David Byrne Once in a Lifetime SNL

[piano39]

Highly recommend this:

 

David Byrne Once in a Lifetime SNL

 

Incredibly entertaining. Two questions:

 

1) Does anybody know how to get the synth sequence that plays through this song? I believe that it moves from A7Sus to A7Sus/F#. I also think that it is an arp, not a sequence.

2)Less important- what keyboard is being played on this video? do you think that he is playing the synth arp? or is it pre-recorded?

 

thanks,

[miden]

Yes I have seen this clip always good to see it again though! - David Byrne is a legend and sooo cool!

[nursers]

Highly recommend this:

 

David Byrne Once in a Lifetime SNL

 

Incredibly entertaining. Two questions:

 

1) Does anybody know how to get the synth sequence that plays through this song? I believe that it moves from A7Sus to A7Sus/F#. I also think that it is an arp, not a sequence.

2)Less important- what keyboard is being played on this video? do you think that he is playing the synth arp? or is it pre-recorded?

 

thanks,

 

 

I can answer one part - there is zero pre-recording. Every instrument you hear is played live by that incredible band. When I saw him tour here last year he spent 5 mins discussing how a lot of people don't believe it's 100% live and then used the band to build up a song to show how it was 100% live. One of the best gigs I've ever seen

[cphollis]

Thanks for sharing this. It's making me seriously consider what a live performance is all about.

[EricBarker]

I used to play this song with my band, but it's been a bit. If I remember correctly, the original arpeggio is a 7 over 8 note sequence that Eno came up with in the studio. The original song came out of a jam session with David and Brian (they get co-writing credit), and the rest of the band filled in later. It would be kind of pointless to play the sequence, IMO, it's supposed to be very mechanical, and the rest of the song is such a free jam, it would sort of take away from the performance to have someone locked into that pattern. The "Stop Making Sense" version uses a completely different arpeggio that's more obviously played. The original also has a lot of tape cuts. The transition from first verse to chorus drops a beat. They squared it off in the "Stop Making Sense" version.

 

David Holloway says there's no prerecording, and that may be true, but the main arpeggio is not what the keyboardist on stage is playing, there is a keyboard part behind it, which he's grooving on, it's the part Bernie Worell played for Stop Making Sense. I almost guarantee that arpeggio is sequenced, because... why not?

[nursers]

Oh I don't doubt there'd be live triggering of samples etc

[TommyRude]

Incredibly entertaining. Two questions:

Utterly fantastic. No question.

 

[piano39]

Highly recommend this:

 

David Byrne Once in a Lifetime SNL

 

Incredibly entertaining. Two questions:

 

1) Does anybody know how to get the synth sequence that plays through this song? I believe that it moves from A7Sus to A7Sus/F#. I also think that it is an arp, not a sequence.

2)Less important- what keyboard is being played on this video? do you think that he is playing the synth arp? or is it pre-recorded?

 

thanks,

 

Thanks for all the feedback. I would be remiss if I didn't direct you to the other song he did on SNL, "ToeJam". In the opening second, you can see the keyboard playing the accordion part (melodeon part???) on the keyboard.

 

David Byrne SNL TOE JAM

 

 

 

[Stokely]

I can't think of another song offhand where the bass plays outside the chords of the other instruments for the whole song

 

That shouldn't work. Yet it does.

[rickzjamm]

Great performance by a great artist & band... made me smile!!

[stoken6]

Thanks for posting, I had not seen this. Great meld of concert and theatre.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[Piktor]

I was in New York last October. We did not plan to see any Broadway shows, but on a last minute whim we scored some half priced tickets to see Byrne and this same group of musicians perform their whole show in a theatre. I was never a David Byrne or Talking Heads fan before that night, but the show was fantastic.

As I"m now n my sixties, I am less curious about the technology that they used than I am about how Byrne can perform a whole show night after night in his bare feet. I walk A LOT and I can"t even walk around my house for long without wearing slippers. ð

[Docbop]

Back when the legendary Bernie Worrell was with David Byrne.

 

[video:youtube]https://youtu.be/jr4aKtPh4_A

[KuruPrionz]

Thanks for Once In a Lifetime and Toe Jam!!!!

 

I've been a big David Byrne fan since Psycho Killer hit the radio waves. Used to play Life During Wartime in a band.

 

There is a subtle tempo change in Toe Jam, it really perks the song up at that point. Things like this are why I dislike click tracks with all my heart and soul.

[Sam Mullins]

I thought it was one of the best performances in years on SNL (I know...low bar.)

 

I hate the long, bloated Super Bowl half-time shows and I don't really enjoy marching bands, but it strikes me that this would be a perfect act for the Super Bowl:

 

- they are already set up to operate wirelessly and would actually be playing everything

- its a fun visual performance

- it draws inspiration from the various "marching" musical traditions.

