"Once In A Lifetime" by Talking Heads

Birthday wishes go out today to David Byrne, the Scottish-born pioneering New Wave musician whose band Talking Heads produced a string of indelible hits in the early 1980s. Once in a Lifetime appeared on their 1980 album Remain in Light, and was co-written by Byrne and Brian Eno; it's a song whose refrain comes back to me again and again as I'm blogging, and not just because it's a mainstay of my iPod playlist - shown here in a clip from their 1984 concert film - Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme - which was essential watching for the culturally elite clique to which I aspired in high school.

There's nothing like the study of history, combined with a survey of current affairs, to make the words 'same as it ever was' echo in the brain as they do in this song. In fact, while once again I found myself faced with the dilemna of which Talking Heads song to feature (since they're all so amazing) this particular lyric became the deciding factor, as it fits both the ethos and the agenda of the Pop Culture Institute so perfectly.
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