Production
Brian Eno introduced Fela Kuti's multiple rhythm music style to the band, and when producing used a different rhythm count to the band which results in a rhythm imbalance throughout the song. Jerry Harrison developed the synthesizer line and added the Hammond organ climax, taken from Velvet Underground's "What Goes On". Eno sang nonsense verb sound blocks, which Byrne then converted into lyrics in the call and response style of American radio evangelists on the theme of moving through life with little awareness or questioning.
As the song essentially consisted of a repetitive two-bar groove (with the pattern reversed between the verse and the chorus) Brian Eno decided to approach the production by allowing each of the band members to record overdubs of different rhythmic and musical ideas independently of each other, with each member being kept blind to what the others had recorded on tape. In the final mix Eno faded between these different independent ideas at different parts of the song. This is very much in keeping with his production technique of Oblique Strategies.
Read more about this topic: Once In A Lifetime (Talking Heads Song)
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