6 December 2022

Back in 2012 DAVID BYRNE and ST. VINCENT teamed
up for a duet album, titled Love This Giant

During the sessions, Byrne wrote a song about Santa, named THE FAT MAN’S COMIN’,
not destined for that LP. He sang it live a couple of times on special occasions and now
the festive lullaby gets a proper release.

Song’s artwork

Byrne says he has been waiting to release the song as a benefit for some cause. He’s decided to use it as a fundraiser for his own online magazine Reasons To Be Cheerful . A non-profit editorial project that is tonic for tumultuous times.

Statement: “I always wanted to write a holiday song. I wouldn’t call it a Christmas song, as the visitation of Santa (formerly known as St. Nicholas, who mainly did punishing) seems to have evolved to be a more secular consumer moment than a religious or spiritual affair. I believe the foundation of this music might have been written at the same time as the collaboration I did with St. Vincent a few years ago, but somehow a literal view of the Santa phenomena was what came out. It wasn’t right for Annie and me – the story of a fat man in rather odd attire who breaks into people’s homes and leaves mysterious packages. Back then, I thought I’d use the song as a means to raise money for a good cause, but to draw attention to this thing I thought it might need a visual, so I storyboarded a video for the song which eventually ended up getting shelved.”

But maybe helping celebrate another year of Reasons To Be Cheerful might be a good reason to resurrect this song, and let the storyboards allow folks to imagine what the video might have been.

Enjoy and thanks for listening/watching.” – David Byrne

You can buy the song via Bandcamp.