Talking Heads Lyrics
| "One time in a Lifetime" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Comprehend fine art of Great britain 7" and 12" vinyl singles | ||||
| Single by Talking Heads | ||||
| from the album Remain in Low-cal | ||||
| B-side |
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| Released | February 2, 1981 | |||
| Recorded | July – August 1980 | |||
| Genre |
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| Length | 4:19 | |||
| Label | Sire | |||
| Songwriter(southward) |
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| Producer(s) | Brian Eno | |||
| Talking Heads singles chronology | ||||
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| Alternative release | ||||
 A-side label of US vinyl unmarried | ||||
| Music video | ||||
| "One time in a Lifetime" on YouTube | ||||
| Audio | ||||
| "Once in a Lifetime" on YouTube | ||||
"Once in a Lifetime" is a song past the American new wave ring Talking Heads, produced and cowritten by Brian Eno. The pb single from Talking Heads' fourth studio album, Remain in Light (1980), information technology was released on Feb 2, 1981, through Sire Records.
Eno and Talking Heads adult "In one case in a Lifetime" through extensive jams, inspired by Afrobeat musicians such as Fela Kuti. David Byrne's lyrics and vocals were inspired by preachers delivering sermons. The music video, co-directed past Toni Basil, has Byrne dancing erratically over footage of religious rituals.
"Once in a Lifetime" was certified gold in the Uk in 2021. A live version, taken from the 1984 concert film Terminate Making Sense, charted in 1986 on the Billboard Hot 100. NPR named "Once in a Lifetime" 1 of the 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century. The Rock and Curl Hall of Fame lists it as one of the "500 Songs that Shaped Stone and Whorl".
Production [edit]
Similar other songs on Remain in Light, Talking Heads and producer Brian Eno adult "One time in a Lifetime" by recording jams, isolating the best parts, and learning to play them repetitively.[3] Songwriter Robert Palmer joined the jam on guitar and percussion.[3] The technique was influenced past early on hip hop and the Afrobeat music of artists such as Fela Kuti, which Eno had introduced to the band. Singer David Byrne likened the process to modern looping and sampling, describing the band every bit "human samplers".[3] He said the vocal was a result of the band trying and failing to play funk, inadvertently creating something new instead.[3]
The track was initially not i of Eno's favorites, and the band almost abandoned information technology. According to keyboardist Jerry Harrison, "Because there were so few chord changes, and everything was in a sort of trance ... it became harder to write defined choruses."[4] [five] However, Byrne had faith in the vocal and felt he could write lyrics to it. Eno adult the chorus tune by singing wordlessly, and the song "barbarous into place".[3] Harrison developed the "bubbly" synthesizer line and added the Hammond organ climax, taken from the Velvet Secret'south "What Goes On".[4]
Eno interpreted the rhythm differently from the ring; he interpreted the third beat of the bar equally the offset. He encouraged the band members to translate the beat in different ways, thereby exaggerating different rhythmic elements.[4] Co-ordinate to Eno, "This means the song has a funny balance, with two centers of gravity – their funk groove, and my dubby, reggae-ish understanding of it; a bit similar the style Fela Kuti songs volition take multiple rhythms going on at the same time, warping in and out of each other."[three]
According to bassist Tina Weymouth, her husband, drummer Chris Frantz, created the bassline by yelling during a jam, which she mimicked on bass guitar.[4] She wanted to "go out lots of space for the cacophony that surrounded me. I felt like I was pounding away like a carpenter, just nailing abroad to get it in the groove."[3] Eno wanted to remove the offset note in the bassline, every bit he felt it was likewise "obvious", and rerecorded the role himself. When the ring returned to New York and Eno had gone home, the engineer asked Weymouth to tape the bassline again. She said: "Information technology wasn't a large fight between me and Brian, as it has sometimes been portrayed, information technology was just a musical dispute."[3]
Lyrics [edit]
Byrne improvised lines as if he were giving a sermon, with a call-and-response chorus like a preacher and congregation. His vocals are "half-spoken, half-sung", with lyrics about living in a "beautiful house" with a "beautiful wife" and a "large automobile".[6] [7]
Guardian writer Jack Malcolm suggested that the song can be read "as an art-popular rumination on the existential ticking time bomb of unchecked consumerism and advancing age".[vii] According to AllMusic critic Steve Huey, the lyrics address "the drudgery of living life according to social expectations, and pursuing normally accustomed trophies (a large automobile, cute house, beautiful married woman)".[6] Although the vocalist has these trophies, he questions whether they are real and how he caused them, a kind of existential crisis.[viii]
Byrne denied that the lyrics address yuppie greed and said the song was most the unconscious: "We operate one-half-awake or on autopilot and end upwards, whatsoever, with a business firm and family and job and everything else, and we haven't actually stopped to ask ourselves, 'How did I go here?'"[4]
Music video [edit]
In the "Once in a Lifetime" music video, vocalist David Byrne, dressed in a suit, bowtie and glasses, dances erratically over footage of religious rituals.
