violin * Soo Hyun Kwon – violin * Dawn Hannay – viola * Philip Myers – French horn * Mark Nuccio – clarinet * Sandra Park – violin *

John Patitucci John Patitucci (born December 22, 1959) is an American jazz bassist and composer. Biography John James Patitucci was born in Brooklyn, New York. He began playing the electric bass at age 10, performing and composing at age 12, and at age 15, s ...

– bass guitar * Alan Stepansky – cellos * Jeremy Turner – cellos * Jon Vercesi – Rhodes * Shelly Woodworth –

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

English horn The cor anglais (, or original ; plural: ''cors anglais''), or English horn (mainly North America), is a double-reed woodwind instrument in the oboe family. It is approximately one and a half times the length of an oboe, making it essentially ...

* Sharon Yamada – violin Recorded at

Sound on Sound ''Sound on Sound'' is a monthly music technology magazine. The magazine includes product tests of electronic musical performance and recording devices, and interviews with industry professionals. Due to its technical focus, it is predominantly ...

, New York City "Lazy" *David Byrne – vocals, electric guitar, keyboards, drum programming *

Patrick Dillett Patrick may refer to: *Patrick (given name), list of people and fictional characters with this name * Patrick (surname), list of people with this name People *Saint Patrick (c. 385–c. 461), Christian saint * Gilla Pátraic (died 1084), Patrick ...

– background vocals *Paul Frazier – bass *Mauro Refosco – percussion *The Tosca Strings *Steve Williams – drum triggers

References

External links

*
Press release from Nonesuch on the vinyl re-release
* * {{Authority control 2004 albums Albums produced by David Byrne Albums produced by Pat Dillett David Byrne albums 2000s French-language albums 2000s Italian-language albums Nonesuch Records albums Warner Records albums