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Stop making sense once in a lifetime8/24/2023 ![]() In 2008 he reunited with Brian Eno (with whom he had recorded 1981’s My Life In the Bush of Ghosts) to release a new album. ![]() Since Talking Heads broke up in 1991, Byrne has been very involved in in world music, film scoring, and musical experimentation. The good news is that even Byrne himself is optimistic about the current state. Think of what transpired from 1950-1985 how much music from 1985 to 2021 will last another 30 years? The fact is that these earlier musical giants cast a long shadow: their works have been and continue to be extensively covered by other artists, are frequently sampled, extensively looped, and often quoted. Here’s the elephant in the room: has anything truly significant or revolutionary happened in music since Talking Heads appeared on the scene? It’s been nearly 40 years and counting since they galvanized both recorded music and live performance. Little did they know what they dealing with when it came to Byrne, who is a man of seemingly unlimited talent, a true Renaissance man who, as no other figure from the 1980s (excepting, perhaps, Brian Eno) has continued to exert a major influence of music of many genres. The group’s first couple of albums had critics calling them a new wave band or a pop-art band with limited commercial appeal. The driving force, the lead singer, and the principal songwriter for Talking Heads was David Byrne. ![]() They took the best elements of pop, funk, African rhythms, polyrhythms, ambient sounds, and whatever else was at hand and combined them with terrific staging and choreography, weird song titles and lyrics, while fueling themselves on a seemingly endless reinvention of the band’s focus and purpose. For them the era of verse, verse, chorus, bridge, verse again etc. They developed a new language for songwriting and performance, one that didn’t deliberately repulse the audience. Whereas punk music longed to smash everything, Talking Heads meant to dislodge us from our comfort. Talking Heads brought to the endgame of the Old Order something new and different. However, the definitive production of “Once In A Lifetime” is the live version released on Stop Making Sense in 1984. It is a riveting number, with lyrics so far removed from the rest of what was going on that it can be claimed that something new really did happen when Talking Heads finally came of age with their album Remain in Light. Talking Heads’ 1980 masterwork “Once In A Lifetime” was selected by National Public Radio as one of the top 100 musical works of the 20th century. You may ask yourself, “Well, how did I get here?” You may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife You may find yourself living in a shotgun shackĪnd you may find yourself in another part of the worldĪnd you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile If you don’t know the music of Talking Heads, you should get acquainted with one of the most exciting and provocative art-rock groups ever and there’s no better place to start than “Once In A Lifetime”. Talking Heads’ 1980 masterwork “Once In A Lifetime” was selected by NPR as one of the top 100 musical works of the 20th century.
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