Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song)

The creation of the sound

Brian Eno introduced Fela Kuti's multiple rhythm music style to the band, and during production Eno used a different rhythm count for some members of the group than others, starting on the "3" instead of the "1." It gave the song what Eno called "a funny balance within it. It has really two centers of gravity: their '1' and my '1.'" This rhythm imbalance was exaggerated in the studio, and is present throughout the song. Jerry Harrison developed the synthesizer line and added the Hammond organ climax, taken from the Velvet Underground's "What Goes On".

As the song essentially consisted of a repetitive two-bar groove (with the pattern reversed between the verse and chorus), Eno decided to approach the production by allowing each of the band members to record overdubs of different rhythmic and musical ideas independently of each other, with each member being kept blind to what the others had recorded on tape. In the final mix, Eno faded between these independent ideas at different parts of the song. This is very much in keeping with his production technique of Oblique Strategies.

Lyrics

At first, Eno sang nonsense verb sound blocks, which Byrne then converted into lyrics in the "call-and-response" style of American radio evangelists on the theme of moving through life with little awareness or questioning. On the way he spoke them Byrne has said: "Most of the words in 'Once in a Lifetime' come from evangelists I recorded off the radio while taking notes and picking up phrases I thought were interesting directions. Maybe I'm fascinated with the middle class because it seems so different from my life, so distant from what I do. I can't imagine living like that." Some of these evangelist recordings also made their way onto the 1981 album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, by Byrne and Eno.

This speaking style was also the basis for his approach of starting several consecutive lines with the same phrases "And you may find yourself ...", and with the chorus singing in part "letting the days go by, let the water hold me down," the song presents an existential mood to it. According to AllMusic critic Steve Huey, one of the main themes of the lyrics is "the drudgery of living life according to social expectations, and pursuing commonly accepted trophies (a large automobile, beautiful house, beautiful wife)." Although the singer has these trophies, he begins to question whether they are real and how he got them. This leads him to question further the reality of his very life, providing the existential element.

Eno was not particularly fond of the song, and it was almost dropped from the album before he came up with the vocal melody for the chorus, which "saved" it.

The song contains extensive repetition of the phrase "Same as it ever was". The phrase was later used as the title of a 2009 Talking Heads compilation album (and a 1994 album by House of Pain).

Release and reception

At the time of its original release, the song gained modest chart success, peaking at #14 on the UK Singles Chart and at #31 in the Dutch singles chart. While the song failed to chart on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart, various American 80s format radio stations have come to programming it in their playlists over the years. It was also an early MTV staple and was one of the most heavily played videos upon MTV's debut in August 1981.

The video

The music video features a bespectacled David Byrne in a tight-fitting suit and bow tie, appearing out of breath but still dancing around, much like a marionette against a video representation of blue/green waving field, possibly a liquid (water). Speaking the lyrics he makes sudden jerking movements and flings his arms, taps his head and gets onto his hands and knees to make patting gestures near the floor. Later, against a blank white background, smaller video images of himself appear, behind him, dancing in perfect synchrony; in the foreground, he gets progressively out of sync with the rhythm of the song, as the background occasionally flashes with segments of old films with tribal dancing and ritualistic arm and body gestures, similar to his own.

At the end a serene Byrne appears, dressed in white, but also chanting. The closing shot briefly sees the original Byrne, small against the entire video colourfield, apparently waving for help, but then fading into the "water".

Choreography

Many of Byrne's mannerisms, such as the physical spasms, unfocused eye movements, and sharp intakes of breath, were inspired by his choreographer Toni Basil, after showing him footage of epilepsy sufferers and also viewing footage of various tribal religious rituals from around the world, incorporating some of their movements as well, in keeping with the "unconscious religious lyrics."

The video has made appearances on the "Midnight Video Special" episode of SCTV and an episode of the 90s show Beavis and Butt-Head, and was exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads' performance of Once in a Lifetime in their 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense is notable for its almost 4-minute long, unbroken chiaroscuro shot of Byrne performing the song. This version was remixed to remove the live audience and was released as a single, peaking at #91 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in May 1986.

"We used to have so much fun playing this song live," Chris Frantz remarks in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads. "It was a soaring feeling, and the audience was right there with us."

Legacy

The song title was used by the band for two later compilation albums—the 1992 Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads and the 2003 Once in a Lifetime. Reviewing the 2003 album for the BBC, Chris Jones said: "Three discs encapsulate the band's career while a fourth gives us an updated DVD version of their video greatest hits, Storytelling Giant. The inclusion of this disc is significant in that the Heads were prime movers in the early days of the promo format. Their hilarious video for "Once in A Lifetime", with David Byrne's twitchy Middle American preacher in horn rims, remains as compelling as it was in 1981. And how many other videos can you say that about?"

In popular culture

Personnel

Talking Heads

Additional Personnel