Album: Remain In Light
Song: Once In A Lifetime
Tom Waits once wrote a great beat-poetry laugh-out-loud downer about a man who -- caught in the sheer repetitiveness of his existence -- burns his house to the ground on a whim. He parked across the street, laughing, watching it burn, all Halloween orange and chimney red. Jonathan Demme once directed a critically acclaimed movie about a man's largely futile attempt to rise above his station, to wriggle out of the grip of suburban ennui. "Once In A Lifetime" from the Talking Heads live rockumentary, Stop Making Sense, sees Demme channeling Waits.When I was a kid I wanted to be David Byrne, the lead singer of one of the most famous New Wave groups, Talking Heads, who were an important part of the New York CBGB scene in the late 70s. Byrne was tall, gawky, and artistic, which is what I was and what I aspired to be, respectively. He and Tina Weymouth (bass) and Chris Frantz (drums) met -- unsurprisingly -- in art school and, upon meeting Jerry Harrison (guitar)* formed the band. The band's sound was unique, with elements of world music thrown into an alternately graceful and chaotic dance of elements. Brian Eno, the album's producer, had recently introduced the band to the inspirational Fela Kuti (about whom I will blog soon), and much of Remain In Light features typical Kuti-ish cross-rhythms.
But what makes RIL truly special is "Once In A Lifetime," which reads like Sartre and sounds vaguely like the burgeoning No Wave movement. It's a groovy existentialist rant.
Same as it ever was.
By the way, Weymouth and Frantz formed a moderately successful side group in the 80s, Tom Tom Club. Which sucked ginormous donkey balls. Gross but true. Sorta the New Wave equivalent of The Beatles / Wings. All of which just goes to show that Germans love David Hasselhoff. By which I mean that David Byrne was the guiding musical and artistic influence in Talking Heads.
And finally, "Once In A Lifetime," has been sampled and/or covered by many artists over the years. Here is one of my favorites.
* Yes, that Jerry Harrison, of Modern Lovers fame. Another band that will soon be featured here.
Oh man, I know I've heard that song, but I don't know where from. Do you ever get that? Recognize a song without memory of ever listening to it. I think maybe I listened to it when I was really young. Anyway, Remain In Light is my favourite new wave album. Awesome.
ReplyDeleteIt was in the movie last night, the scene at the end when Cusack gets to his new home and his new wife (cue Talking Heads: "you may say, 'this is not my beautiful house' / you may say, 'this is not my beautiful wife!'"). That's why I'm blogging about it today. Cos it's so frigging awesome.
ReplyDeleteOh, haha. You know why that's funny?
ReplyDeletePersonally, I remember the song from when you linked to it way back when... in... I dunno? You also mentioned Elvis Costello as being New Wave, in describing the genre.
ReplyDeleteThen I fell in love with the song. Nothing like existentialism and synthesizers to make you want to listen to a song on repeat.