Jon Pareles, Rolling Stone, 8/2/81

Does This Global Village have Two-way traffic ?

Marshall McLuhan would have loved the concept: sample
the global media blitz, edit, add polyethnic rhythm
tracks, name the results after a novel by Nigerian
author Amos Tutuola and recycle them into the blitz.
Talking Heads' David Byrne and audio eclectic Brian
Eno have made vocal tracks from snippets of radio
broadcasts and Middle Eastern music (the way Robert
Fripp turned his neighbors' fighting into "NY3"),
then set them in and against percussive, repetitive
mind-funk designed more for listening than dancing.
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is an undeniably
awesome feat of tape editing and rhythmic ingenuity.
But, like most "found" art, it raises stubborn
questions about context, manipulation and cultural
imperialism.

What's the difference between using evangelists'
rhetoric as lyrics (for "Once in a Lifetime" on
Talking Heads' Remain in Light) and using the voice
of New Orleans preacher Reverend Paul Morton in
"Help Me Somebody"? Plenty. "Once in a Lifetime"
is obviously Byrne's creation, complete on its own
terms. "Help Me Somebody" is a falsified ritual,
with its development truncated and its rhythm
deformed. A pseudodocument, it teases us by being
"real." Even more annoying is "The Jezebel Spirit,"
which utilizes a recorded exorcism. Byrne and Eno
latch onto the rhythm of the exorcist's dry laugh
for the backup, but the fade out before we find
out what happened to the possessed woman--which
would have been a lot more interesting than the
chattery band track. Blasphemy is beside the point:
Byrne and Eno have trivialized the event.

Still, electronic music does have an honorable
tradition of messing with speech sounds. "America
Is Waiting," "Mea Culpa" and "Come with Us"
--rhythmic nuggets from an editorial, a talk show
and yet another evangelist--are smart, funny-creepy
transformations, justifiable because they don't
promise a narrative payoff. But messing with
music is a more dubious proposition. You'd think
if Algerian Muslims had wanted accompaniment while
they chanted the Koran ("Qu'ran"), they'd have
craved a backbeat, she could have found one
(Byrne and Eno's "Regiment" sounds like something
from the Midnight Express soundtrack).

When they don't succumb to exoticism or cuteness
--luckily, that's most of the album--the Byrne-Eno
backups are fascinating, complementing the sources
without absorbing them. David Byrne and Brian Eno
pile up riffs and cross-rhythms to build drama,
yet they keep the cuts uncluttered and mysterious.
As sheer sound (ignoring content and context) many
of the selections are heady and memorable. My Life
in the Bush of Ghosts does make me wonder, though,
how Byrne and Eno would react if Dunya Yusin spliced
together a little of "Animals" and a bit of "The
Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch," then added her idea of a
suitable backup. Does this global village have
two-way traffic?



contributed by Steve Czapla