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!