Brian Eno and David Byrne - Ghosts

I have issues with the label of "world music". Something tells me that people in Africa aren't referring to American or British pop music as "world music". That said, I understand why such a generalized label exists, as many people need something simple they can use when referring to something they're not necessarily familiar with or know very little about.

Music that is foreign to one's natural culture can understandably be very interesting, and I'd be lying to say I know oodles about such things, but I know what I like. The same could be said for Brian Eno and David Byrne. While Eno was producing music for Talking Heads, he and Byrne had discussed the idea of making a music that sounded like it came from an unknown country, indigenous only to itself. With this concept they started creating the music that would form their 1980 album, My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, a collection of grooves, some rather funky and not far removed from the sound of Talking Heads, but with the major difference of audio samples from varying sources in place of vocals. It created an interesting and disorienting style unlike much of anything heard before it's release.

The road to Bush Of Ghosts' release was rather complicated, largely in part to sample clearances. Kathryn Kuhlman, an American faith healer and Pentecostal evangelist, had been sampled for a piece named Into The Spirit Womb, but her estate refused to allow Eno and Byrne to use the samples of Kuhlman, so despite the album having been finished, they returned to the studio to redo the track, now named The Jezebel Spirit, and record additional pieces. With these additional sessions completed the album was again considered finished and was released, although several tracks intended for the original version of the album had been deleted and replaced by new recordings.

In 2006, Eno and Byrne reunited to reissue the released Bush Of Ghosts with some of the recordings that never received an official release. The reissue featured extensive liner notes alongside those newly released tracks, but the Kuhlman-sampling track was still unable to be cleared leaving some people disappointed.

Well before the 2006 reissue was even considered, a bootleg named Ghosts began to circulate, featuring the original, unreleased version of the album with the Kuhlman-sampling track included as well as most of the unreleased recordings featured on the reissue, albeit in different mixes, making it an equally important part of the Bush Of Ghosts story.

Included in this version of this release is an excerpt of an interview with Brian Eno discussing the creation of the album. I'm including notes as to what the differences are between the names of the tracks in this collection and their names on the 2006 reissue as well as alternate labels. All of the mixes of the tracks released on the 1980 version of the album are the same here. I am also including two additional tracks from this era, Qu'ran which was removed from later pressings of the album due to pressure from the Muslim community due to the source of it's samples, and Garbage Disco which was the working title for the original, instrumental version of America Is Waiting.


Brian Eno and David Byrne - Ghosts
NOTE: This has been re-upped for anyone having trouble with the original rar file. If you don't want to re-download the whole thing, at the bottom of the page there is a link for track five only.

01 Interview (excerpt from Eno's February 2, 1980 KPFA-FM interview)
02 Mea Culpa
03 Into The Spirit Womb (original version of The Jezebel Spirit with Kathryn Kuhlman samples. alternate working title was Lot.)
04 Regiment
05 The Friends Of Amos Tutuola (released as Two Against Three on the 2006 reissue. alternate working title was Iron Bed.)
06 America Is Waiting
07 The Carrier (working title was Breathing Once A Minute.)
08 Very, Very Hungry (working title was Shaking With My Voice.)
09 On The Way To Zagora (released as Pitch To Voltage on the 2006 reissue. alternate working title was Cunning Tendancy.)
10 Les Hommes Ne Le Sauront Jamais (released as Number 8 Mix on the 2006 reissue. alternate working title was Late But Serious.)
11 A Secret Life (working title was In The Castle Of My Skin.)
12 Come With Us (working title was Spirit Of Prey.)
13 Mountain Of Needles

Additional Tracks:
Qu'ran
Garbage Disco (instrumental of America Is Waiting)

NOTE: Garbage Disco has been reuploaded.

REUPLOAD: The Friends Of Amos Tutuola