In the "Once in a Lifetime" music video, Byrne appears in a large, empty white room, dressed in a suit, bowtie, and spectacles. In the background, inserted via bluescreen, footage of religious rituals or multiple Byrnes appear. Byrne dances erratically, imitating the movements of the rituals and moving in "spasmic" full-body contortions. At the end of the video, a "normal" version of Byrne appears in a black room, dressed in a white, open-collared shirt without glasses.[9]
The video was choreographed by Toni Basil and co-directed with Byrne. They studied archive footage of "preachers, evangelists, people in trances, African tribes, Japanese religious sects" to encounter how Byrne could incorporate them into his performance.[three] Televangelist Ernest Angley was another inspiration.[ten] Co-ordinate to Basil, "David kind of choreographed himself. I set the camera, put him in front end of it, and asked him to blot those ideas. Then I left the room then he could be alone with himself. I came back, looked at the videotape, and nosotros chose physical moves that worked with the music. I just helped to stylize his moves a little."[3] To emphasize Byrne'south jerky movements, Basil used an "old-fashioned" zoom lens. The video was made on a low budget; Basil described it every bit "about as low-tech every bit you could get and withal be broadcastable".[3]
Release [edit]
"One time in a Lifetime" peaked at No. fourteen on the Great britain Singles Chart[11] and at No. 31 in the Dutch singles chart.[12] On nineteen January 2018, the unmarried was certified golden for 400,000 copies sold in the United kingdom.[thirteen] A live version, taken from the 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense, charted in early 1986, reaching No. 91 on the U.s.a. Billboard Hot 100.[14] An early version of "Once in a Lifetime", "Right Get-go", was released on the 2006 Remain in Calorie-free reissue.[7]
Legacy [edit]
In 1996, the Muppet character Kermit the Frog performed "Once in a Lifetime" on an episode of Muppets This night. Kermit appears in Byrne's "big adjust" and mimics Byrne's dances from Finish Making Sense.[15] In 2016, Guardian writer Malcolm Jack wrote: "'Once in a Lifetime' is a thing of dizzying power, dazzler and mystery ... information technology sounds like nothing else in the history of pop."[7] In 2000, NPR named "In one case in a Lifetime" one of the 100 virtually important American musical works of the 20th century.[xvi] The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame lists information technology as 1 of the "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll".[17] Actualization on NPR'south All Songs Considered, musician Travis Morrison selected "Once in a Lifetime" as a "perfect song", saying: "The lyrics are astounding – they are meaningless and totally meaningful at the same time. That'due south as skillful as rock lyrics get."[18] In 2003, BBC critic Chris Jones described the "Once in a Lifetime" video as "hilarious" and "equally compelling as it was in 1981".[xix] In 2021, Rolling Stone named it the 81st best music video.[20]
Personnel [edit]
Talking Heads
- David Byrne – pb vocals, guitar
- Jerry Harrison – synthesizer, organ, backing vocals
- Tina Weymouth – bass, bankroll vocals
- Chris Frantz – drums
Additional personnel
- Brian Eno – synthesizer, percussion, backing vocals
- Nona Hendryx – backing vocals
- Adrian Belew – guitar[21]
Charts [edit]
| Nautical chart (1981) | Pinnacle position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart[22] | 23 |
| Canadian Singles Nautical chart[23] | 28 |
| Dutch Singles Chart[12] | 24 |
| Irish Singles Chart | 16 |
| UK Singles Chart[11] | 14 |
| US Billboard Bubbling Under the Hot 100[24] | 103 |
| Nautical chart (1985) | Acme position |
|---|---|
| Dutch Singles Nautical chart[12] | 22 |
| New Zealand Singles Nautical chart[25] | 15 |
| Us Billboard Hot 100[24] | 91 |
Certifications [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Huey, Steve. "Once In a Lifetime - Talking Heads". AllMusic . Retrieved Nov vii, 2017.
