Brian Eno- David Byrne- My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts (1981)

 Background- My friend Rob was always more musically sophisticated than me. He was into the Talking Heads pretty early on, and (although I'm sure that this is coincidental to his purchasing of this LP) he was also a big fan of Roxy Music. I remember being blown away by this record before he even put it on, Peter Saville's sleeve being such a beautiful piece of art.

Novel- I am fortunate enough to own a copy of Amos Tutuola's remarkable novel. It took me years to get hold of it. A blessing of the age of the internet.
 Neither Eno nor Byrne had read the book at the time the record was made, but they agreed that the title was in keeping with the concept of the album.

Sampling-Claims have been made for this album as being a pionering work in the use of sampling. When asked if he had 'invented sampling' in July 2001's Q magazine Eno had the integrity to reply:  
No, there was already a history of it. People such as Holger Czukay had made experiments using IBM Dictaphones and short-wave radios and so on. The difference was, I suppose, that I decided to make it the lead vocal on the album My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.
I have read claims that John Kongos pioneered sampling in using Zulu drum beats on Step On, and I'm pretty sure that Lee Perry used samples as early as his 1968 single 'People Funny Boy'. And then there's Steve Reich... 


Blasphemy- I've never understood the concept of blasphemy. If one has absolute faith in something how can it's sanctity or potency be undermined? The Bible, The Qu'ran, The Talmud- it's all just words. Words on paper, written by men, or just the sounds of words, spoken by men. Well, the original verson of the LP featured a track called Qu'ran, in which a sample of Algerian Muslims chanting verses from The Qu'ran (from an album  The Human Voice in the World of Islam) was used. Some Muslims found the use of the passages from The Qu'ran in this context blasphemous, and the track was withdrawn from the reissue.
This is the original LP, and the track Qu'ran is included.

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/0YWuDf1/Brian Eno + David Byrne - My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts.rar