David Byrne, the legendary frontman of the Talking Heads, wrote a song for Oscar-winner Alex Gibney’s new documentary about Elon Musk, called “Musk”— and it has quite the twist.
All the lyrics of the upbeat punk-inspired track — titled “Let Me Sell You a Dream” and co-written with the film’s composer Daniel Pemberton — are actual, verbatim quotes from the SpaceX founder himself. (Huffpost reports)
“All his own words. No editorializing. Straight from the man’s mouth to mine,” Byrne recently told Variety.
“Now I’m running human and imitation mode / I’m a chill normal dude / I just have to keep going,” Byrne sings. “Let me sell you a dream / Do you think I’m insane? / I eat a glass sandwich / I eat them every day.”
Another verse, sung after a psychedelic bridge, goes: “Multi-planet exploration / I’m a human emulation / I’m a total simulation.”
Byrne explained his rationale for using Musk’s quotes for lyrics on “Late Night with Seth Meyers” Wednesday.
“I didn’t want to make it a personal editorial on my behalf,” Byrne told Meyers, explaining that he really wanted to get “inside Elon Musk’s head” and examine “what he’s thinking, how he feels, what he thinks of himself.”
And I thought, ‘OK, he has lots of really quotable quotes,’” Byrne said.
The musician then began sourcing quotes from Gibney, his doc and the internet, and eventually realized, “Well, we got lyrics right here.”
“He puts it out there. ‘I eat a glass sandwich, I do it every day.’ I couldn’t make that up! But he said it,” Byrne said, referencing one of the more bonkers Musk quotes he used for his song.
