If you think success in the world of music is determined by the number of records sold, or the size of your house or bank account, then I’m not the expert for you.

I have dealt with diva behavior from crazy musicians, and I have seen genius records by wonderful artists get completely ignored. I’ve had creative freedom, and I’ve been pressured to make hits. 'I’ve made money, and I’ve been ripped off. In particular, he spends a chapter on the CBGB nightclub and the underlying conditions that supported the development of new, avant-garde artists such as Patti Smith, the Ramones, Blondie, and others besides his own band. Byrne avoids bringing back up the personality conflicts leading to the band's demise, and he instead goes through their history, album by album, to detail his views on performances versus recordings as well as the effects of money and fame.

He describes how the lyrics to the 1980 song ' Once in a Lifetime' drew inspiration from a recording of a preacher, as well as how the oversize suits worn in their concert film Stop Making Sense drew inspiration from ancient Japanese theatre. He discusses his career with Talking Heads, detailing many points of background for their music. Overall, he writes that no music 'is aimed exclusively at either the body or the head', with complex human beings interacting with it on different levels. Byrne looks at the influence of music, even in such subtle forms as birdsongs, from a rational perspective that eschews romanticism. The book, despite being non-fiction, has a highly non-linear structure with manual-like information, elements of Byrne's autobiography, and anthropological data on music theory all intermixed, each chapter able to stand alone. Talking Heads performing at Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto in 1978.

How music works byrne