Classical Composer Reacts to Talking Heads (Once in a Lifetime) | The Daily Doug (Episode 605) 

As a retired groundwater geologist, we are eternally grateful to David Byrne, Talking Heads, and Brian Eno for bringing the concept of water flowing underground to the attention of the new wave/neo-prog rock community.

The live version of this song from "Stop Making Sense" is iconic.

One of my favorite bands. Listen to their full albums. Their concert video Stop Making Sense is one for the ages.

Remain in Light is one of my top albums of all time. It deserves to be given a full listen.

'Talking Heads' concert video 'Stop Making Sense' is worth seeing. Starts with David Byrne performing 'Psycho Killer' on an empty stage. Even my hard to please Auntie watched the whole shebang.

Goes to show how effective a simple melody, over a single chord can be. Such an incredible line up of musicians, playing just what served the song.

I absolutely love your closing comments, you are not alone in feeling the stress of current events. For many of us your videos are a bright patch and I hope you can take something from that. These days I feel like the highest calling is to provide EDUCATIONAL VALUE, and your commitment to that is appreciated!

Adrian Belew deserves special mention. He's played with Frank Zappa, Talking Heads, David Bowie, King Crimson plus his own bands the Power Trio, The Bears. Adrian's playing on Remain In Light was a transformative moment in guitar popular music. During a meet and greet at the Remain In Light tour with Jerry Harrison, Adrian said that the band asked him into the studio and all the tracks were basically done. They gave him headphones and asked him to listen and play the guitar solo wherever he felt it would work. He did all the tracks in one day I think. I was fortunate to see them play this in Central Park in 1980 before the album came out. So glad to have witnessed this incredible transformation. Cheers!

I've obviously known the Talking Heads for decades, but only recently understood how great they were.

I would love a reaction to one of their full albums. Any of their first four albums would be amazing, but Remain in Light is one of my top five. Oh Douglas. They didn't "try" to play funk. The band included like half of Parliament Funkadelic. This was funk through the eyes and ears of David Byrne and Brian Eno.

lI always say it, Talking Heads Bassist Tina Weymouth is my all time favorite female ROCK STAR. She created many bass lines that others copied and tried to implement them into their music. "Once In A Lifetime" is an "original" song, nothing else really sounds like it, so I guess that makes it "original".

This song had a resurgence in popularity when I was a kid, and back then I just liked the beat and the hooks. Now that I’m old enough to understand the words, the song breaks me.

To me "Remain in Light" is one of those albums that's best when you listen to it all the way through as opposed to just listening to a song or two. It is a fascinating album, a real masterpiece of a record that really rocks your world the most when taken as a whole. David Byrne and Brian Eno were producing a lot of really experimental stuff around the time Talking Heads recorded the album. If you ever get the chance to hear "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" or "The Catherine Wheel" you're in for a treat; it's some really weird music, but fascinating! Both of those records will take you on a strange journey; they are extremely 420 friendly records. I definitely recommend headphones! The textures and grooves that Byrne and Eno created on those recordings were incredibly compelling and the session musician all top shelf.

I wasn't a Talking Heads fan when they were around, but going back and listening to a bunch of their music now, I think they are absolutely amazing. It started with Memories Can't Wait. I found out very late in the game that the song on Living Colours first album was a Talking Heads cover, so I went back to the original and never looked back. Do yourself a favor and just dive in.

Doug do your self a favor and watch their live concert video titled Stop Making Sense. When you see the performance of each song and the way the show progresses from starting with just David Byrne and an acoustic guitar to the amazing musicians that fill the stage as the show goes on is spectacular. I think you will have a greater appreciation for The Talking Heads after watching that show.

One of my favourite songs of all time. And I'm a metalhead through and through. There's something just so off kilter about this song as a pop song. It's unconventional through and through and yet it's so damn catchy. I can't hear this song though without remembering a story told by a content creator called Pyrion Flax, during an episode of the Triforce Podcast. He said he was once at a pub somewhere in London that happened to do very skeezy, very cheap strip shows after a certain time, with the girl placing down one of those dimpled pint glasses for blokes to chuck pound coins in. Like I said, this place is skeezy. Anyway, so he was there in this pub, just killing time before he goes to a gig nearby, and Once in a Lifetime starts playing and most of the punters start bobbing along and singing. Suddenly the music stops, and the first girl of the night walks out to start her routine. Some of the girls look a bit rough around the edges, as you might expect from an establishment of this calibre, but this girl is beautiful, and one of the favourites amongst the regulars. The pub erupts into a loud hum of boos, and this poor girl looks terrified. She does her routine, while the whole pub is quiet, staring at her, looking pissed off. As soon as she walks off stage, the landlord puts the music back on, and Once in a Lifetime carries on. Everybody cheers. They just wanted to hear the song through to its conclusion! That poor poor girl must have wanted the ground to swallow her up...

