Life During Wartime

The Talking Heads were a ‘new wave/rock/punk’ band which formed in 1975 in New York City, New York, United States. The band originally consisted of David Byrne (vocals, guitar), Tina Weymouth (bass) and Chris Frantz (drums), who had met while attending the Rhode Island School of Design. The band added Jerry Harrison (keyboards & guitar) in April 1977. The band released eight studio albums before disbanding in 1991. Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

‘Life During Wartime’ was never one of my favorite Talking Heads compositions but the lyrics seemed timely. The song was released as the first single from their 1979 album, ‘Fear Of Music’. Byrne’s describes the lyrics as a Walker Percy-ish post-apocalyptic landscape where a revolutionary hides out in a deserted cemetery, surviving on peanut butter. He wrote from the point of view of a survivor anarchist insurgent who is a bit paranoid and has a problem giving up the creature comforts you lose when you enter into guerilla warfare, not the least of which is music and club life. The song is remarkably predictive in its theme of technology leading to a society where information is exploited. 

I only thought of the song during a conversation with a friend about the current state of the world. The threat of world war and conflict seems to be a current theme on mainstream and alternative media. Conflict, cancel culture, genocide, economic collapse, engineered climate emergencies, false flag events, digital interference, arrests, mass formation and surveillance are all being orchestrated as distractions from some greater series of events to bring about some sort of apocalypse or awakening. Somehow, music, good music is to survive.

It must.

It will.

Life During Wartime – The Talking Heads

[Verse 1]
Heard of a van that is loaded with weapons
Packed up and ready to go
Heard of some gravesites out by the highway
A place where nobody knows
The sound of gunfire off in the distance
I’m getting used to it now
Lived in a brownstone, lived in the ghetto
I’ve lived all over this town

[Chorus 1]
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
This ain’t no fooling around
No time for dancing, or lovey-dovey
I ain’t got time for that now

[Verse 2]
Transmit the message to the receiver
Hope for an answer some day
I got three passports, a couple of visas
You don’t even know my real name
High on a hillside, the trucks are loading
Everything’s ready to roll
I sleep in the daytime and I work in the nighttime
I might not ever get home

[Chorus 2]
This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco
This ain’t no fooling around
This ain’t no Mudd Club, or C.B.G.B
I ain’t got time for that now

[Verse 3]
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, P. A.?
You oughta know not to stand by the window
Somebody’ll see you up there
I got some groceries, some peanut butter
To last a couple of days
But I ain’t got no speakers, ain’t got no headphones
Ain’t got no records to play

[Bridge]
Why stay in college? Why go to night school?
Gonna be different this time
Can’t write a letter, can’t send no postcard
I ain’t got time for that now

[Outro]
Trouble in transit, got through the roadblock
We blended in with the crowd
We got computers, we’re tapping phone lines
I know that that ain’t allowed
We dress like students, we dress like housewives
Or in a suit and a tie
I changed my hairstyle so many times now
I don’t know what I look like
You make me shiver, I feel so tender
We make a pretty good team
Don’t get exhausted, I’ll do some driving
You ought to get you some sleep
Burned all my notebooks, what good are notebooks?
They won’t help me survive
My chest is aching, burns like a furnace
The burning keeps me alive
Get your instructions
Follow directions–