My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Rating

Album: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
#	Song Title		Time
1)	America Is Waiting	More Info...
2)	Mea Culpa	More Info...
3)	Regiment	More Info...
4)	Help Me Somebody	More Info...
5)	The Jezebel Spirit	More Info...
6)	Very, Very Hungry	More Info...
7)	Moonlight in Glory	More Info...
8)	The Carrier	More Info...
9)	A Secret Life	More Info...
10)	Come with Us	More Info...
11)	Mountain of Needles	More Info...
12)	Pitch to Voltage	More Info...
13)	Two Against Three	More Info...
14)	Vocal Outtakes	More Info...
15)	New Feet	More Info...
16)	Defiant	More Info...
17)	Number 8 Mix	More Info...
18)	Solo Guitar with Tin Foil	More Info...

Album: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
#	Song Title		Time
1)	America Is Waiting	More Info...
2)	Mea Culpa	More Info...
3)	Regiment	More Info...
4)	Help Me Somebody	More Info...
5)	The Jezebel Spirit	More Info...
6)	Very, Very Hungry	More Info...
7)	Moonlight in Glory	More Info...
8)	The Carrier	More Info...
9)	A Secret Life	More Info...
10)	Come with Us	More Info...
11)	Mountain of Needles	More Info...
12)	Pitch to Voltage	More Info...
13)	Two Against Three	More Info...
14)	Vocal Outtakes	More Info...
15)	New Feet	More Info...
16)	Defiant	More Info...
17)	Number 8 Mix	More Info...
18)	Solo Guitar with Tin Foil	More Info...

Performer Notes

Personnel: Brian Eno (guitar, synthesizer, drums, percussion); David Byrne (guitar, synthesizer, bass guitar, drums, percussion); Brian Eno (bass guitar); Tim Wright, Bill Laswell , Busta Cherry Jones (bass instrument); Prairie Prince (drums, bass drum, percussion); Jose Rossy (congas, agogo); Steve Scales (congas, percussion); David Van Tieghem (drums, percussion); Chris Frantz, John Cooksey (drums); Mingo Lewis (bata); Dennis Keeley (bodhran).
Recording information: 1979-1980.
Author: Amos Tutuola.
Photographer: Hugh Brown .
Unknown Contributor Role: Prairie Prince.
Arrangers: David Byrne; Brian Eno; Chris Frantz; David Van Tieghem; Busta Cherry Jones; Bill Laswell ; Tim Wright; Robert Fripp.
Eno was a key figure in the development of Talking Heads, producing some of their most innovative albums. This collaboration with head Head Byrne built on the sonic ground the two had already broken together via their well established working relationship. The pair couldn't have known how influential MY LIFE IN THE BUSH OF GHOSTS would be in the next two decades.
Deconstructing the avant-funk of the Heads' REMAIN IN LIGHT, Byrne and Eno recorded polyrhythmic backing tracks similar to that effort. Instead of creating lyrics or melodies to lay over them, the duo turned to "found sounds" and voices, looping everything from radio talk show conversations to Muslim chants atop the rhythm bed, before anyone even knew what a sampler was. The subsequent impact on everything, from electronica to World music to whatever Bill Laswell is doing this week, was inestimable. The most important thing is that all this high-minded studio wizardry works on a very immediately satisfying level.

Professional Reviews

Entertainment Weekly (p.87) - "[T]he remastered GHOSTS feels haunting, hypnotic, and fresh 25 years later." -- Grade: A-

Uncut (p.119) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "Byrne and Eno's collaboration drips with emotional intensity....The feelings don't come directly from them but from the found voices of Pentecostal preachers and Algerian Muslims that the duo harvested from American radio and ethnic field recordings."

The Wire (p.56) - "[I]t's the unidentified voices seeping in from the haunted boundaries of American talk radio that capture our attention and that now seem to speak to us about another, still uncharted world."

Mojo (Publisher) (p.122) - 5 stars out of 5 -- "The disturbingly funky exotic stew that resulted was mind-bending in its day and remains so now."

NME (Magazine) (9/25/93, p.19) - Ranked #36 in NME's list of the 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s.