Letting the days go by

One of my all-time favourite songs in any genre from any era is Talking Heads' neurotic classic Once In A Lifetime. Just over four minutes of existential confusion with a jerky, New Wave Afrobeat, Once In A Lifetime still sounds like nothing else on Earth, even after three decades. I can vividly remember this song blaring out from radios back in 1981  -  my own personal Year Zero for music
( as previously mentioned here )  -   and being captivated by its strange, hypnotic groove and David Byrne's disconnected, paranoid vocals. I went out and bought the single ( probably from Stroud's Trading Post record shop ), played it to death, and thought to myself that I should buy its parent album, Remain In Light...

 

Well, thirty-two years later I've finally got round to buying that album. Hardly an impulse purchase!  And it's as great a record as I've always heard it was. Collaborating with producer Brian Eno and a host of extra musicians, the core Talking Heads unit build up layers of beats and grooves, mixing NYC New Wave with funk and with African polyrhythms, before David Byrne adds his nervy monologues to the mix. It's fantastic stuff and was clearly way ahead of any of the band's contemporaries, with the possible exception of The Clash. I really should have allowed this masterpiece into my life years ago...

Even James, my Dubstep-loving son, likes Once In A Lifetime! He says he knows it from the closing credits of Bill Bailey's Tinselworm DVD. He's got good taste, that Bill Bailey. 

I thought I'd dig out my original single copy of the song but, after trawling through my 250+ singles, I realised I don't actually own it any more. I know I sold / traded a lot of vinyl back in the '90s ( mostly to fund my Silver Age comic-buying ) but I'd be surprised to think I sold such an old favourite. In the words of David Byrne "My God, what have I done...?"

I'll leave you with a slightly unusual version of the song by that old Punk, Kermit...
Same as it ever was? Not really...