Once in a Lifetime (album)

Infobox Album
Name = Once in a Lifetime
Type = box
Artist = Talking Heads


Released = November 18, 2003
Recorded =
Genre = New Wave/Art punk
Length =
Label = Warner Bros.
Producer = Tony Bongiovi, Brian Eno, Nick Launay, Steve Lillywhite, Lance Quinn, Mark Spector
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|4.5|5 [http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:5n6ktr2tkl7x link]
Last album = "" (1992)
This album = "Once in a Lifetime" (2003)
Next album = "The Best of Talking Heads" (2004)

"Once in a Lifetime" is a three-disc compilation album by the American rock band Talking Heads, released by Sire/Warner Bros./Rhino in 2003. It also includes a DVD, an expanded version of the music video compilation "Storytelling Giant". The discs are packaged in a wide horizontal book that recalls a CD longbox, featuring paintings by Russian artists Vladimir Dubossarsky and Alexander Vinogradov and by art directed by Stefan Sagmeister (for which he received a 2005 Grammy award for "Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package"). Sagmeister would work with David Byrne and Brian Eno on their 2008 album "Everything That Happens Will Happen Today".

Only one previously-unreleased song appears in this release, the "Naked" outtake "In Asking Land." This song was later completed by David Byrne and released as "Carnival Eyes" on his solo album "Rei Momo". Other non-album tracks are "Sugar on My Tongue," a 1977 live-in-studio recording; the 1976 single "Love → Building on Fire" and its B-side, "I Wish You Wouldn't Say That"; and a pair of "Naked"-era songs finished in 1992 for the "" compilation, "Sax And Violins" and "Lifetime Piling Up." These non-album tracks were all included on "Sand in the Vaseline," though three non-album tracks (1977 B-side "I Want to Live" and 1992's "Gangster of Love" and "Popsicle") remain exclusive to that compilation.

"A Clean Break", a 1977 live recording from 1982's "The Name of This Band Is Talking Heads", was a CD exclusive to this collection when it was released, but that recording has since been released in a double album with new material.

Four alternate takes are exclusive to this set. "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town" and "New Feeling" are the original Tony Bongiovi mixes, with brass parts and other more "commercial" production techniques that the band ultimately rejected. "Cities" is an alternate take that includes a verse not found in any previous official release. "Drugs" is an early version of the song which features very different production and instrumentation than does the final version.

Track listing

All songs written by David Byrne unless otherwise indicated.

Disc one

# "Sugar on My Tongue" – 2:35
# "Love → Building on Fire" – 2:59
# "I Wish You Wouldn't Say That" – 2:37
# "Don't Worry About the Government" – 3:00
# "Uh-Oh, Love Comes to Town" [Alternate take] – 2:55
# "New Feeling" [Alternate take] – 3:03
# "Pulled Up" – 4:30
# "Psycho Killer" (Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth) – 4:20
# "Warning Sign" – 3:55
# "Artists Only" (Byrne, Wayne Zieve) – 3:35
# "Tentative Decisions" – 3:07
# "No Compassion" – 4:49
# "Stay Hungry" (Byrne, Frantz) – 2:41
# "I'm Not in Love" – 4:34
# "The Book I Read" – 4:09
# "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" – 2:13
# "Found a Job" – 5:01
# "A Clean Break" (Live) – 4:57
# "Take Me to the River" (Al Green, Teenie Hodges) – 5:04
# "The Big Country" – 5:31
# "Heaven" (Byrne, Jerry Harrison) – 4:01

Disc two

# "I Zimbra" (Byrne, Brian Eno, Hugo Ball) – 3:07
# "Cities" [Alternate take] – 5:27
# "Life During Wartime" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 3:41
# "Air" – 3:32
# "Memories Can't Wait" – 3:30
# "Drugs" [Alternate take] – 3:33
# "Once in a Lifetime" (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:20
# "Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)" (Byrne, Eno) – 5:47
# "Listening Wind" (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:41
# "Houses in Motion" (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:31
# "Crosseyed and Painless" (Byrne, Eno) – 4:45
# "Burning Down the House" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:01
# "Making Flippy Floppy" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:54
# "Girlfriend Is Better" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:43
# "Slippery People" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:05
# "Swamp" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:10
# "This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:56

Disc three

# "And She Was" – 3:39
# "Stay Up Late" – 3:44
# "Creatures of Love" – 4:15
# "The Lady Don't Mind" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:04
# "Road to Nowhere" – 4:20
# "Wild Wild Life" – 3:41
# "Love for Sale" – 4:31
# "People Like Us" – 4:29
# "Puzzlin' Evidence" – 5:23
# "City of Dreams" – 5:09
# "Blind" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:00
# "Mr. Jones" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:21
# "The Democratic Circus" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:04
# "(Nothing But) Flowers" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:33
# "In Asking Land" [Outtake] (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 3:58
# "Sax and Violins" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:18
# "Lifetime Piling Up" (Byrne, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 3:53

Storytelling Giant DVD

#"Once in a Lifetime"
#"Wild Wild Life"
#"Stay Up Late"
#"Blind" [Previously unreleased]
#"Crosseyed and Painless"
#"Burning Down the House"
#"And She Was"
#"Sax And Violins" [Previously unreleased]
#"This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)"
#"The Lady Don't Mind"
#"Love For Sale"
#"(Nothing But) Flowers"
#"Road to Nowhere"