David Byrne has written and performed “Let Me Sell You a Dream”, an original song for Alex Gibney’s documentary Musk, using Elon Musk’s own public statements as its lyrics.
by Paul Cashmere
David Byrne has written and performed an original song for Alex Gibney’s forthcoming documentary Musk, with every lyric in “Let Me Sell You a Dream” drawn from public statements made by Elon Musk. Byrne co-wrote the closing song with the film’s composer Daniel Pemberton, creating a piece that is intended to qualify for Best Original Song consideration at the 2027 Academy Awards.
The unusual songwriting approach gives Byrne a distinctive role in a documentary centred on one of the most closely scrutinised technology entrepreneurs of the modern era. Rather than supplying his own commentary on Musk, Byrne constructed the lyrics entirely from words attributed to Musk himself.
“I asked for good quotes from the Martian, and found more of them online,” Byrne said. “I’m sure he loves dropping these wild statements, and those became the lyrics. All his own words. No editorialising. Straight from the man’s mouth to mine.”
The song was created with Pemberton, whose film work includes Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and The Trial of the Chicago 7. Pemberton received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for “Hear My Voice” from the latter film.
For director Alex Gibney, bringing Byrne into the project carried a personal connection. Gibney said he and his wife attended the filming of Talking Heads’ landmark concert film Stop Making Sense at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles in 1984.
“I was thrilled when David agreed to write with our composer Daniel Pemberton and perform the final song in the film,” Gibney said. “I am a huge fan of his.”
Gibney described “Let Me Sell You a Dream” as “foot-tapping sardonic poetry”, saying Byrne had drawn deeply from Musk’s public statements. The documentary closes with the song, although the complete lyrics have not yet been publicly released.
The project also places Byrne back within the orbit of the Academy Awards. In 1988, he won the Oscar for Best Original Score alongside Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. “Let Me Sell You a Dream” represents a potential return to Oscar consideration almost four decades later, this time in the Best Original Song category.
The documentary itself has been in development for several years. Gibney’s project was publicly known by 2023, when Musk criticised the film before its release. Musk described it on X as a “hit-piece”, prompting Gibney to respond with the question, “How would you know?”
The dispute provides an important backdrop to the film’s release, but Byrne’s contribution takes a different approach. By limiting the lyrics to Musk’s own words, the song avoids adding a separate lyrical narrative to the documentary’s subject. Its effect instead depends on the selection, arrangement and musical interpretation of statements already made publicly by Musk.
One phrase identified by Gibney is “extremely hard core”, language associated with Musk’s 2022 communications to Twitter employees following his acquisition of the company. Byrne has not disclosed the complete selection of quotations used in the song, leaving the full lyrical construction to be heard with the film.
For Byrne, the project adds another film-related chapter to a career that has repeatedly crossed between music, visual art and cinema. His involvement also gives the documentary a closing musical statement shaped entirely from the subject’s own recorded public language.
Whether “Let Me Sell You a Dream” ultimately reaches the 2027 Oscar nominations remains to be determined. For now, its significance lies in the method: David Byrne has turned Elon Musk’s own words into a song without adding lyrics of his own.
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