Lyrics for Once In A Lifetime as interpreted by alexboy

Once In A Lifetime Lyrics
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 ?

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.

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 !
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...

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 !

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.

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 ?

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...

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  • 78 Comments
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Rob_98443
02-15-2002

Rated 0 
Imagining what your life would be like if you were rich, or if you would not have done something , or done soemthing, wich would have changed things, not sure where the water comes in though.

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MOLLY_THE_RABBIT
03-08-2002

Rated 0 
this song is fantastic and should be praised


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Bite Me
04-29-2002

Rated 0 
Some people think this song is about a guy who realizes one day that he's gay and he's wondering why it took him so long to figure it out that he already has a wife and a traditional lifestyle going at that age in his life.

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punchyk
05-01-2002

Rated +1 
I think this song is about a middle aged guy who has all these things, but doesn't know how he got them. He has lived in a haze during his life, the water symbolized the passing of time, holding him under where he cannot enjoy his surroundings

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Quaggi
05-22-2002

Rated +2 
This is one of my favorite songs! The video is crazy too. But i think that this song is just a reminder to us to not let life slip away without fully appreciating it. If you don't pay attention, you may find yourself "in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife" and not even realize why you're there or what it means.

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1 Reply
LiveUrLife
05-24-2002

Rated 0 
i agree with you quaggi. this song to me reminds me not to let life slip away, you may wake up oneday and everything will go gone and you you have no idea where it all went/

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ZBOV
07-04-2002

Rated 0 
I like [url="http://www.timetravelreviews.com/songs/talkhead.htm"]this guy's[/url] interpretation of the song. I guess it's because I like Time Travel also. Wee.

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wolfperson1
04-04-2003

Rated 0 
Someone once said to me that this song was making fun of the perfect worlds in the 50s (or was it 60s?) tv shows.

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torelian
04-18-2003

Rated 0 
it's essentially a song that everyone will fully understand after they've been young and happily married for several years only to suddenly wake up one morning with an epiphany -- that everything has completely changed for the worse

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zeus83
05-05-2003

Rated 0 
first of all David Byrne is a genius and this song and our separate reactons to it are a great testament to his ability to successfully write a song and leave it completely open to become our own-
to me-
this song is about perception-and how it can change
if you never lived in a beautiful house with a beautiful wife-
you never miss it-
however once you have it and it is taken away you are in the same situation (not having it)
but your reaction has completely changed. the tastes we recieve and the things (mostly comfort based materials) we become accustomed to can shape our lives when we grow attached to them--

another reat example of Byrnes testament to this type of material love is Naive Melody (this must be the place) as well as nothing but flowers--

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benfoldsfan
05-12-2003

Rated 0 
somebody told me this was about drilling for water in the future like we drill for oil now cos drinkable water will be so rare... and I believed them!-Well it was the eighties-it could have been that!

Yes, it must be about waking up, aged forty and finding youve just done what you expected you life to be like rather than waht it couldve been.

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myhotelyear
05-12-2003

Rated 0 
My God!! What have I done!?!?

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seattlesque
07-04-2003

Rated +1 
I interpret this song in a somewhat spiritual sense; almost like a "creation myth" in which David Byrne undergoes a reawakening to the primary forces which are moving his existence. I think we often get lost in the details of modern existence (with things like electric toothbrushes) and forget that there is a place we can go mentally where such things do not exist...where we're only paying attention to the water-like flow which is always there ("same as it ever was"). In that perspective, there is no such thing as money ("after the money's gone...") and you might find that the purity of that simpler model of thinking is unsettling ("this is not my beautiful house! this is not my beautiful wife!").

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1 Reply
Razormasticator
07-07-2003

Rated 0 
This is such a great song,and the video is ace.The guy is so comical!

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Razormasticator
04-15-2004

Rated 0 
It is still true,and this song is great.

WHAT HAVE I DONE?

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incu
05-04-2004

Rated 0 
this song is about realizing gayness

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1 Reply
zooey74
05-25-2004

Rated 0 
i think its a little simplistic to say that this song is just about appreciating what you have...

for one, pay attention to the delivery of the verses in contrast to the chorus. the verses are delivered like a sermon, then the chorus comes in like the choir. the character speaking is describing a sort of life process where people don't ask questions, where they blindly follow a certain path in life, getting a job, getting a wife, getting a car, without stopping to ask if this is what will make them happy. so byrne is comparing people who oversimplify and don't question their own life choices with people who blindly follow religions without questioning if its the right path for them or not.

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p3nguinpi3
06-18-2004

Rated 0 
The first time I really listened closely to this song I was on acid, and kept asking my RA about existance, and whether or not people actually exist. He showed me the video for this song (he owned the DVD) to help explain some things. I will say right now, that I have a completly different view than the rest of you, due to that experience.

The way I interpret this song, is when you are not questioning, you are "letting the days go by." If you don't continiously question existance, you are not doing your job as a human being. Life is about discovering who you are, and discoveries are made by inquiry. The water part of the song is the key to everything in it. Water is pure, it is the most essential part of life for all creatures. However, water is what is keeping us from discovery, it is the barrier between us and god, us and nirvana, us and serenity.

However, if you go though life without questioning what you have, and who you are, you'll still have all these great things (beautiful house, beautiful wife), as you are being held together by the water. It will always be there to support you, but at the same time it is holding you down.

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1 Reply
dougievile
11-06-2004

Rated 0 
Probably the closest any pop song has come to at realizing THE BIG QUESTION- the Meaning of life.

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President Macho
12-19-2004

Rated 0 
"Once In A Lifetime" Live cut Stop Making Sense. In a case of the live version outclassing the original nearly everything on the Stop Making Sense concert film is a masterpiece. The magnum opus of The Head's entire career can be targeted to the moment Byrne is being blown back by the wall of fuzz bridge section right before flying back into the verses more determined than ever.

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Rasputin007
01-03-2005

Rated +1 
The unexamined life is not worth living.

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Rasputin007
01-03-2005

Rated 0 
Does the water represent the passing of time?

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istareatthesun
01-06-2005

Rated 0 
Best song about a midlife crisis ever!

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PursuitofLife
02-08-2005

Rated -1 
The flow of water is the flow of life. You could either just let the days go by, and go with the flow, or you can struggle against it and let it hold you down.

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stevenmingus
05-27-2005

Rated +2 
i think it's about how when you're young you have all these ideals that you live for, and when you get out of college you start making compromises. you take a corporate job because you're tired of being shit poor. and so you meet a woman and your family or coworkers or "the american way" persuade you to marry her. and all the sudden you wake up at 40 thinking, "what the fuck is this? how did i give up so much to land here?" as you realize that you've sold all of your ideals for "success."

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