There’s a book to be written about musicians who started their careers by playing the ukulele. The ten-year-old Leonard Cohen taught himself to play the ukulele long before he learned to play the guitar. The teenage John Lennon was taught by his mother Julia how to play uke before Paul McCartney helped him hold down a chord. Fellow Beatle George Harrison was a life-long enthusiast, and kept a car boot full of spare ukes to give to fellow fans. Joni Mitchell wrote all of her early songs on a uke, long before she could afford to buy a guitar. Bill Drummond of The KLF once said he was so in love with his ukulele he took it to bed. While David Byrne, who was proficient as a child on harmonica, accordion and guitar, started his show business career busking with a ukulele around New York, before forming Talking Heads with Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth.

It is also worth noting that these talented ukulele-players have achieved great success in a variety of other disciplines—writing, painting, film-making, and art—with David Byrne arguably being the most creatively diverse of the bunch.

Here the inspirational Mr. Byrne performs a cracking set from his Uh Oh tour, on Halloween, 1992. Recorded at The Count Basie Theater in Red Bank, New Jersey, this excellent concert was released long, long ago on VHS as Between the Teeth, which leads to my only question, why no DVD release?

Track Listing

01. “Well”
02. “(Nothing But) Flowers”
03. “Girls On My Mind”
04. “Mr. Jones”
05. “Something Ain’t Right”
06. “Life During Wartime”
07. “Women Vs. Men”
08. “Hanging Upside Down”
09. “Lie To Me”
10. “She’s Mad”
11. “Blind”
12. “Make Believe Mambo”
13. “And She Was”
14. “Buck Naked”
15. “Road To Nowhere”

Enjoy!