Original version

BBC World Service East Asia

The Documentary

Documentaries

Factual

Investigating global developments, issues and affairs.

No Master Brand

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa Schedule

BBC World Service East and Southern Africa

BBC World Service Online

BBC World Service schedule for American satellite radio and the Caribbean

BBC World Service Americas and the Caribbean

BBC World Service

BBC World Service News Internet

BBC World Service Europe and the Middle East

BBC World Service West and Central Africa Schedule

BBC World Service West and Central Africa

BBC World Service Australasia

BBC World Service South Asia

BBC Afghan Radio

The Documentary: Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

Once in a Lifetime

29/12/2021 GMT

Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

The impact of Talking Heads' iconic single Once in a Lifetime

The impact of Talking Heads' iconic single Once in a Lifetime, from their album Remain in Light.

Talking Heads emerged out of the post punk scene of the late 1970s. Once in a Lifetime is the iconic single taken from their album Remain in Light. With its looped synthesizer and Afrobeats inspired by Fela Kuti, it seemed to pre-empt the consumerism and ennui of the 1980s. Writer Ian Gittins interviewed the band's lead singer, David Byrne, and later wrote the book Once in a Lifetime. He says Byrne had in mind people of a certain middle-class existence, who seemingly breeze through life with ease, when he wrote the lyrics. They may get to middle age or reach a crisis point and ask, "How did I get here?" 

For a song that invites us to question our lives, it has a surprisingly emotional core that encourages people to be grateful and make positive changes in their lives where necessary. For Glaswegian Gerry Murphy, that meant becoming more present for his family after serious illness forced him to reconsider the amount of time he devoted to his career. He went on to write the book And You May Find Yourself: A Guided Practice to Never Fearing Death Again.

Ian Peddie was inspired by the song to leave his dead-end existence in Wolverhampton in the mid-1980s to 'find himself in another part of the world', following his dreams. Kelly Waterhouse says the song symbolises gratitude for all the things she takes for granted and sometimes struggles with in her life as a busy working mother.

And singer Angelique Kidjo recorded her own version of Once in a Lifetime in 2018, after coming full circle with the song from her arrival in Paris in 1983 after fleeing the dictatorship in her home country of Benin. She heard the song at a student party and recognised the Afrobeats adopted by David Byrne and Brian Eno that made her feel both joyful and homesick at the same time.

(Photo: Musician David Byrne, founding member and principal songwriter of the American New Wave band Talking Heads. Credit: Jack Mitchell/Getty Images)

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Documentary

Talking Heads: Once in a Lifetime

Genres

Brand

BBC World Service East Asia

About BBC World Service