• Writers: Talking Heads
• Producers: Brian Eno and Talking Heads
• Recorded: Spring 1979 in New York City
• Released: August 1979
• Players:
  David Byrne — vocals, guitar
  Tina Weymouth — bass, vocals
  Jerry Harrison — keyboards, vocals
  Chris Frantz — drums, vocals
  Laura Weymouth, Lani Weymouth — backing vocals
• Album: Fear Of Music (Sire, 1979)
• Also On:
  The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads (Sire, 1982)
  Stop Making Sense (Sire, 1984)
  Popular Favorites 1976-1992: Sand In The Vaseline (Sire, 1992)
  Once In A Lifetime (Rhino, 2003)
• “Life During Wartime” was one of Talking Heads‘ most popular tracks and a staple of their live performances. It’s also one of the band’s most political pieces, imagining a landscape after a political breakdown, and sung in the voice of a guerrilla who narrates his movements and survival techniques.
• Singer-guitarist David Byrne explained, “I wrote this is my loft on Seventh and Avenue A. I was thinking about (German terrorists the) Baader-Meinhof (gang), Patty Hearst, Tompkins Square. This is a song about living in (New York’s) Alphabet City.”
• Byrne also noted, “The line ‘This ain’t no disco’ sure stuck! Remember when they would build bonfires of Donna Summer records? Well, we liked some disco music. It’s called dance music now. Some of it was radical, camp, silly, transcendent, and disposable. So it was funny that we were sometimes seen as flag-bearers of the anti-disco movement.”
• The song itself was built from a jam at the New York City loft of husband-and-wife Heads Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz.
• Byrne used to spice up live performances of the song by running laps around the stage or by running into the crowd.
• The Fear Of Music album, Talking Heads’ third, peaked at Number 21 on the Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold, while “Life During Wartime” peaked at Number 80 on the pop chart.

FAST FORWARD:

• Talking Heads stopped touring after their elaborate 1983 trek that was captured in the film Stop Making Sense, though they continued to record until 1988.
• Byrne has maintained a successful solo career and also runs a world music label called Luaka Bop.
• Singer-guitarist Jerry Harrison has released solo albums and has produced hit albums by the Verve Pipe, Live, the Crash Test Dummies, the Fine Young Cannibals, No Doubt, and others.
• The husband-and-wife team of Frantz and singer-bassist Tina Weymouth have continued their side project the Tom Tom Club.
• In 1996, Harrison, Weymouth, and Frantz reunited as the Heads, though their album — recorded with a number of guest singers and songwriters — was a commercial dud and was challenged by legal action from Byrne.
• Talking Heads reunited for their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March 2002.