Talk:Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song)

Songs Start‑class

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Songs, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of songs on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.SongsWikipedia:WikiProject SongsTemplate:WikiProject Songssong
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.

Rock music Start‑class High‑importance

	Rock music portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Rock music, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Rock music on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Rock musicWikipedia:WikiProject Rock musicTemplate:WikiProject Rock musicRock music
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Edward Hirsch

I just came across a poem by Edward Hirsch- "Commuters". It's about a guy coming home from work, asking himself 'Is this me?' and the streets seem to fill up with water. "This isn't me sitting in this car Feeling as if I were about to drown". Hirsch was born in 1950. I wonder if anyone else sees similarities and thinks this peom might have been part of the inspiration for the song. -lonepeakgeek —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lonepeakgeek (talk • contribs) 21:53, 29 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Didnt the Smashing Pumpkins do a cover of this song at one point?

Yep. Its in the article, at least as of when i checked. Oh, has anyone else run across references to this being about suicide? "Into the silent waters, after the money's gone." seems pretty indicative to me, but I don't know if its worth mentioning. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 74.71.82.82 (talk) 23:46, 24 October 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I seem to remember a song by Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention from the dim and distant past (1967?) that sounded very similar to Once in a Lifetime. Has anyone else picked up on this or have I just lost the plot? Drumheadbum (talk) 09:52, 17 April 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There was a short-running TV show in the late 90s that used the song for their opening credits. I don't remember the name of the show, but the hook was that it followed its characters through three time-periods - a contemporary present, 20? years in the past, and 20 years in the future - cutting between the periods within episodes, playing off of the "How did I get here" and "Same as it ever was lyrics". It might have been set in Boston. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.33.207.94 (talk) 21:49, 3 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Unique rhythm

Something that I thought would be notable about this song is how the rhythm changes between verse and chorus: the bar is counted from a different place in each, resulting in a "missing" half-bar in each verse->chorus or chorus->verse transition. This is very unusual indeed for a pop hit. I'm not familiar with the published sources about the song, but it would be surprising if this distinctive feature of it were not mentioned somewhere. MartinPoulter (talk) 11:44, 28 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Bassheads and Sampling Legacy

Should something about the legacy of the track being sampled in other songs and tracks be mentioned? For example British house duo Bassheads originally sampled "Once in a Lifetime" in particular along with a diverse range of artists including Afrika Bambaataa, The Osmonds and Pink Floyd for their 1991 single "Is There Anybody Out There?" which reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart.

The use of this sample by Bassheads was quite prominent as is worthy of mention and I'm fairly sure a number of other tracks have been made over the years sampling "Once in a Lifetime" which may be worthy of mention as much as the cover versions have been. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 80.79.222.87 (talk) 07:14, 23 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Requested move 11 April 2022

It has been proposed in this section that Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song) be renamed and moved to Once in a Lifetime (song).

A bot will list this discussion on the requested moves current discussions subpage within an hour of this tag being placed. The discussion may be closed 7 days after being opened, if consensus has been reached (see the closing instructions). Please base arguments on article title policy, and keep discussion succinct and civil.

Please use {{subst:requested move}}. Do not use {{requested move/dated}} directly.

Links: current log • target log • direct move

Once in a Lifetime (Talking Heads song) → Once in a Lifetime (song) – WP:PRIMARYTOPIC. By far the most notable song by this name. Popcornfud (talk) 22:40, 11 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose per WP:PDAB. Even though the Talking Heads song is quite notable, we don't do partial primary topics except in VERY RARE exceptions. Paintspot Infez (talk) 02:43, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Yes - I think this ought to qualify for one of those exceptions, per the list of examples on WP:PDABLIST, such as Poker Face (song). Popcornfud (talk) 13:07, 12 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]