My fave Heads song is Burning Down The House. You’ll love the the rhythms in that. The Heads are incredible, Huge! So innovative.

I've always thought of this era of Talking Heads music as, for all practical purposes, an extension of Brian Eno's solo catalogue of the early and mid 80s. He produced the song and his influence is everywhere. (You can recognize his voice in the backing vocals). The artistry is in the little production details, like the synth pads down in the mix.

I always likened this song to a meditative rock and roll chant on the meaning of life.

“Didn’t know what the name of it was”, same as it is ever was. Once in a lifetime.

I've written several songs with one chord, it's a challenge and makes you think outside the box to create an interesting soundscape. It's disappointing that you can't see how fantastic this song is.

Eno is a magician, and this particular album produced some wonderful music - you need to react to the seven(!) overlapping vocal lines of "The Great Curve". The following album ("Speaking in Tongues") did get into funkier grooves with songs like "Slippery People". I hope you feel more yourself soon!

Another great vid Doug, always look forward to and appreciate your postings - they cheer me up! You take care of yourself mate, much love and best wishes!

Tomorrow Never Knows by the Beatles is also in one chord only.

Adrian be-LEW as in Baloo the bear from Jungle Book. And you should check out some of his solo stuff too.

I never saw Talking Heads, but I did see David Byrne play a show in a club in Indy about 25 years ago. It was great! He even wore the furry pink suit for a while.

Your comments moved me for whatever reason. I love that you are open and putting time into to music

You might want to check out Byrne and Eno's 'My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts'. Forty years on it's still ahead of its time.

The Talking Heads have a lot of funk in their genes. When they expanded the lineup for their Stop Making Sense tour, they had Steve Scales, Bernie Worrell, and Alex Weir, all of whom have extensive funk pedigrees from bands like Parliament-Funkadelic and The Brothers Johnson.

maybe this isn't funk. but it's an infectious groove. We did go to the "Speaking in Tongues" tour, which the famous film was based on. What a party. Possibly my favorite concert. ever. No one stopped moving on stage and in the audience. We danced the whole time.

The video for this song is worth a watch, I believe that Toni Basil did the preacher choreography... Iconic stuff. By the way, I hope you've got tickets for the upcoming Peter Gabriel tour... I recently saw his show in the UK, really really great.

I implore you to dig a little deeper. I’ve always considered “Remain in Light” as part of a trio that Byrne worked with Eno on. The other two are “My Life in the Bush of Ghosts” and his score for “The Catherine Wheel” with choreographer Twyla Tharp. All three were extremely formative for me almost since they came out.

I'd highly recommend their concert film "Stop Making Sense," directed by the great Jonathan Demme. THEN I think you'll get what they're all about.

What I read is that Eno had each member of the band go into the studio separately, and improvise parts without hearing what the others did. Then they looped parts and spliced it together, and Byrne came up with the vocals over it. One of the most amazing tracks ever from a production standpoint. I disagree that there are no chord changes, though. The bass pedal is F#-A, The verse seems to hang on D with suspensions, but the chorus implies D-G chords, and the guitars at the end are clearly playing D-C-G.

Near the end of 1977. I was @ Sydney School of art's. I open my locker and inside I find, Talking Heads, "More songs about buildings and food"? Why did someone put this record, (yes a record, before CD's), in my locker? A post it note on the back read. "Art students made this. Give it a listen, Reg Mombasa". (He was in a well known Australian band called "Mental as anything"). Loved the band from the first song. You can hear ENO's influence in this track. Shades of, "Here comes the warm jet's".

Talking Heads were huge when I was in college, as was Reggae and Ska. Whatever you want to say about these styles they certainly worked on the dance floor.

and for the peak experience listening to this track, the live version on 'stop making sense' is worthy for a *best in show* award.