 

 

That I would actually watch.

 

 

[ChiefDanG]

I thought this was terrific!

Hats off to David and the band.

[stillearning]

I thought it was one of the best performances in years on SNL (I know...low bar.)

Agreed, but I also really enjoyed Paul Simon"s most recent performance.

[MotiDave]

I saw him do some unknown song on one of those 11:30 variety shows (tonight show esq, don"t remember which), maybe 3 - 6 months ago? I"d never heard the song, it wasn"t one of the classic TH hits from the 80s we all know him by. But the presentation was this exact same ultra cool 'theatrical' (for lack of better description) walking band concept he"s now performing as. I don"t know how long ago he started this reinvention, he could have been doing it for 10 or more years and I wouldn"t know. But - Love this, as i loved that odd unknown song he did with his same wandering emoting band. Watch them closely, every move, position switch, step bend and twist, facial expression, emotion of each of the band members is completely choreographed and scripted. Its truly theatrical and imaginative genius, so oddly different and completely Byrne!.

 

Not sure I would remain enthralled for a 90 minute concert of this act, but for a song - its awesomely original

[ksoper]

The first verse could be my epitaph. I may request that.

 

The whole grey suit thing reminds me of The Tubes when they ditched the elaborate stage production for the lean and mean Completion Backward Principle tour. They looked like they had cleaned out the JC Penney's men's department--cheap, ill-fitting suits and briefcases.

[Marzzz]

I thought it was one of the best performances in years on SNL

David Bowie- Man Who Sold The World, 1979. With Klaus Nomi and Joey Arias doing background vocals:

 

Bowie SNL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Mark Zeger]

I saw American Utopia last month and loved it as did my 28 year old daughter. It returns to Broadway in the fall and we might see it again. Spike Lee filmed performances the weekend we saw the show. I"m not sure of the release date.

 

Here"s the

 

 

[yannis D]

Thanx for this video Mark

This guy has an intellectual force

[nursers]

I saw him do some unknown song on one of those 11:30 variety shows (tonight show esq, don"t remember which), maybe 3 - 6 months ago? I"d never heard the song, it wasn"t one of the classic TH hits from the 80s we all know him by.

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

 

[Mark Zeger]

If you liked the SNL performances, try this:

[video:youtube]

 

It might be where David Byrne started the 'untethered band' concept. I saw an earlier date on the tour. The sound of the band and choreography was amazing.

[Adan]

I feel like being in the audience for that performance of Once in a Lifetime would be a near-religious experience.

 

Love that keyboard, uh, holster? Now wondering if it's commercially available, or bespoke one-off piece. I'd purchase it in a heartbeat.

[Doerfler]

 

Love that keyboard, uh, holster? Now wondering if it's commercially available, or bespoke one-off piece. I'd purchase it in a heartbeat.

 

we had a thread about this 2 years ago. I believe the info you want is there

 

https://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2925446/Re_David_Byrne_s_keyboardist_s

 

[harmonizer]

....

1) Does anybody know how to get the synth sequence that plays through this song? I believe that it moves from A7Sus to A7Sus/F#. I also think that it is an arp, not a sequence.

.....

 

To me the most interesting part of this is the rhythms. I studied this song once and discovered that in there were at least two keys/synth parts in the background, at least during the verses, which help create the feeling of floating around in a weird space. One part is playing 16th notes while the second plays 3 notes per beat. I shared this in another thread (I think it was here on Keyboard Corner, but I can't find the thread). Then another person shared that there was a third such repeated keys/synth part that was 7 notes every 2 beats. This would create 6-7-8 notes being played against each other every 2 beats.

 

The above is above and beyond the most prominent synth part, which plays during the chorus, and plays notes from a major triad with the major 3rd of that triad as the top note.

[Adan]

 

Love that keyboard, uh, holster? Now wondering if it's commercially available, or bespoke one-off piece. I'd purchase it in a heartbeat.

 

we had a thread about this 2 years ago. I believe the info you want is there

 

https://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2925446/Re_David_Byrne_s_keyboardist_s

 

Ah, so it's 70 year old technology. Amazing I've gotten this far into life without knowing that.

 

As an irrelevant aside, that thread is Sven at his finest. he must have been patting himself on the back after that one.

[Baldwin Funster]

With all that moving around with nary a rustle noise or grunt to be heard I'm thinking thats live lead vocals and most of the rest is tracks.

[harmonizer]

For "Stop Making Sense", there was an 8-song album release of a subset of the song performances from the movie. I had both the full soundtrack recording (and later the DVD) in addition to the 8-song album, and I noticed at least one place in the 8-song album where they cleaned up something in the audio of the performance. The audio we hear on the youtube video of Byrne's recent SNL performance may have had similar audio fixes applied to it. If anyone recorded the live broadcast on SNL, it might be interesting to compare their audio.