David Byrne and St. Vincent teamed up for a cover of Stevie Wonder’s “Chemical Love.” The collaboration took place at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Gala on Wednesday honoring Byrne, filmmaker Spike Lee and BAM board member Claire Wood.
The event celebrated Byrne, Lee and Wood’s “service to BAM, the borough of Brooklyn, and the arts,” as per BAM’s website. Born in Scotland in 1951, Byrne’s family moved to North Amercia in the mid-1950s and David to New York City in 1974 where he co-founded Talking Heads.
Hailing from Brooklyn’s Fort Greene neighborhood, where BAM is located, Spike Lee is a qunitessental New Yorker. Very on brand, Spike took a moment to remind the BAM Gala audience of the score of the Knicks playoff game. He also spoke about his musician father who played bass with Bob Dylan, Gordon Lightfoot and more in the 1960s, as per SPIN.
St. Vincent (Annie Clark) was billed as the performer for the celebratory evening. Before bringing her longtime friend and collaborator David Byrne — the duo released a collaborative album, Love This Giant, in 2012 — up for a song, Clark said: “I’m here to say a big thank you and ‘you’re the best’ to the one and only David Byrne. David is one of the absolute greatest, most ebullient performers in the world.”
David then joined Annie for a cover of Stevie’s “Chemical Love” in honor of Lee. The song appears on Stevie Wonder’s 1991 album and soundtrack for Spike’s film, Jungle Fever.
Watch David Byrne and St. Vincent cover “Chemical Love” below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNLUsamiUXI&ab_channel=JonathanCohen
