A Sense of Doubt blog post #1728 - MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS
There's more that I want to do with this post so I may edit it or just repost it later with more content. I need it for class tomorrow, so it goes up now.
Oh... HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY. Maybe better recognition of that important fact later. But quick thanks to our nation's armed forces past and present.
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS ALBUM YOU TUBE PLAYLIST
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is the first album by Brian Eno and David Byrne, released in February 1981. It integrates sampled vocals and found sounds, African and Middle Eastern rhythms, and electronic music techniques.[4] It was recorded prior to Eno and Byrne's work on Talking Heads' album Remain in Light (1980), but sample clearance delayed its release by several months.
The extensive sampling is considered innovative, though its influence on later sample-based music genres is debated.[6][7] Pitchfork listed it as the 21st best album of the 1980s, while Slant Magazine listed the album at No. 83 on its list of the "Best Albums of 1980s".[8
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS ALBUM WIKI LINK
Eno described My Life as a "vision of a psychedelic Africa".[9] Rather than conventional pop or rock singing, most of the vocals are sampled from other sources, such as commercial recordings of Arabic singers, radio disc jockeys, and an exorcist. Musicians had previously used similar sampling techniques, but according to Guardian writer Dave Simpson, it had never before been used "to such cataclysmic effect".[10] In 2001, Eno cited Holger Czukay's experiments with dictaphones and short-wave radios as earlier examples of sampling. He felt that the "difference was, I suppose, that I decided to make [sampling] the lead vocal".[11] The release was delayed while legal rights were sought for the large number of samples used in the album.[12]
The album title is derived from Amos Tutuola's 1954 novel My Life in the Bush of Ghosts. According to Byrne’s 2006 sleeve notes, neither he nor Eno had read the novel, but felt the title "seemed to encapsulate what this record was about".[12]
MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS NOVEL WIKI LINK
https://punkscrawledartist.com/2019/05/06/my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-brian-eno-david-byrne-1981/
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts – Brian Eno / David Byrne (1981)
“My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a 1981 album by Brian Eno and David Byrne, titled after Amos Tutuola‘s 1954 novel of the same name. … The ‘found objects‘ credited to Eno and Byrne were common objects used mostly as percussion. In the notes for the 2006 expanded edition of the album, Byrne writes that they would often use a normal drum kit, but with a cardboard box replacing the bass drum, or a frying pan replacing the snare drum; this would blend the familiar drum sound with unusual percussive noises. Rather than conventional pop or rock singing, most of the vocals are sampled from other sources, such as commercial recordings of Arabic singers, radio disc jockeys, and an exorcist. Musicians had previously used similar sampling techniques, but critic Dave Simpson declares it had never before been used ‘to such cataclysmic effect’ as on My Life. …”
Wikipedia
reDiscover Brian Eno And David Byrne’s ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ (Audio)
iTunes
YouTube – America is waiting (Live), Home, Strange Overtones, Very Very Hungry (bootleg), Les Hombres Ne Le Sauront Jamals, The Jezebel Spirit (bootleg)
YouTube: My life in the bush of ghosts (Full album) 11 videos
Unspun Heroes – Brian Eno and David Byrne, ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’
John Doran restarts our Unspun Heroes series with a look at Eno and Byrne’s seminal album, ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’ – a huge influence on artists like Gold Panda, Rainbow Arabia, Burial and Salem.
‘My Life In The Book Of Ghosts’ was originally a novel by Nigerian author Amos Tutuola, which told the story of a young boy abandoned in an impenetrable stretch of jungle inhabited by the undead. The story is a metaphor of sorts for the cataclysmic effects of slavery and colonialism and was chosen by David Byrne and Brian Eno in full knowledge of the accusations of cultural appropriation and theft that the pair would face in the release of this landmark album, as well as a signifier of their interest in African music.
Brian Eno, the ambient innovator and former Roxy Music electronics expert, had already worked on several Talking Heads albums as producer and his closeness to frontman David Byrne and ubiquity in the group was causing resentment amongst the other members. The pair decided to take the experiments with world rhythms that they had conducted on tracks such as ‘I, Zimbra’ to the next level by recording an album together.
They took a love for funk, Afrobeat and post punk and combined it with emergent sampling technology to create a fully realised sound that was at once very tribal and very futuristic. Both of the singers said they were bored with their own voices and wanted to draw from the babel of world communication using ranting televangelists, Arab tribesmen and hectoring priests, mainly taped off the radio instead of traditional vocals. Eno described these voices snatched from the ether as being like, “transmissions from a desperate planet”.Avant garde boffins such as Stockhausen and John Cage had been messing about with taped voices since the 1950s and Holger Czukay of Can mashed up world music and samples on his 1979 album ‘Movies’ but the impact of the much more popular ‘…Ghosts’ was immense. The idea of taking a prerecorded voice and incorporating it into a new track would loom large in house, techno, hip hop, industrial and drum and bass.
Elsewhere the idea of combining ‘primitive’ rhythms with cutting edge dance beats still informs the ethno techno and hypnogogic pop of Rainbow Arabia and Gold Panda. Not to mention the influence it has had on newer ghosts in the urban jungle such as Burial and Salem. Click here to read an essay by David Byrne on the influences that shaped the album.
Prefiguring all the troubles that would beset hip hop production for the next 30 years, they were denied permission to use some of the sampled voices and had to replace those tracks. And one song called ‘Qu’ran’ nearly earned the pair a fatwah because it featured tribesmen singing passages from the Islamic holy book; it was dropped and has still not been reinstated.
The main thing about ‘My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts’, however, is that it is a great dance album full of surprising, funky and unusual rhythms and feels like a deliriously drunk cab ride across a foreign city; a night with the windows rolled down, soaking up a thousand radios, a thousand rhythms and a thousand voices all joining in one communion.
Read more at https://www.nme.com/blogs/nme-blogs/unspun-heroes-brian-eno-and-david-byrne-my-life-in-the-bush-of-ghosts-782783#kuiLF1p8tLhTR7uW.99
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1911.11 - 10:10
- Days ago = 1591 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I plan to continue Hey Mom posts at least twice per week but will continue to post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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