Once In A Lifetime

[Undertoad]

(I wrote this for Reddit but figured everyone could see it)

In my opinion, Talking Heads' "Once In a Lifetime" is one of the best singles ever created.

When you listen carefully to it you realize that there are all kinds of sounds happening at once, a lot of the drum parts are way ahead of the beat, and Byrne is talking not singing. Yet somehow it comes together. The two-note bass part somehow holds it together, despite avoiding the root note. That is amazing. That is genius.

And then they do that same kind of cut-up on the lyrics, as he's singing "Remove the water, carry the water" so words are treated like the instrumentation is treated: cut up, moved around, altered to create something bigger. Not entirely making sense, but creating patterns of meaning where you are encouraged to bring your own understanding to the song.

And it's all Brian Eno singing on the chorus, which is the first time you realize the song has any key at all, 42 seconds in and it's just 8 bars long. And that's the first time you sense those bass notes were in the key all along.

Listen to it again and you may ask yourself, what is it about water in the song? Is it a metaphor? Does it mean passage of time, does it mean the heaviness of life, why is it flowing underground? This is the stuff of the best poetry, metaphor that gives you a sense of things, but doesn't spell it out for you.

GENIUS GENIUS GENIUS!

[orthodoc]

I missed even encountering Talking Heads in the '80s while I was an exhausted medical student/intern/resident buried deep in the bowels of the Toronto hospital system. I ran across 'Burning Down the House' just recently, and now this single - and I agree! Pure genius.

[ZenGum]

All that may be true, but his dancing is almost as bad as that of Peter Garret from Midnight Oil.

Seriously, true brilliance often comes when someone has mastered the rules so well they can judge when to break them. A bass riff that doesn't use the root note? WTF? Oh, okay, Picasso, you're going to paint it from every side at once, are you? Didn't you learn "perspective" in art school?

[zippyt]

Great Song , DB is a Different kind of Cat , most artist are , im cool with that

[Flint]

Awesome, Undertony.

I feel like this is like the thing where I said 'Subdivisions' was the 'greatest rock drumming ever' and deconstructed why, and you went back and listened to it.

Because I went back and listened to 'Once in a Lifetime' --a song I am by no means unfamiliar with, I've played plenty of Talking Heads at gigs, just not this one-- and I noticed something. The bass notes are almost always preceeded by a single tom note.

It's like the toms are being used for no other purpose than as part of the bass line.

And this is what you'e supposed to do with instruments. Use them on purpose.



Like, watch this video:

Gavin Harrison - When To Play Fills

"Ropert Fripp said to me ... I know where the 1 is ... you don't have to make it so obvious!"

[Sundae]

I don't get your review of the song at all UT.
Through sheer musical ignorance.

I know I like the song, and I've always loved the lyrics. Water flowing underground and under the rocks and stones has always seemed to me a message of truth and vitality. Undercutting the confusion of someone who is unsure of whether what they have achieved is really an achievement, or someone who has not achieved the mundane that they aspired to.

I didn't hear the cut up of the lyrics. I shall listen again.

[Griff]

Thread noted as smart.

[Undertoad]

It's all about the rule-breaking here!

The drum and bass parts are mostly a loop. Most of the rhythm section is a 2-bar loop. There is no way in hell, ever, that a 2-bar loop can be interesting for four minutes. But the Gavin Harrison bit points out, yeah, it gets interesting when things are not where you expect them. Listen to Once In A Lifetime for the cymbal crashes and you find them at exactly the wrong place! The single out-of-place tom beat is such a rule-break and to have it be consistently "wrong" is just weird. It throws you just slightly out of kilter and that's the entire point of the song. Where does that highway go to?

[Trilby]

I think his outfit/glasses are genius! He's twenty-five years early!

and then I must throw my lot in with Sundae and admit to sheer musical ignorance. I just know what I like. That's probably pretty pedestrain of me, but I do like the Talking Heads. Always have. I also liked the Flying Lizards of the '80's.

[infinite monkey]

I've always loved this song too, but I really like when musicians point out musical thingys to me. My ex did that, and learned a bit about arrangements and about listening for this or that.

But I'm mostly really ignorant. I'm alone in the office listening to this song in my earphones and it was really neat: no other sounds or distractions. I'd never heard it quite that way before.

[Undertoad]

And BTW Flint I listened to all of Aja several times because you were pointing stuff out...

[infinite monkey]

Yes! Aja Aja Aja.

I was so envious of a girl I knew named Aja. When she first told me her name I asked "like the continent or like the Steely Dan song?"

But. Black Cow. Wow, Black Cow.

[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by ZenGum

All that may be true, but his dancing is almost as bad as that of Peter Garret from Midnight Oil.

Seriously, true brilliance often comes when someone has mastered the rules so well they can judge when to break them. A bass riff that doesn't use the root note? WTF? Oh, okay, Picasso, you're going to paint it from every side at once, are you? Didn't you learn "perspective" in art school?

A lot of people don't realize that Picasso was firmly rooted in academic training before he went off on his own.

Somewhere in my files, I have a few academic Picassos that I photographed for some museum. this is from the web.

[infinite monkey]

I have this print. I think it's beautiful. From his 'blue' period.

[footfootfoot]

The other one must be from his Burnt Sienna period