The Meaning Behind “Once in a Lifetime” by Talking Heads and How It Was Inspired by Preachers on the Radio

Talking Heads can apparently name their price if they ever decide that they want to reunite for new music or shows. While that doesn’t appear to be on the horizon, at least we can take some comfort in the knowledge that the quartet have recently been making appearances together in celebration of their amazing body of work, including their iconic single “Once in a Lifetime.”

What is the song about? And how did it emerge from the unique method of making music the band devised for their album Remain in Light? Let’s find out all we can about this marvelous track.

“Light” on Their Feet

Talking Heads entered the ’80s as the darling of the New York rock scene, with their unpredictable rhythmic innovations and off-kilter songwriting. They were always pushing to avoid repeating themselves. For their 1980 album Remain in Light, they made the decision to adopt a new method of recording.

Instead of coming to the sessions with pre-written demos, or even sitting in a room and jamming songs into shape, the four members of the band (David Byrne, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth, and Chris Frantz) constructed individual song parts that could be edited and/or adjusted in the mixing process. In fact, producer Brian Eno threw out any bits that started to sound too much like anything resembling a rock “hit.”

That’s why it was advantageous for the band to record the Remain in Light album in Jamaica, far from the prying ears of record executives looking for accessible songs. In the case of “Once in a Lifetime,” it was built from Frantz’s kicky drum part, Weymouth’s nosediving bass, and occasional colors from Harrison’s keyboards. Byrne and guest Adrian Belew added only the subtlest of guitar touches to the finished product.

All it needed were some lyrics. Once the basic tracks were finished, Talking Heads returned to New York and Byrne was given some time to work on the words. As Frantz told this author in an interview for the book Playing Back the ’80s: A Decade of Unstoppable Hits, the frontman took a memorable road trip that unlocked the lyrics to “Once in a Lifetime”:

“According to legend, and I believe it’s true, he rented a car and basically drove around the American South and listened to Pentecostal preachers on the radio. Fire and brimstone that you on still hear on certain radio stations in the South, particularly on a Sunday morning. That type of preaching and messaging was the big inspiration for his lyrics on ‘Once In A Lifetime.’”

The Meaning of “Once in a Lifetime”

Byrne might have used preacher cadences as a jumping-off point for the song. But his message is more universal than regional, as he hints at the idea of someone living a life that has developed almost beyond their control. The refrain of You may find yourself supports this notion. Byrne implies that a person’s location, car, and spouse might not be anything they’ve actually chosen.

In the second verse, consciousness and free will bubbles to the surface. This is not my beautiful house, the unnamed protagonist snaps. This is not my beautiful wife. In the final verse, he looks for a way out. Where does that highway go to? he wonders. And then, in a killer of a final line, he realizes that somewhere along the way, his journey has created consequences: My God, what have I done?

In the refrains, water, both to baptize this lost soul and to wash away his sins, floods over the proceedings. But even that isn’t enough to effect any meaningful change in the course of a life. Same as it ever was, Byrne direly intones. That stagnancy might have affected the folks struggling within “Once in a Lifetime.” But Talking Heads made sure with songs like this that they were never settling for the same-old, same-old.

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