True Stories

Based on tabloid articles he collected while on tour with the Talking Heads in 1983, David Byrne's "True Stories" is a film revolving around the diverse citizens of Virgil, Texas, and the events leading up to their festival celebrating the state's 150th anniversary. This book features Byrne's complete screenplay with story boards, lyrics to all the songs in the movie, and tons of stills and on-set photos. He also includes the original clippings that inspired the different characters and storylines, most of them from the infamous "Weekly World News." The book's introduction explores the ideas that led up to the project, as well as the work of the photographers that influenced the look of both the film and the book (William Eggleston, Len Jenshel, Mark Lipson, and Byrne himself). For those who were intrigued by the movie but perhaps didn't quite understand the point of some of it, this will shed a little more light on just what he was getting at. It's an informative companion to the film, and a great introduction to David Byrne's non-music career in art and photography.