STOP MAKING SENSE

David comes out on bare stage with acoustic guitar and portable cassette player which provides rhythm. During ending, David does spastic dance which uses the whole empty stage. Tina’s bass rider is wheeled out. Stage crew are all black overalls. Drum riser is wheeled out…

Chris joins at drums. Jerry joins playing guitar. A keyboard riser is wheeled out. Ednah and Lynn sing backing vocals. Steve comes out….plays bongos. David does a ‘duck’ dance. Percussion riser wheels out. Alex joins playing guitar. Rear projection screen comes down very slowly. Bernie comes out. David does knock-knee dance at end.

Second keyboard riser has been wheeled out. Bernie begins song. ‘Jogging’ dance and #Indian-snake’ dance. David runs around the stage at the end of this song. Red slides with words…..

That’s the description to the opening sections of the movie Stop Making Sense provided within the booklet which accompanied the 1999 CD re-release.  It remains the only concert-movie that I’ve ever made an effort to go and see at the time of release, doing so at the Edinburgh Film Theatre in 1984….why I chose to see it in Edinburgh rather than Glasgow I can’t remember.  What I do know is that I was so mesmerised by it that I went back to see it again the next night in my home city.

It was a concert film unlike any other.  No close-up shots of the audience nor of  the musicians playing solos. No attempt to hide the fact that the road crew were an important an integral part of the show.  The band re-arranged a number of the songs and in doing so turned them into what many Talking Heads fans consider to be the derivative versions.

One unforseen outcome however, was the attention focussed on the parts played by David Byrne at the expense of those other long-standing members, a situation that was to lead to ever-increasing friction and the effective break up of the band within five years.

Thirty years on from its filming in Los Angeles in December 1983, Stop Making Sense remains a highly impressive piece of work.  And some of soundtrack still hold up well today:-

mp3 : Talking Heads – Psycho Killer

mp3 : Talking Heads – Slippery People

mp3 : Talking Heads – Girlfriend Is Better

Enjoy!!