The one musician David Byrne says kept getting better: “This is amazing”
In 1970s New York, when a host of burgeoning punk and new wave bands were banding together under the shelter of CBGB, David Byrne decided to look in more unusual places for his sonic inspiration, as a means of separating Talking Heads from everybody else.
Most of the popular rock sounds of that time were building off the back of classic influences, namely The Beatles from the decade before. At the beginning, Talking Heads were no different, as they sought to find their feet as a burgeoning band in this changing era, armed with the instruments that their classic rock forefathers had before them.
But in 1980, a welcome change swept the music industry, spearheaded by Talking Heads and Byrne’s influential renaissance. Their seminal record Remain In Light beckoned, under the stewardship of producer Brian Eno, who, with his vast musical knowledge, opened the band’s minds to African music. Thereafter, a change sparked in the band and particularly Byrne, who quickly began to revere the work of Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti.
Born in Nigeria in 1938, Kuti packed up his guitar case in the mid 1950s and headed for London – arriving in the vibrant capital of England, Kuti dove headfirst into the jazz scene before entering the Trinity College of Music, where he would combine all of his artistic sensibilities and redefine an era of afrobeat music.
Eno told Byrne and the band of this journey, and what followed was a record and more specifically, one track, that would redefine the band’s entire career. ‘Once In A Lifetime’ was a collision of ideas, from intricate new wave melodies to kaleidoscopic African rhythms, thrusting Talking Heads into a state of musical immortality.
Bathed in textures, their new sound was endlessly intriguing and evoked a sense of curiosity that was often squashed with surprising simplicity. Eno and Kuti showed Byrne how sonic complexity could be achieved with rudimentary arrangements.
Wild chord changes could be swapped for just a handful, which, when paired with delicately overlapping rhythms and glittering synthesisers, give the illusion of textural madness, all while being innately understandable and captivating.
“The more I hear his recordings, the more I appreciate them,” Byrne explained of Kuti. “There’s more depth there. At first, it was just something new. I thought, ‘Oh, this is amazing.’ This is kind of an Afrobeat funk.”
He added, “This is a really cool thing. Now, when I listen to it, I realise this is really tightly arranged. Every part is kind of meticulously worked out. Probably when I first heard it, I thought, ‘Oh, it sounds like a jam, but it’s not, it’s all very, very worked out.’”
Eno’s introduction of Kuti to Byrne and his bandmates during that album recording session not only changed the direction of Talking Heads’ music but popular music altogether. A bright new era of rhythm led pop and rock music, followed in the wake of Talking Heads’ innovation on Remain In Light, and ultimately, the world has Kuti to thank.