- ^ Potton, Ed (August xv, 2015). "David Byrne: composer, curator, cyclist — not just a Talking Head". The Times . Retrieved Feb 28, 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f m h i j k Lewis, John (November 2007). "The Making Of... Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads". Uncut.
- ^ a b c d due east ""Once in a Lifetime" National Public Radio circulate, March 27, 2000". NPR. Retrieved April 7, 2018.
- ^ "The 100 most important American musical works of the 20th century". NPR. Retrieved Apr 7, 2018.
- ^ a b Huey, S. "Once in a Lifetime". AllMusic. Retrieved March xxx, 2014.
- ^ a b c d Jack, Malcolm (September 21, 2016). "Talking Heads – 10 of the best". the Guardian . Retrieved March 20, 2018.
- ^ Gittens, I. (2004). Talking Heads: One time in a Lifetime: the Stories Backside Every Vocal. Hal Leonard. pp. 68–71. ISBN9780634080333.
- ^ "Ridiculously Awesome Music Videos: The Heads' "Once in a Lifetime"". Upshot of Sound. November 25, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
- ^ Bowman, David (2001). This must exist the identify: the adventures of Talking Heads in the 20th century (1st ed.). New York: Harper Amusement. pp. 201. ISBN0061955981. OCLC 651051467.
- ^ a b "The Official Charts Visitor – Talking Heads". Official Charts Company. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Discografie Talking Heads". Dutchcharts.nl (in Dutch). Retrieved Baronial 13, 2011.
- ^ a b "British single certifications – Talking Heads – Once in a Lifetime". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved Oct 28, 2021.
- ^ "The Hot 100: Week of May three, 1986". Billboard.com . Retrieved Apr 28, 2015.
- ^ Blevins, Joe. "Kermit The Frog gets existential with this Talking Heads cover". AV Club . Retrieved March 26, 2018.
- ^ "NPR 100".
- ^ "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll". Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on January 2, 2016. Retrieved April 9, 2018.
- ^ "Perfect Song: Artist Picks". All Songs Considered. NPR. Retrieved May 5, 2018.
- ^ Jones, Chris (November 17, 2003). "Music - Review of Talking Heads - In one case In A Lifetime". BBC. Retrieved Feb 12, 2016.
- ^ "The 100 greatest music videos". Rolling Stone. July 30, 2021. Retrieved August 10, 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Once in a Lifetime - Talking Heads - Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic . Retrieved April seven, 2018.
- ^ "Discography Talking Heads". Australian-charts.com. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
- ^ "Talking Heads Top Singles positions". RPM. Archived from the original on September 21, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2011.
- ^ a b "Talking Heads > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles". Allmusic. Retrieved August xiii, 2011.
- ^ "Discography Talking Heads". charts.nz. Retrieved August 14, 2011.
External links [edit]
- NPR interviews David Byrne on the occasion of the In one case in Lifetime box set up release on Nov 18, 2003
constantanium1957.blogspot.com
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_in_a_Lifetime_(Talking_Heads_song)
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