"Life During Wartime" is a song by New Wave band Talking Heads, released as the first single from their 1979 album Fear of Music in 1979. It peaked at #80 on the US Billboard Pop Singles Chart.
The song is also performed in the 1983 film Stop Making Sense, which depicts a Talking Heads concert. The performance of "Live During Wartime" featured in the film prominently features aerobic exercising and jogging by David Byrne and other background singers. The Stop Making Sense live version of the track is featured in the film's accompanying soundtrack album, and was released as a single.
The song is included in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.[1]
[edit] Origin
In David Bowman's book This Must Be the Place: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the Twentieth Century, Byrne is quoted as describing the genesis of the song: "I wrote this in my loft on Seventh and Avenue A." And later, "I was thinking about Baader-Meinhof. Patty Hearst. Tompkins Square. This a song about living in Alphabet City."[2]
[edit] Lyrics
Written about life in New York City during the late nineteen seventies, this song describes life in an impoverished metropolis. Byrne describes life in New York as a metaphor for WWII-era civilians and argues against the concept that life there is bohemian by saying, 'This ain't no party. This ain't no disco. This ain't no foolin' around.' The wartime imagery is taken further by images of having to stand away from windows for fear of being shot and people living on the street long beyond the thought of having food to eat.
[edit] Charts
[edit] Other versions
The song was covered and is used at live shows by Welsh indie alternative band, The Automatic. The song is occasionally played in concert by American jam band Widespread Panic.
[edit] References
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