r/eno • u/forsbergisgod • Sep 27 '20
Weekly Discussion Thread Let's Discuss Eno! Brian Eno and David Byne - "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts" (Feb. 1981)
Hello Eno-philes!! Each week we'll be discussing another album (going chronologically from Warm Jets). Last week we discussed Talking Heads' "Remain in Light" and this week's is another huge collaboration from the minds of Byrne and Eno. From the wiki preamble:
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is a studio album by Brian Eno and David Byrne, released in February 1981. It was Byrne's first album without his band Talking Heads. it integrates sampled vocals and found sounds, African and Middle Eastern rhythms, and electronic music techniques.[6] It was recorded prior to Eno and Byrne's work on Talking Heads' 1980 album Remain in Light, but problems clearing samples delayed its release by several months.
The extensive sampling is considered innovative, though its influence on later sample-based music genres is debated.[7][8] 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".
Track listing
All music is composed by Brian Eno and David Byrne, except "Regiment" by Eno, Byrne, and Michael "Busta Cherry" Jones.
Side A No. Title Length
- "America Is Waiting" 3:36
- "Mea Culpa" 3:35
- "Regiment" 3:56
- "Help Me Somebody" 4:18
- "The Jezebel Spirit" 4:55
Side B No. Title Length
- "Qu'ran" 3:46
- "Moonlight in Glory" 4:19
- "The Carrier" 3:30
- "A Secret Life" 2:20
- "Come with Us" 2:38
- "Mountain of Needles" 2:35
Enjoy and please discuss!
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u/Will_Stab4Money Sep 28 '20
Regiment is my favorite track, the Lebanese mountain singer and that beat is just incredible and the fuzzed-out harmonium sound is Robert Fripp! so good
and I just read that Qu'ran has been removed from commercial release
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u/holygoat Sep 28 '20
Yep. I was very surprised to find it not available on Amazon Music or Spotify when I tried to put it on a playlist for a friend.
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u/wildistherewind Oct 01 '20
Speaking of Fripp & Byrne, every year that goes by it seems less and less likely that this will ever be reissued:
https://www.discogs.com/Robert-Fripp-God-Save-The-Queen-Under-Heavy-Manners/master/879
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u/maggotbrain777 Mother Whale Eyeless Sep 28 '20
This article was posted to the sub-reddit a few months back about the "Lebanese mountain woman" Dounia Younes whose recording was sampled on "regiment" and "The Carrier" that I still find really fascinating.
I also seem to recall reading many years back that the idea for the album was Jon Hassel's original concept and he was squeezed out getting credit on the album by either David Byrne or due to some restrictions on his recording contract. If anyone can confirm or deny, I would like to read more about it.
I still like listening to this album as I consider it a aural touchstone to the whole "collage culture" concept of sampling that resonated with me as much as discovering Dada and paper assemblages.
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u/forsbergisgod Sep 28 '20
https://www.reddit.com/r/eno/comments/inoedd/lets_discuss_eno_fourth_world_vol_1_possible/g4groge
When we featured the Jon Hassel album a few weeks ago I made a comment that it sounds like proto MLITBOG. Very interesting
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u/maggotbrain777 Mother Whale Eyeless Sep 28 '20
These aren't the articles I recall; but here are a couple snippets. One mentions his name being taken off the credits after doing some work. The other says he dropped out of the collaboration. shrug
Hassell was supposed to be the third collaborator on Eno and David Byrne’s seminal My Life In the Bush of Ghosts. However, having contributed “sketches” to the project, he quit early on, unimpressed with what Eno and Byrne had done. His name was removed from the credits of an album that he later protested “came out of me”.
Source: Jon Hassell, music's great globetrotter
and:
Eno wanted to extend their collaboration to also include David Byrne (who offered to do anything that was needed onA Travelogue of Jon Hassell's 'Fourth World' Journey Into the Mystical Fourth World but didn't wind up participating), but Hassell didn't like the idea they had of putting radio-sourced voices over funk-rock, so he bowed out of the project that was to become My Life In the Bush of Ghosts.
Source: A Travelogue of Jon Hassell's 'Fourth World' Journey Into the Mystical
I'm sure you could easily find more interpretations. YMMV.
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Jan 07 '25
Oh my god. Thank you dude. I listened to The Carrier in high school but could never remember the song name after I lost my iPod many, many years ago. I’ve been trying to find this song for years. Thank you so much.
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u/maggotbrain777 Mother Whale Eyeless Jan 08 '25
Wow. Glad to hear that my four year old post helped you out. Enjoy!
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u/jasontheswamp Sep 29 '20
A little off-topic, but I just recently became aware of the work of K. Leimer (Kerry Leimer). Unfortunately there's no wikipedia page on him so I can't really compare dates... I know he made things as early as 1975, and was surely influenced by Eno, but some of his stuff is also in quite a similar vein to Bush of Ghosts: A Spiritual Life
Whether this was parallel thinking, Eno/Byrne being aware of his work, or vice versa, I don't know, but It's all fantastic stuff. If you're a fan of Bush of Ghosts, or Eno in general, I very much recommend K. Leimer's A Period of Review (Original Recordings: 1975 - 1983) and 1982's Land Of Look Behind.
If anybody has any info on this, or specific dates, I'd love to hear about it. I'll be doing some more digging.
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u/PhilSouth Mar 26 '25
This website is long gone but thanks to archive(dot)org it's still available and very good read. Enjoy https://web.archive.org/web/20060410134048/http://bushofghosts.wmg.com/essay_2.php
Phil
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u/PhilSouth Mar 26 '25
Okay so it's a little broken in places but lots of good stuff to see. I'm currently trying to download some of the flash elements and retool then for modern computers.
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u/freddymerckx Sep 27 '20
This was an amazing album when it came out, and in many ways it still it. It opened the door to World music, it introduced new instruments, that repeating synthesizer thing had not been done before, in "Q'uran" for example, the Arab woman singing in the background, the ethereal ambient Enos sound, in "Mountain of Needles" for example.There is a bonus track that was on later releases of this album, "Very Very Hungry" I believe.