Watch David Byrne Cover Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend” To Make A Point About Royalties

Cake frontman John McCrea is one of the many artists railing against streaming services like Spotify and the way they only pay a pittance in royalties to artists. He’s put together a nonprofit called Content Creators Coalition, and last night, David Byrne headlined a CCC concert at New York’s Le Poisson Rouge; it also featured McRea, R.E.M.’s Mike Mills, Tift Merritt, and a few others. I have no idea how this led to Byrne doing an incredibly still and joyous cover of Biz Markie’s eternally wonderful atonal yawp “Just A Friend,” but that’s what happened. Byrne read the lyrics from a piece of paper but only lost the cadence once, and you can watch the miraculous fan-made video.