"I Zimbra" is a song by American New Wave band Talking Heads

Talking Heads

Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...

, released as the second single from their 1979 album Fear of Music

Fear of Music (album)

Fear of Music is the third studio album by American New Wave band Talking Heads, released on 3 August 1979 on Sire Records. It was recorded at locations in New York City between April and May 1979 and was produced by the quartet and Brian Eno. The album entered the Billboard 200 in the United...

.

The song's lyrics are an adaptation of Dadaist Hugo Ball

Hugo Ball

Hugo Ball was a German author, poet and one of the leading Dada artists.Hugo Ball was born in Pirmasens, Germany and was raised in a middle-class Catholic family. He studied sociology and philosophy at the universities of Munich and Heidelberg...

's poem "Gadji beri bimba."

Lyrics

The lyrics contain these lines:

Gadji beri bimba glandridi

Lauli lonni cadori gadjam

A bim beri glassala glandride

E glassala tuffm I zimbra

In an interview, Jerry Harrison named "I Zimbra" as his favorite Talking Heads song, and pointed out that the style of the group’s next album, Remain in Light

Remain in Light

Remain in Light is the fourth studio album by American New Wave band Talking Heads, released on 8 October 1980 on Sire Records. It was recorded at locations in the Bahamas and the United States between July and August 1980 and was produced by the quartet's long-time collaborator...

, was indebted to the song’s innovations.

We also knew that our next album would be a further exploration of what we had begun with "I Zimbra".

- Jerry Harrison, Liquid Audio, 1997

Charts

Chart (1980)	Peak position
US Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Hot Dance Club Play Hot Dance Club Play The Hot Dance Club Songs chart is a weekly national survey of the songs that are most popular in U.S. dance clubs...	28

Personnel

• David Byrne
  David Byrne (musician)
  David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography,...
  
   – vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  , guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s
• Chris Frantz
  Chris Frantz
  Chris Frantz is an American musician and record producer. He was the drummer for both Talking Heads and the Tom Tom Club.-Career:...
  
   – drums
• Jerry Harrison
  Jerry Harrison
  Jerry Harrison is an American songwriter, musician and producer...
  
   – keyboards, guitars, backing vocals
• Tina Weymouth
  Tina Weymouth
  Martina Michèle "Tina" Weymouth is an American musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the New Wave group Talking Heads and its side project Tom Tom Club .-Profile:Weymouth is of French heritage on her mother's side. Weymouth was a cheerleader in high school...
  
   – bass, backing vocals
• Gene Wilder, Ari – congas
• Brian Eno
  Brian Eno
  Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
  
   – treatments
• Robert Fripp
  Robert Fripp
  Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
  
   – guitar
• Hassam Ramzy – surdo
  Surdo
  For the football player of the same name see Surdu.The surdo is a large bass drum used in many kinds of Brazilian music, most notably in Axé/Samba-reggae and samba and its variants, where it plays the lower parts from a percussion section....
  
  
• Abdou M'Boup – djembe
  Djembe
  A djembe also known as jembe, jenbe, djbobimbe, jymbe, yembe, or jimbay, or sanbanyi in Susu; is a skin-covered drum meant played with bare hands....
  
  , talking drum
• Assane Thiam – percussion
• Julie Last – backing vocals

Deleted film footage

The song was one of three songs (along with "Cities" and "Big Business") that were cut from the theatrical release of the 1983 concert film Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense

Stop Making Sense is a concert movie featuring Talking Heads live on stage. Directed by Jonathan Demme, it was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theater in December 1983, as the group was touring to promote their new album Speaking in Tongues. The movie is notable for...

but were restored as a bonus feature for the 1999 DVD release.