10 Insane Plots From Concept Albums

A collaboration few could have predicted was matched with equally unexpected subject matter: Byrne was inspired by the life of Imeldo Marcos, the controversial widow of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos, known as the “Iron Butterfly”. He spends the album tracing her life, loves and losses, from her troubled childhood to her ignoble exile, taking particular interest in her decadent shopping sprees, enormous shoe collection and club-hopping hedonism.

The title comes from a phrase spoken by Imeldo at the burial of her husband, and was the story which initially piqued Byrne’s interest. The Talking Heads singer became intrigued by the allure of power, and the personal lives of the powerful. And he wasn’t wrong to detect megalomania in Imeldo: around the time of the album’s release she ran for office herself.

As if this wasn’t a strange enough endeavour for Byrne and Slim, they would later adapt the material into - what else? - a modestly successful Broadway musical.