For me many of my favorite creators...took me several listens and time to appreciate. It wasn't "love at first sight" for me, the Talking Heads, either. But I've certainly come to love them over time. Let the water flow...lol.

This song has been in so many movies that deal with decadence, greed, excess and oppulance! I really came to appreciate it in the movie, Wall Street!.... Remember? "Greed is good!" ? or how about the 80's movie about the Homeless guy who found himself in an LA mansion living amongst a troubled family who had every excess, Down and Out in Beverly Hills?..........very befitting and Genious for this song!

You talked over one of the best parts: the staggered "remove the water from the bottom of the ocean" with the distorted voice chanting "Mayday" emerging out of it. Also, the organ at the end is right out of "What Goes On" off the Velvet Underground's third album.

There is a bit more going on here than just 1 chord. The chorus has an implied movement to the IV chord (water flowing underground) and during the outro they are clearly implying a I-VII-IV movement over the static bassline. Small details but important for a thorough analysis

so innovative and effortlessly cool, hard to think of anyone else who could do such progressive intelligent music and also make it so catchy and memorable.

Adrian Belew went on to work with Robert Fripp in the second incarnation of King Crimson and you can hear the Talking Heads influence in that collaboration.

Belew does all the magic with the guitar+delay layers. Eno reused his tricks to build the Edge's sound in U2 when he took over production duties with Lanois on "The Unforgettable Fire". I remember a young lady telling me how she was fascinated by U2's unique guitar sound, that there was nothing like this anywhere... Made her discover Belew's job with King Crimson, the Talkin Heads, Zappa, Bowie, added with Fripp and a few others, then explained how all these people are linked Doug : I strongly suggest you to give an ear to Eno/Byrne 'My life in the bush of ghost', especially one named 'Regiment' on this album Another real marvel is Eno/Fripp 'Evening Star' on the 'Evening Star' album with the st looper ever, the Frippertronics... But I fear that if you do this one, Fripp may have your stuff blocked... He's a bit picky about copyrights, you know ...

"Papa Was A Rolling Stone" is single-chord funk and a classic. "Chain of Fools" is another.

One of my favorite bands. I did have to learn to listen to them. They are different in many ways.

Great reaction to the reaction! If you'll ever come back to Talking Heads, I'd recommend "Listening Wind" or "Air". - Exactly a year has gone, and your last thoughts are more important than ever.

This always reminds me of Sex, Lies and Videostape, when James Spader tells Andie MacDowell, "I've been in this skin my whole life and I can't tell you how I became this." Or something to that effect. Wish you'd watch the Stop Making Sense rendition. It's backlit at the end so all you see is Byrne, with one hand raised very much like a preacher, sweat dripping off him while he's leaning heavily on the mic stand. Behind him are the two backup singers, rising forward with arms outstretched from a near limbo position and a thunderous, low synth note rising then falling and reverberating. David sings repeatedly, "Time isn't after us! Time isn't holding us!" The best and most inspiring sermon I've ever heard.

Watching you grow helps me grow. Thank you

Thank you for sharing your feelings about our world. Hug from afar. The Talking Heads were, IMHO, more a performance art piece than a band. But what do I know. I do own 3 or 4 albums, haven’t seen my vinyl in decades. Thanks for being real.

If you want a comforting, uplifting Talking Heads number try This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody). It just has feel-good vibes.

So should I share this with Chris the drummer? He has an excellent memoir called REMAIN IN LOVE about his Talking Heads experiences and his band with wife Tina, Tom Tom Club and his love for her.

i dont usually do the "I remember...", but this was one of those releases that many people would line up early at record stores to get the day it was released...I did at the "Record Peddler" here in Toronto. Also King Crimson's Discipline...and maybe Bauhaus and Killing Joke. 😊

Great song, great band, truly one of a kind, a melting pot of creativity.

