BILL MESNIK OF THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENTS: THE SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET - SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD - EPISODE #57-: "ONCE IN A LIFETIME"- TALKING HEADS- Sire Records-1981

DIG THIS WITH BILL MESNIK AND RICH BUCKLAND- THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS

The Meaning of “Once in a Lifetime”
Byrne might have used preacher cadences as a jumping-off point for the song. But his message is more universal than regional, as he hints at the idea of someone living a life that has developed almost beyond their control. The refrain of You may find yourself supports this notion. Byrne implies that a person’s location, car, and spouse might not be anything they’ve actually chosen.

In the second verse, consciousness and free will bubbles to the surface. This is not my beautiful house, the unnamed protagonist snaps. This is not my beautiful wife. In the final verse, he looks for a way out. Where does that highway go to? he wonders. And then, in a killer of a final line, he realizes that somewhere along the way, his journey has created consequences: My God, what have I done?
In the refrains, water, both to baptize this lost soul and to wash away his sins, floods over the proceedings. But even that isn’t enough to effect any meaningful change in the course of a life. Same as it ever was, Byrne direly intones. That stagnancy might have affected the folks struggling within “Once in a Lifetime.” But Talking Heads made sure with songs like this that they were never settling for the same-old, same-old.