Maps of Music

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981)

Where the lyrics of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts take you, and where it was really made.

Eno and Byrne's first album together took its title from a Nigerian novel that neither of them had read.

Key places

Eldorado Recording Studios, Burbank (1981)

Recording site The Enterprise (Burbank) — Eldorado Recording Studios in Burbank is listed among the recording locations of the album. The pin marks the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Different Fur Studios, San Francisco (1981)

Recording site Soapbox West — Different Fur Studios in San Francisco is listed among the recording locations of the album. The pin marks the city centre, not the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Sigma Sound Studios, New York City (1981)

Recording site Sigma Sound Studios — Sigma Sound Studios in New York City is listed among the recording locations of the album. The pin uses the building coordinates of the linked studio record. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• My Life in the Bush of Ghosts: first collaborative studio album by Brian Eno and David Byrne
• Released 25 February 1981
• Byrne's first album without his band Talking Heads
• Integrates sampled vocals and found sounds, African and Middle Eastern rhythms, and electronic music techniques
• Title derived from Amos Tutuola's 1954 novel My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
• Byrne's 2006 liner notes say neither he nor Eno had read the novel
• According to Byrne, the title 'seemed to encapsulate what this record was about'

Background

• Eno and Byrne first worked together on Talking Heads' 1978 album More Songs About Buildings and Food
• Mostly recorded during a break between Talking Heads' Fear of Music (1979) and Remain in Light (1980), both produced by Eno
• Recorded before the Remain in Light work, but release was delayed several months by problems clearing samples
• Eno had recently recorded Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics with Jon Hassell
• Hassell intended to collaborate but could not afford to fly to California for the sessions

Recording

• Most vocals are sampled rather than sung, drawn from sources such as Arabic singers, radio disc jockeys and an exorcist
• Eno described the record as a 'vision of a psychedelic Africa'
• Eno cited Holger Czukay's dictaphone and shortwave experiments as earlier examples of sampling
• Release was delayed while legal rights were sought for the many samples
• Two tracks sample Lebanese singer Dunya Younes, who was unaware of this until 2017

Cover

• Original package design by Peter Saville
• Cover image made by pasting cutout humanoid shapes onto a monitor and filming the resulting video feedback

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · fr.wikipedia.org · pt.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born May 14, 1952 in Dumbarton, Scotland; family moved to Canada and then Arbutus, Maryland, USA.
• Co-founded Talking Heads in New York City in 1975 as founding member, principal songwriter, lead vocalist and guitarist.

Members

• Byrne was the youngest member of Talking Heads; Jerry Harrison joined in 1977.

Career

• Talking Heads released eight studio albums, seven of them certified gold or platinum, and disbanded in 1991; inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
• Solo career began in 1981 with My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (with Brian Eno), with solo work accelerating after Talking Heads' hiatus in 1988.
• Worked across film, theatre, opera, fiction and non-fiction; won an Academy Award, a Grammy, a Special Tony Award and a Golden Globe.
• Collaborators include Brian Eno, Fatboy Slim, Ryuichi Sakamoto, St. Vincent and X-Press 2.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Music journalist Simon Reynolds says many initial reviews dismissed the album as 'an eggheads-in-the-soundlab experimental exercise'
• Rolling Stone's Jon Pareles rated it four out of five stars and called it 'an undeniably awesome feat of tape editing and rhythmic ingenuity'
• Pareles said it generally avoids exoticism or cuteness by complementing the speech sources without absorbing them
• Village Voice critic Robert Christgau gave it a C+ and found the recordings as cluttered and undistinguished as the fusion and prog-rock they evoke
• Christgau said it lacked the songful sweep of Remain in Light or the austere weirdness of Jon Hassell

Reappraisal

• AllMusic critic John Bush described it as a pioneering work for countless styles connected to electronics, ambience and Third World music
• The Independent's Andy Gill found it groundbreaking in recontextualising sampling in a less overtly avant-garde context
• The Observer's Jason Cowley wrote its immediate influence was felt in the work of young artists from David Sylvian to Kate Bush
• Mojo's Andy Fyfe characterized it in 2006 as a disturbingly funky exotic stew
• Pitchfork's Chris Dahlen felt its sampled vocals had lost some revolutionary impact, but the album mostly lives up to its reputation as a near-masterpiece

Records

• Pitchfork named it the 21st-best album of the 1980s, while Slant Magazine named it the 83rd
• Spanish Wikipedia notes it was not a commercial success for Eno and Byrne, though reviews were generally positive
• Reissued in 2006 in the UK and US, remastered with seven extra tracks

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Hassell felt 'outraged' when he heard the tapes, seeing them as an appropriation of his music
• Evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman's estate refused a sample of an exorcism intended for 'The Jezebel Spirit', objecting to the context it was to be used in
• The Islamic Council of Great Britain objected to the track 'Qu'ran', and Byrne and Eno removed it from later pressings
• Pink Floyd keyboardist Richard Wright said the album knocked him sideways when he first heard it
• Hank Shocklee of the Bomb Squad cited the album as an influence on their sample-driven production work for Public Enemy
• Bruce Conner, a collage filmmaker, created music videos for 'America Is Waiting' and 'Mea Culpa'

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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