Life During Wartime
"Life During Wartime" is a song by Talking Heads that was released as the first single for their 1979 Fear of Music. The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Origins
"Life During Wartime" accounts for one of the eleven tracks written by David Byrne on Fear of Music. He said about the conception of the song "I wrote this in my loft on Seventh and Avenue A. I was thinking about Baader-Meinhof. Patty Hearst. Tompkins Square. This a song about living in Alphabet City." [1]
Notoriety and Impact
On November 3, 1979, the song entered the US Billboard Pop Singles Chart, ranked 80th and stayed there five weeks. It was acclaimed by the critics, and the latter made lots of comparisons between "Life During Wartime" and some of Prince's works.
The song gained a huge notoriety thanks to its performance in the concert movie Stop Making Sense, where David Byrne sing whilst jogging and performed one of the most well-known dance of the movie, which resulted in one of the signature moment of the band.
Band Reflections
The bands has always expressed a deep love for the song as one of their favorites. Tina Weymouth has said "that was always a favorite of ours because of the line 'this ain’t no Mudd Club, no CBGB’s, I ain't got time for that now."[2]
The song is notable for its performances by all 4 band members in other projects besides Talking Heads, including David Byrne's solo tours, Jerry Harrison's Casual Gods performances, and Tom Tom Club live shows.[2]
Sources
- ↑ Bowman, David (2001). This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. p. 152.
- ↑ Jump up to: 2.0 2.1 Noise11.com. “Talking Heads Tina Weymouth – the Noise11 Interview Archive Series (2002).” Noise11.com, 5 Aug. 2024, www.noise11.com/news/talking-heads-tina-weymouth-the-noise11-interview-archive-series-2002-20240806. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.