Once In A Lifetime

Just to remind you, Our Throwback Thursday features a favorite song, something about the song and a cover version of the song. Everybody is talking about Once In A Lifetime, the lead single from Talking Heads' fourth studio album, Remain in Light. While the video for the song was in heavy rotation when MTV first launched, very few radio stations played the song. MTV didn't have much clout back then, and the song never charted in the US.



Some critics have suggested that Once In A Lifetime is a kind of prescient jab at the excesses of the 1980s. David Byrne says they're wrong; that the lyric is pretty much about what it says it's about. In an interview with NPR, Byrne said: "We're largely unconscious. You know, we operate half awake or on autopilot and end up, whatever, with a house and family and job and everything else, and we haven't really stopped to ask ourselves, 'How did I get here?'"



David Byrne shed some light on his lyrical inspiration when he told Time Out: "Most of the words in 'Once in a Lifetime' come from evangelists I recorded off the radio while taking notes and picking up phrases I thought were interesting directions. Maybe I'm fascinated with the middle class because it seems so different from my life, so distant from what I do. I can't imagine living like that."



The 68 year old performer was in top form this past Saturday night when he performed his 40 year old tune on SNL. Same as it ever way, indeed.



Demand Euphoria!