Andy's Anachronisms
Time Travel Songs


Once in a Lifetime
Talking Heads

This has always been a favourite Talking Heads song of mine, even before I came up with this interpretation of it.

Imagine if you will a time traveler, who having traveled to the past returns home to find that things have changed ever so slightly. Was it something he did in the past that spun off this alternate universe? So he returns to the past to try to set things right, returning back to his present, only to find that the events as he remembers have changed. He repeats the process several times only to discover things have gotten progressively further from the reality that he remembers. He starts to question his sanity as the reality he remembers no longer matches the "here and now" he is experiencing.

Imagine if you well, that this unhinged time traveler corners you in a local pub and like one of those strange people that you can't avoid on public transit insists on striking up a conversation. A conversation that seems to be partly directed at you but equally a dialogue with himself. Our friend is about to impart some of his new found insight on the nature time travel to you.

Let's take a look at the lyrics and I think you'll see what I mean

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself-Well...How did I get here?

Little changes can often have profound ripple effects. I imagine our time traveler is always astonished to see how much his "present" has changes as the result of small adjustments to the past. In one universe he's living in a shotgun shack, so named by the way because they were so small that you could stand in the front door and hit everything inside with a shotgun blast. While in yet another he's made out well for himself, living in a big house with a beautiful wife. When our friend raises the point, "And you may ask yourself -- well how did I get here?". He's asking it because in retrospect a lot of little decisions have led each of us to where we are today. Its hard to say where we would be now if we had varied a few choices just a little. He speaks from first hand experience about how different decisions can have large impacts.

Letting the days go by / let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime / water flowing underground

In the verse above, our time traveler is beginning to lose his sense of time and sense of reality with these frequent jumps back in forth in time. His reference to water seems a bit misleading but soon becomes clear in later verses. He's letting the days go by, not caring if its yesterday or today anymore. Into the blue again, is his sense of jumping into the unknown each time he makes the trip back to the present. Waiting each time until he runs out of money, before deciding out of desperation to head back into the past. The phrase "Once in a Lifetime" has become a bit of a sick joke to him. On the one hand, since he can travel in time, the phrase is meaningless. However, since each trip seems to produce a different end result, each trip ends up being a once in a lifetime event to him.

And you may ask yourself -- How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself -- Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself -- This is not my beautiful house.
And you may tell yourself -- This is not my beautiful wife.

He explains to us that after a few of these trips you begin to question your sanity. "How do I work this?" refers to his understanding of time travel and the ability or inability to fix the past. He is explaining that you suddenly having trouble distinguishing between what you think you know and what you are being present with here and now.

Letting the days go by / let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime / water flowing underground.

Again with the verse about the water!

Water to him has come to symbolize the ubiquitous nature of time. When he says "let the water hold me down" he's associating the weight of water with the force of time. Time is all around us and is holding us down in the now and here. He wishes that he could just be here and now. His references to water flowing underground is his impression that time is flowing just under the surface. Like an underground stream, the water/time is unseen, buts impacts are felt by all around it.

Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...

Someone better buy this guy a drink. He's really starting to lose it at this point. He's become so unhinged due to his time travelling, that he begins chanting to himself. In a desperate attempt to convince himself that everything can be fixed he begins repeating his mantra that everything is "Same as it ever was...".

Water dissolving...and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean.

Not sure what to do next, he begins doing some weird mental arithmetic about how if he could just subtract, carry and remove the water/time, he would be all right. However, he realizes the folly of this, when he says "Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean". Insanely laughing to himself, he realizes that asking to remove time to fix things, is like trying to remove water at the bottom of the ocean, more time is just going to fill the void.

Letting the days go by / let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones / there is water underground.

Letting the days go by / let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime / water flowing underground.

Okay look out he's off on a rant again. You can let those days go by, but time is going to be waiting for you.

And you may ask yourself -- What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself -- Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself-- Am I right?...Am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
MY GOD!...WHAT HAVE I DONE?

He realizes your still in the room and begins to explain himself again to you. He questions himself "Am I right? or Am I wrong?", yet he's also asking you to justify his actions. He's in effect questioning where good intentions lead to good outcomes? Or is it all futile in the end. No matter what you do your doomed. He suddenly yells out his lament for having experimented with time travel in the first place "My God!.. What have I done?". Then he's off on the same couple of refrains as you slowly back away from this mad man and head for the door.

Letting the days go by / let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones / there is water underground.

Letting the days go by / let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by / water flowing underground
Into the blue again / after the money's gone
Once in a lifetime / water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...Same as it ever was...

Makes you think twice about wanting to experience time travel for yourself doesn't it?

I had the pleasure of seeing David Byrne in concert a couple of years ago and when he sang this song I literally got goose bumps. It was "Once in a Lifetime" thrill for me to hear this song performed live.


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