I think the key to understanding David Byrne's lyrics is that his mind has a tendency to look at life quite indirectly. In Once in a lifetime, as Byrne says, he's observing the phenomenon of people living their life on autopilot, without stepping out of the frame often enough to consciously think about the reasons for our life choices. He's pinpointing these glimpses into our deeper inner driving forces. "you may find yourself..." - as if you've just woken up and find out you've been sleepwalking and suddenly you look up, fully awake for the first time and see the person you married, the job you've chosen, the direction you're headed, the place you've ended up in without really knowing why or how you made the decisions that got you there. The ground on which we walk may seem solid, but there's "water flowing underground", "under the rocks and stones" - there is a depth of emotion, subconscious thought and fluidity hiding underneath our certainties, our stable little life we've created for ourselves is just a construct, but the foundations aren't solid rock, they are constantly shifting and when they occasionally reach the surface "you may find yourself" questioning the entire house of cards. The preacher-inspired performance style he adopted for this album is interesting, as the lyrics are hardly sermons dictating how people should live their lives, they are more like observations on or a wry look at the human condition. This song could be interpreted as a warning, or as an encouragement to turn off the autopilot a little more often, to consciously make those choices that decide where you end up in life, but it's not outspoken about that. It's just saying "look at this thing I noticed we do" and leaving it up to the listener to take from that what they please.

This was one of the first videos I ever saw. It was played on an episode of SCTV.

Wow, I haven't heard this one in decades. The lyrics always hooked me, but I never even noticed how 1-dimensional the music is. Clearly, that was by design, but I would have recalled it incorrectly with a much more dynamic sound than it actually has.

Doug, you need to do a full film reaction to Stop Making Sense. Talking Heads concert film directed by Jonathan Demme.

Saw them live in 1983 at the Clearwater Music festival in Christchurch, NewZealand. Unforgettable.

Has anyone noticed that 'The Talking Heads' quote "Gloria" by the 1960's group 'Them' in "Once in a Lifetime"? "Once..." is a metaphysical spiritual song and since it's late 20th Century pop music, instead of quoting the classical music "Gloria in excelsis Deo" they quote a musical theme from the third quarter of "Gloria" by Them. Ha!...what a neat hidden reference. "Once in a Lifetime" is such a cool philosophical song, amazing they made it so that it became so popular given they're talking about time travel, instantaneous translocation; and playing off the Ancient Greek Philosopher Thales who said "everything is water" or "made of water"; and one of the main symbols of Taoism are flowing streams; and "Turn off your mind and float downstream" lyrics from 'Tomorrow Never Knows" by Beatles. Such a cool song.

One of the greatest tracks of all time. It caught me on release, like the whole album. Genius.

I'm hooked now Doug! Thank you!

This is actually one of the songs where the video makes the experience twice, maybe ten times as worth.

Another song that sits on one chord throughout and with a similar feel and theme is Tomorrow Never Knows by The Beatles (John Lennon) which uses pioneering production techniques as well more than a decade. A great version of it is by '801' which Brian Eno was part of, and my guess is that it influenced his work here with Talking Heads

I like Talking Heads. I will give you this though Doug. Talking Heads is like drinking coffee or beer for the first time. They are an acquired taste. And I agree with the other fans here. The concert video Stop Making Sense is in the category of a classic performance. There is amazing energy. You will not be disappointed.

saw this tour w/Belew: Warfield, SF

Live during wartime off the stop making Sense movie "The" best Live Event EVERRR This band is iconic

It's in the soundtrack of a great movie as well. Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Starring Nick Nolte, Bette Midler, and Richard Dreyfuss.

Doug, sorry to hear that you've been struggling as of late. Just wanted you to know how much I enjoy what you share with us and how much I anticipate your posts. I thoroughly enjoy your insights and just wanted you to know that I'll be sending good juju vibes your way. Thanks again!!

Doug, an entry point into more TH might be the early song "For Artists Only" -- since it was written for artists -- like you! Touring their 3rd album, they opened with this. In concert, it was almost jaw-dropping.

Doug you have to get into the Stop Making Sense concert. It’s all over RU-vid. You’ll be sold.

We need more Talking Heads on the Channel.

I like several of Talking Heads' records and think their Stop Making Sense movie is great, but nice to hear you give an honest 'not that keen' reaction for a change. Maybe try 'The Listening Wind' from the same album?

I defy anyone to be mad about anything while Talking Heads "This Must Be The Place" is playing 😁

Unbelievable, this brilliant album is 40 years old and far ahead of its time.

I can't help but picture David Byrne banging himself in the head over and over from the video when I hear this song. I was in college when this came out and it was a reflex for someone to do the head bang if the song was playing....

