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“Once in a Lifetime” TALKING HEADS

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“Once in a Lifetime” TALKING HEADS MAY 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM BEHIND THE CLASSICS WRITTEN BY: DAVID BYRNE, BRIAN ENO, CHRIS FRANTZ, JERRY HARRISON AND TINA WEYMOUTH RECORDED AT: COMPASS POINT STUDIOS, Warner Bros. Records Warner NASSAU, THE BAHAMAS, AND SIGMA SOUND STUDIOS, NEW YORK CITY, SUMMER 1980 PRODUCED BY: BRIAN ENO VOCALS, GUITAR: DAVID BYRNE KEYBOARDS: JERRY HARRISON BASS: TINA WEYMOUTH DRUMS: CHRIS FRANTZ FROM THE ALBUM: REMAIN IN LIGHT (1980) David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, Chris Frantz “Once in a Lifetime” TALKING HEADS WHEN TALKING HEADS CONVENED this one,” Byrne said in 2000. “But I thought, was infl uenced by the Islamic ideal of in the Bahamas in 1980 to record its fourth ‘There’s something about this. I’m sure I surrender to God—the word “Islam” literally album, the members were buzzing with new can write words to it that’s gonna make means “submission.” “He was mixing in all infl uences. The group had made its name this work and pull it together.’” of those wonderful baptismal symbols of with arty, angular New Wave, but now very Byrne had lately taken an interest in the the washing with the water, the washing different rhythmic ideas began fl owing in voice patterns of evangelical preachers, and away of sin,” Weymouth observed in 1988. from two distinct but related sources: the decided to try declaiming in that manner Eno came up with the chorus melody, Afrobeat sound pioneered by Fela Kuti in over the track. “I would improvise lines as his onetime disinterest having been easily Africa, and the burgeoning hip-hop scene if I was giving a sermon in that kind of a overcome by Byrne’s development of the in the quartet’s home base of New York City. meter, in that kind of hyperventilating style, song. Keyboardist Jerry Harrison added The band determined to build its new songs and then go back and distill that,” Byrne the bubbling synthesizer that streams from the rhythmic base up, plucking bits remembered. The lyrics he invented mined throughout the track, as well as a climactic and pieces from improvisations over which the vein of neurotic worry (and joy) about burst of distorted organ inspired by the frontman David Byrne and producer/co-writer the trappings of modern life that had proven Velvet Underground’s “What Goes On.” Brian Eno would layer melodies and lyrics. fruitful throughout Talking Heads’ work to “Once in a Lifetime” failed to dent the During one of those jams, bass player date, but also ideas he had recently been U.S. pop charts upon its release as a single Tina Weymouth hit upon an ear-catching reading about in books like Robert Farris in late 1980, but over time has become one stop-and-start bass line. Her husband, Thompson’s African Art in Motion. of Talking Heads’ best-loved songs—aided drummer Chris Frantz, picked up on the The verses trace a man’s growing by its memorable music video, its frequent groove and encouraged her to repeat it disillusionment about the value of his use in movies and its use as a sample in hip- rather than expanding on it—just as a suburbanite work and family life. (“You may hop tracks like Jay-Z’s “It’s Alright.” But it is hip-hop producer would loop a bass line fi nd yourself in a beautiful house, with a the original recording’s own combination of endlessly. “Chris was shouting, ‘Boom beautiful wife/You may ask yourself, well, the intellectual and the spiritual, the cutting- boom-boom, boom boom-boom!’” she later ‘How did I get here?’”) Meanwhile, the edge and the eternal, that continues to recalled. “He was very keen on it being choruses and bridge, drenched in liquid intrigue and engage new listeners. “We simple.” The demo dubbed “Weird Guitar imagery reminiscent of Fela’s 1975 “Water felt the music was very transcendent and Riff Song” was almost set aside, as Eno No Get Enemy,” assert that humanity’s ecstatic, or it could be,” Byrne said, “and didn’t hear much potential in it—but Byrne essential needs remain the same as they very ancient and modern at the same time.” did. “There was a motion to just abandon ever were. Byrne has often said the lyric – Chris Neal 78 MAY 2010 M3_v10.indd 78 5/14/10 6:17 AM.
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