My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1981)

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts is the first collaborative studio album by Brian Eno and David Byrne, released on February 25, 1981. It was Byrne's first album without his band Talking Heads. The album integrates sampled vocals and found sounds, African and Middle Eastern rhythms, and electronic music techniques. It was recorded before Eno and Byrne's work on Talking Heads' fourth studio album Remain in Light (1980), but problems clearing samples delayed its release by several months.

The album title is derived from Nigerian writer Amos Tutuola's novel My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (1954). According to Byrne's 2006 liner notes, neither he nor Eno had read the novel, but they felt the title "seemed to encapsulate what this record was about".

The extensive sampling on the album is considered innovative, though its influence on later sample-based music genres is debated. Pitchfork named it the 21st best album of the 1980s, while Slant Magazine named it the 83rd.

Recording

Eno and Byrne first worked together on More Songs About Buildings and Food, the 1978 album by Byrne's band Talking Heads. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts was primarily recorded during a break between the Talking Heads albums Fear of Music (1979) and Remain in Light (1980), both produced by Eno. Eno had also recently recorded Fourth World, Vol. 1: Possible Musics with Jon Hassell, who intended to collaborate with Eno and Byrne on the album, but could not afford to fly to California for the recording sessions. Upon hearing the tapes, Hassell felt "outraged" at what he felt was an appropriation of his music.

Eno described My Life as a "vision of a psychedelic Africa". Rather than conventional pop or rock singing, most of the vocals are sampled from other sources, such as commercial recordings of Arabic singers, radio disc jockeys, and an exorcist. Musicians had previously used similar sampling techniques, but, according to Guardian writer Dave Simpson, sampling had never before been used "to such cataclysmic effect". In 2001, Eno cited Holger Czukay's experiments with dictaphones and shortwave radios as earlier examples of sampling. He felt that the "difference was, I suppose, that I decided to make [sampling] the lead vocal". The release was delayed while legal rights were sought for the large number of samples used on the album. A sample of evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman performing an exorcism intended for "The Jezebel Spirit" was refused by her estate as they objected to the context it was to be used in.

Soon after the album was released, the Islamic Council of Great Britain objected to the use of samples of Qur'anic recital in the track "Qu'ran", considering it blasphemy. Byrne and Eno removed the track from later pressings. In 2006, Byrne said:

We thought, "Okay, in deference to somebody's religion, we'll take it off." You could probably argue for and against monkeying with something like that. But I think we were certainly feeling very cautious about this whole thing. We made a big effort to try and clear all the voices, and make sure everybody was okay with everything ... So I think in that sense we reacted maybe with more caution than we had to.

Two tracks on the album, "Regiment" and "The Carrier", sample the voice of Lebanese singer Dunya Younes (credited in the album's liner notes as Dunya Yusin). Although Byrne and Eno took care to clear the samples with the label that released the album from which her vocals had been sampled, as well as paid for the sampling accordingly, Younes was unaware of the use of her voice on the album until 2017. Both songs were taken down from streaming services after a family representative contacted the duo a year later, and the songs were later reinstated when the issue was settled amicably out of court; Younes ultimately expressed flattery with her recording's inclusion, crediting it with helping expose Lebanese culture to a wider audience.

Samples

The following notes are adapted from the album's liner notes and indicate the voices sampled.

Side one

"America Is Waiting" – Ray Taliaferro of KGO Newstalk AM 810 (unidentified in the liner notes); San Francisco, April 1980.

"Mea Culpa" – inflamed caller and smooth politician replying, both unidentified; radio call-in show, New York, July 1979.

"Regiment" – Dunya Younes, Lebanese mountain singer; from "Abu Zeluf" on Music in the World of Islam, Volume One: The Human Voice (Tangent TGS 131).

"Help Me Somebody" – Reverend Paul Morton; broadcast sermon, New Orleans, June 1980.

"The Jezebel Spirit" – unidentified exorcist; New York, September 1980.

Side two

"Qu'ran" – Algerian Muslims chanting the Qur'an; from "Recitation of Verses of the Qu'ran" on Music in the World of Islam, Volume One: The Human Voice (Tangent TGS 131).

"Moonlight in Glory" – The Moving Star Hall Singers (from Johns Island, South Carolina); from Sea Island Folk Festival (Folkways FS 3841), produced by Guy Carawan.

"The Carrier" – Dunya Younes (same source as track 3)