My Top 2000 Songs #1167: America Is Waiting

Back in high school, I spent a lot of time trying to convince my friends how great Brian Eno and the Talking Heads were (the latter wasn't too difficult as their mainstream popularity grew; the former remained more obscure among the suburban crowd). So at one point, my friend Adam decided to go out and buy Brian Eno and David Byrne's 1981 collaboration My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.

And man, was he pissed. Because this was not a traditional rock album, but rather an experimental collection of sonic collages, funk & electronica & tribal grooves combined with spoken word samples and found sounds. Not his thing at all. Nor mine, for that matter, though it's grown on me over time.

I don't typically make it through the whole LP, but it starts off great with "America Is Waiting." Musically, its electronic funk isn't too far afield from what Eno & Byrne would cook up on Remain In Light (recorded after this but released earlier given the delays in clearing the Bush of Ghost's samples--which have continued to raise legal issues over the years). And while their use of sampling (here, some random clips from a San Francisco talk radio show) was ahead of its time, today this feels like an eccentric, fun little dance song, yet still bold and unique.

With a matching fan video (but un-remastered audio):