David Byrne has released his new song, “Let Me Sell You a Dream,” from the soundtrack to Musk, Alex Gibney’s new documentary about Elon Musk. Stream it below.
As Byrne previously told Variety, he co-wrote “Let Me Sell You a Dream” with the film’s composer, Daniel Pemberton, using Musk’s own public statements as its lyrics. “I asked for good quotes from the Martian, and found more of them online,” Byrne explained. “I’m sure he loves dropping these wild statements, and those became the lyrics. All his own words. No editorializing. Straight from the man’s mouth to mine.”
With a catchy melody powered by driving guitars and a steady drumbeat, “Let Me Sell You a Dream” would be a good tune on its own, but knowing how it was made is icing on the cake. Besides repeating the song’s title, Byrne sings lyrics like, “I eat a glass sandwich/ I eat them every day.”
In a press statement, Byrne said, “It would be too easy and probably not as much fun to overtly criticize Musk. Better, I thought, to try and get inside his head a little bit, to use phrases he himself has used in interviews and statements, and let the character in the song be the one who describes himself.”
Gibney added, “I am a huge fan of David Byrne – having followed him from fronting The Talking Heads at CBGBs to his ‘Who Is the Sky’ Tour. I desperately wanted an uptempo song for the end of the film that would channel the chaotic spirit of Elon. I reached out to David — who happened to be in the UK. To my surprise and delight, he bicycled over to meet with Daniel and they conjured up musical magic.”
“David Byrne is one of the great artists and thinkers of our time. A generational observer, commentator and storyteller — to collaborate together on a song so timely, one that reflects the world we are now living in, was incredibly exciting.” Pemberton said in a statement of his own. “We find ourselves in a messy, complicated moment in history where the richest and most powerful use unrealistic promises, dreams and deflection to consolidate their wealth and control rather than to work towards a genuine better future for anyone else. I love getting the opportunity to address that through music and also getting to hang out with the artistic icon that is David in the process. We went for a walk, talked about architecture, hung out, had coffee, wrote music. David is a wonderfully inspiring ball of thoughts and energy. I hope the message and spirit of this song connects and resonates. It was a lot of fun to make.”
Byrne released his latest book, Sleeping Beauties: Why Good Ideas Go Dormant and How They Wake Up, earlier this week. His latest album, Who Is the Sky?, was released last year and recently received a deluxe edition.
Read our review of Musk, in which Liz Shannon Miller writes that the documentary “serves as a vital, nearly comprehensive document not just of Musk as a person, but of the increasingly dystopian world he is currently helping to shape.”
The film opens in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York on this Friday, October 9th ahead of a nationwide release on October 16th.
Byrne also appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers on Wednesday, where he discussed “Let Me Sell You A Dream,” his new book, and more.
