Harman Patil (Editor)

The Jezebel Spirit

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Released
  
1981

Length
  
3:34

Writer(s)
  
Bryne and Eno

Format
  
7" vinyl

Label
  
EG/Polydor

"The Jezebel Spirit" is the fourth song from the 1981 album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts by David Byrne and Brian Eno. It was released as a single the same year.

Contents

Content

The song includes a "found sound"—an exorcism performed by an anonymous exorcist—over Afrobeat music similar to that Byrne and Eno had used in the Talking Heads album Remain in Light. The exorcism was to have been a recording of Kathryn Kuhlman, but her estate prohibited the use of her voice.

Reception

While the album was generally well received by critics, the song attracted negative criticism. Jon Pareles wrote in Rolling Stone magazine that Byrne and Eno had used the exorcism for their own purposes and "trivialized the event".

References

The Jezebel Spirit Wikipedia