BRIAN ENO/DAVID BYRNE

MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS

  1/  America Is Waiting                         (Eno,Byrne)                   3.36
  2/  Mea Culpa                                  (Eno,Byrne)                   3.35
  3/  Regiment                                   (Eno,Byrne,Jones)             3.56
  4/  Help Me Somebody                           (Eno,Byrne)                   4.18
  5/  The Jezebel Spirit                         (Eno,Byrne)                   4.55
  6/  Qu'ran                                     (Eno,Byrne)                   3.48
  7/  Moonlight In Glory                         (Eno,Byrne)                   4.19
  8/  The Carrier                                (Eno,Byrne)                   3.30
  9/  A Secret Life                              (Eno,Byrne)                   2.30
  10/ Come With Us                               (Eno,Byrne)                   2.38
  11/ Mountain of Needles                        (Eno,Byrne)                   2.35

          Recorded at RPM, Blue Rock, Sigma, New York, Eldorado, Los Angeles and
            Different Fur, San Fransisco, August 1979 to October 1980
          Engineer at RMP : Neal Teeman
          Assistant : Hugh Dwyer
          Engineer at Blue Rock : Eddie Korvin
          Assistant : Michael Ewasko
          Engineer at Eldorado : Dave Jerden
          Assistant : Georg Sloan
          Engineer at Different Fur : Stacy Baird
          Assistants : Don Mack and Howard Johnston
          Engineer at Sigma : John Potoker
          Produced by Brain Eno and David Byrne
          Mastered by Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound
John Cooksey (4,6) : drums; Chris Frantz (3) : drums; Dennis Keeley (2) : bodhran; Mingo Lewis (5,8) : bata, sticks; Prarie Prince (5,8) : can, bass drum; Jose Rossy (7) : congas, agong-gong; Steve Scales (4) : congas, metals; David van Tieghem (1,3) : drums, percussion; Busta Jones (3) : bass; Bill Laswell (1) : bass; Tim Wright (1) : click bass; VOICES - (1) Unidentified indignant radio show host, San Fransisco, April 1980; (2) Inflamed caller and smooth politician replying, both unidentified. Radio call- in show, New York, July 1979; (3) Dunya Yusin, Lebanese mountain singer; (4) Reverend Paul Morton, broadcast sermon, New Orleans, June 1980; (5) Unidentified exorcist, New York, September 1980; (6) Algerian Muslims chanting Qu’ran; (7) The Moving Star Hall Singers, Sea Islands, Georgia; (8) Dunya Yusin; (9) Samira Tewfik, Egyptian popular singer; (10) Unidentified radio evangelist, San Fransisco, April 1980.

Track 1 arranged by Eno, Byrne, Laswell, Wright and van Tieghem
Track 3 arranged by Eno, Byrne and Jones

          1981  -  Editions EG (UK),  EGLP 48  (Vinyl)
          1981  -  Polydor (France) ,  EG 176 2302100-1  (Vinyl)
          1981  -  Sire Records (USA),  SRK  6093  (Vinyl)
          1989  -  Editions EG (UK),  EGCD 48 (CD)

REVIEWS :

Does This Global Village Have Two-Way Traffic?

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts - David Byrne and Brian Eno

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 exorcists 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 ("Quran"), they'd have invented some. Or if Lebanese singer Dunya Yusin 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?

A review by Jon Pareles, from Rolling Stone, 8/2/81 (courtesy of the typing skills of Steve, posted on the Hyperreal website)