History Music / MyLifeInTheBushOfGhosts

* TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers: The closing track, "Mountain of Needles", is the only one to lack any audio samples, instead being a short {{ambient}} piece in the vein of Eno's usual work.

''My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'', released in 1981, is the debut collaborative album between English {{ambient}} musician Music/BrianEno and Scottish-American PostPunk musician Music/DavidByrne. Marking Byrne's first project outside of his work with Music/TalkingHeads, the album was put together in 1979-1980 shortly after the release of the latter's ''Music/FearOfMusic'', and in hindsight acts as the direct prototype for ''Music/RemainInLight'' later in 1980, right down to featuring several of the backing musicians who would appear on that album and its supporting tour. Seeking to experiment with the avant-funk approach that Talking Heads were increasingly leaning into, Byrne and Eno created a collage of looped, trancelike sounds that would form what the latter dubbed their "vision of a psychedelic Africa."

* {{Sampling}}: An invaluable contributor to the technique's development in popular music, being the very first album to center around it as a primary element. The specific samples used are as follows:

* StupidStatementDanceMix: While not the outright UrExample, it's still a very early take on the phenomenon. Byrne & Eno excerpted spoken-word samples from radio interviews, field recordings, and TV broadcasts, and set them to looped instrumental tracks (some funky and syncopated, others ambient). The samples weren't as "chopped and screwed" as many of these other examples, and the focus was on sampling-as-an-instrument instead of making fun of celebrities, but the essentials are there: voice samples, played around with and used as if a vocal track, and set to a backing beat.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: The album is much different than Byrne's later studio albums outside of Talking Heads, being a mix of {{ambient}} and AvantGardeMusic with sampled dialogue in place of traditional vocals. Byrne's following albums would instead be WorldMusic-infused AlternativeRock that built off of Byrne's work with Talking Heads.

* NotChristianRock: Despite the abundance of samples from religious sermons and rituals, the album isn't intended for a religious audience, and mainly acts as an exploration of {{Orientalis|m}}t tropes by applying them to the west.

* AlternateAlbumCover: Two album covers for the album exist. The first one, pictured above, is a photograph of a TV displaying a feedback loop, intercut with taped-on paper cutouts in humanoid shapes. The second, used for the 2006 release, is an indistinct horizonal blur based on the original cover's color scheme.

* VariantCover: Two album covers for the album exist. The first one, pictured above, is a photograph of a TV displaying a feedback loop, intercut with taped-on paper cutouts in humanoid shapes. The second, used for the 2006 release, is an indistinct horizonal blur based on the original cover's color scheme.

** "Qu'ran", as the name implies, samples audio of Algerian Muslims reciting from the titular holy book.

** "America is Waiting" features bass guitar parts by prolific avant-garde guitarist Bill Laswell and click bass by former Music/PereUbu bassist Tim Wright.

# "Qu'ran" (3:46)[[note]]Replaced with "Very Very Hungry" (3:31) on most later copies[[/note]]

-->'''Psalms 139:''' "Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there."\\

->"I've often eulogised Eno's musical abilities, but alongside his talent he's also a very nice guy. Sickening, isn't it? This knocked me sideways when I first heard it-- full of drum loops, samples and soundscapes, stuff that we really take for granted now, but which was unheard of in all but the most progressive musical circles at the time."

The radical approach on this album was a massive risk, and indeed it didn't seem to pay off at first: initial critical responses were tepid at best, with the press dismissing it as a novelty compared to the more rapturously-received ''Remain in Light'', and it just barely failed to clear the Top 40 on the Billboard 200 at a No. 44 peak. It was a marginally bigger success in the UK at No. 29, but became a surprise hit in New Zealand, where it charted at No. 8. CreativeDifferences between Byrne and Eno over the album's approach would also contribute to Eno cutting ties with Talking Heads, combined with the tense production of ''Remain in Light'', and he wouldn't collaborate with Byrne again until ''Music/EverythingThatHappensWillHappenToday'' 27 years later.

In the decades since its release, however, ''My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'' saw [[VindicatedByHistory a massive critical reappraisal in its favor]], with critics regarding it as a highly important and influential album in the development of popular music. Its heavy use of sampling was particularly singled out as setting the stage for its rise in popularity throughout the ten years after its release, anticipating the sample-heavy pop of acts like Music/PeterGabriel, Music/KateBush, and Music/YellowMagicOrchestra as well as much of the 80's HipHop scene. In 2002, ''Pitchfork'' magazine ranked it as the 21st best album of the 1980's, while ''Slant'' placed it at No. 83 ten years later. Its belated appreciation was enough for ''WebSite/AcclaimedMusic'' to list it at No. 346 on its [[UsefulNotes/AcclaimedMusicAllTimeTopAlbums dynamic list]] of the 3000 most critically lauded albums of all time. Today, it's widely regarded as Byrne's studio masterpiece and an adept companion to the experimental worldbeat of ''Remain in Light''.