I was never really a fan of New Wave music. But there were a few songs that I kind of enjoyed. This is one of them. For me, the hook has always been mostly the lyrics (though the chorus is kind of catchy). It's about the expectations of your future life you have when you're young vs. the mundane reality of actual adult life. When I was young, I found it funny in a detached way. Now, as someone who's about the same age as Doug, I still find it funny, but in a much different way. Now I find it funny in a, "Yup! That's pretty much how it went" kind of way. And so I ask myself, "Well, how did I get here?!"

The live version from "Stop Making Sense" does indeed feature Byrne resembling a Pentecostal preacher.

Emotional state of course makes a difference. Some songs grow on you over time.

I have to binge watch alot of videos since I haven't been on this channel for a while.

we love you doug, talking heads were never my favourite either but some of davids words can change your life.

You should give some songs off of their speaking in tongues album, one of their best in my opinion.

You should probably do This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody) because it’s one of the prettiest songs ever written. And also the live version (Stop Making Sense film) of Girlfriend is Better because it’s an amazing example of a live song being way better than the album version. I think you’ll like them more.

This song was never off UK radio back in the day...heartily fed up with it...

I love this by Talking Heads!

I liked them from the beginning of their career, but the film Stop Making Sense really made me a fan. I didn’t see the tour that they filmed for that movie, but my songwriting partner did, and he raved about it relentlessly, so I was primed and ready when the film came out. It did not disappoint. I recommend it.

Fun fact & worth noting - Tina's bass never plays the root! She just bounces back & forth between the 3 (C#) and 5 (E). The only exception is the opening downward glissando, where she starts the slide on the octave and descends to the 5! Even when Adrian Belew's distorted guitar comes in for the finale (7:57 in your video), the bass remains on the 3-to-5-to-3 cycle while the guitar adds the root A strong enough to *imply* that the bass is playing it - the ear *wants* to hear the bass there - so it tries to create it even though Tina isn't playing it!

The video for this song made it even more popular

I remember some things from college. This one is preserved in stone.

You want to hear something unlike anything else, you should give a listen to Byrne and Eno's album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. Instead of Byrne trying to preach/sing he just records late night radio preachers and other programming and combines it with some rather trancelike music. My favorite is "The Jezebel Spirit".

The band came out of the New York punk seen with bands like The New York Dolls, and the Ramones. David Byrne is quite the visionary when it comes to unconventional concerts, another more recent concert film of his to check out is American Utopia.

Psychotherapist here. Totally get what you're saying. The "disconcerting news" triggers our sympathetic nervous system. Basically we feel unsafe. And now you observe there is a feeling of safety, of coming home, of not feeling threatened, with this song. Also the bit about unconsciousness is saying that we are only mindful for a small part of each day. We often get that "how did I get here" feeling. For me, just by going into a different room and forgetting why. I like the song but I don't think it's amazing or enlightening. But it does ask that "how did I get here" question in that slightly panicky voice Byrne has. I think a lot of people connected to that.

I agree with some other commenters here .. Remain in Light is in my top albums of all time and I find if I want to play one Talking Heads song it will pretty often be Born Under Punches from that album. Also worth mentioning, Byrne and Eno did a collaboration called My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - The song Jezebel Spirit has a radio preacher doing an exorcism as the 'lyrics' not sure if that was an influence on the choice of vocalization for this track.

I'm surprised he didn't play the video, even though that version leaves out a verse. However, Doug did say that Adrian Belew played on this song, and he's also said that King Crimson are VERY picky about copyright issues. (When MTV debuted in 1981, this was my favorite video, and remains so to this day.)

ahh! Remain in Light! Now you're talking!

A simple thing, but Once in a Lifetime is remarkable in that it fell out of playing around and trying to stretch their skills and music. The Album is consistently rated high, even in genre-biased lists. I hope to hear much more of your composer's view on the great breadth of Talking Heads music, including Byrne-Eno and other collars from the band members. As a Prog-rock junkie, the T-Heads are a great next stage following the mid-70's when Prog was biggest.

Try Life During Wartime & their version of Take Me To The River.

Go react to the Beatles' "Torrow Never Knows", "Within you without you" , Peter Gabriel's "Biko". All written on one chord.

I recall that the whole album is just A.

Been listening to Talking Heads for years and years and what you should treat yourself too is watching/listening to the 'Stop Making Sense' filmed concert movie. Not so much in pieces for your show but get your pipe out and sit back and watch the concert in it's entirety, it deserves that from you. It's one of the top filmed concerts ever done.