* StupidStatementDanceMix: The UrExample: Byrne & Eno excerpted spoken-word samples from radio interviews, field recordings, and TV broadcasts, and set them to looped instrumental tracks (some funky and syncopated, others ambient).

The radical approach on this album was a massive risk, and indeed it didn't seem to pay off at first: initial critical responses were tepid at best, with the press dismissing it as a novelty compared to the more rapturously-received ''Remain in Light'', and it just barely failed to clear the Top 40 on the Billboard 200 at a No. 44 peak. It was a marginally bigger success in the UK at No. 29, but became a surprise hit in New Zealand, where it charted at No. 8. CreativeDifferences between Byrne and Eno over the album's approach would also contribute to Eno cutting ties with Talking Heads, combined with the tense production of ''Remain in Light'', and he wouldn't collaborate with Byrne again until ''Everything That Happens Will Happen Today'' 27 years later.

* AsTheGoodBookSays: Christianity and Islam feature heavily in the album, and as such there are a number of instances where the audio samples feature quotations from scripture for artistic effect.

* BrokenRecord: "Mea Culpa" repeats the samples from the inflamed caller and smooth politician on a loop throughout its runtime. Similarly, "Help Me Somebody" loops Paul Morton shouting "aaaaaah, I know!" ad infinitum throughout its second half.

* MinimalisticAlbumCover: The 2006 release, whose cover art consists of a simple horizontal blur.

* ReCut: After receiving a complaint from the Islamic Council of Great Britain surrounding the sampling of Qu'ranic recitals on "Qu'ran" (as the way the album used them was considered offensive to the Muslim faith), later LP copies swapped out the track in favor of "Very Very Hungry", originally featured as a B-side on the 12" release of "The Jezebel Spirit". The initial CD release in 1986 used the original LP tracklist with "Qu'ran", but added in "Very Very Hungry" at the end as a bonus track. Starting in 1990, CD copies would switch to the "Qu'ran"-free version.

''My Life in the Bush of Ghosts'', released in 1981, is the debut collaborative album between English {{ambient}} musician Music/BrianEno and Scottish-American PostPunk musician Music/DavidByrne. Marking Byrne's first project outside of his work with Music/TalkingHeads, the album was put together in 1979-1980 shortly after the release of the latter's ''Music/FearOfMusic'', and in hindsight acts as the direct prototype for ''Music/RemainInLight'' later in 1980. Seeking to experiment with the avant-funk approach that Talking Heads were increasingly leaning into, Byrne and Eno created a collage of looped, trancelike sounds that would form what the latter dubbed their "vision of a psychedelic Africa."

'''Morton:''' "There's no escape from him. He's so ''hiiiigh'' you can't get over him. He's so ''loooooow'' you can't get under him. He's so ''wiiide'' you can't get around him! If you make your bed in Heaven, he's there! If you make your bed in Hell, he's there! ''He's everywhere!''"

* VariantCover: Two album covers for the album exist. The first one, pictured above, is a photograph of a TV displaying a feedback loop, intercut with taped-on paper cutouts in humanoid shapes. The second, used for the 2006 release, is an indistinct horizonal blur based on the original cover's color scheme.

To {{deconstruct|ion}} the idea of vocals in music, the pair opted not to record any of their own vocal tracks, but rather splice in found recordings of other people from various sources, inspired by [[Music/{{Can}} Holger Czukay's]] prior experiments with dictation machines and shortwave radios. This approach to {{sampling}} was unprecedented: while it was nothing new in music, nobody had ever made sampling such a crucial and omnipresent element of an album before, and indeed it wasn't an easy task to achieve. Indeed, the album was delayed by two years as Byrne and Eno sought to clear the samples used with the original rightsholders and reconfigure tracks whose samples couldn't be greenlit. As such, even though it was made before ''Remain in Light'' as a prelude, it released after the Talking Heads album and became an accidental coda to it.

* ReCut:A fter receiving a complaint from the Islamic Council of Great Britain surrounding the sampling of Qu'ranic recitals on "Qu'ran" (as the way the album used them was considered offensive to the Muslim faith), later LP copies swapped out the track in favor of "Very Very Hungry", originally featured as a B-side on the 12" release of "The Jezebel Spirit". The initial CD release in 1986 used the original LP tracklist with "Qu'ran", but added in "Very Very Hungry" at the end as a bonus track. Starting in 1990, CD copies would switch to the "Qu'ran"-free version.

** "America is Waiting" - 1980 soundcheck by Ray Taliaferro of KGO Newstalk AM 810