Year: 1984
Director: Jonathon Demme
I’ve had a quite a history with Stop Making Sense (SMS). Way back in December 1983 I was visiting by brother in San Francisco and we saw the show at the San Francisco Auditorium. Standing up the front we watched the whole thing unfold as they wheeled out the staging and as additional performers came on stage. It was a cracker of a show.
The album came out they day I was to fly back, so I landed in Australia with probably the first copy on the continent. I think it the following day that I was back on air with my African and roots radio show. I figured that from Fear of Music on the Heads were close enough to African to warrant inclusion. So, I played it. The whole lot, both sides, stopping only to flip the disc. For the only time in my 8 years on air the switchboard was flooded. At least it proved to me that some was actually listening.
Come January 1984 Talking Heads are coming out to Oz for a festival and did a show in Melbourne. So off I go again. Much less of the staging than in the US but excellent nonetheless.
Now it is September 2023 and, 40 years henc,e me and my brother are heading off to IMAX to see the buffed up remastered SMS movie.SMS was an early digital release. The vision lacked sharpness in places but the sound was sooooperb. Separation between instruments just right and the bass prominent but crisp. The first few early tracks, for mine, exposed the thinness of Byrne’s voice. I know a lot of people nominate those first two albums as their favourites but for me it was all about when the band bulked up. Life In Wartime really muscular and Byrne now fully warmed up having more depth to his voice.
We’ve all seen the movie, hard the record, maybe even seen the concertso no point in me recounting the show but a few things stuck out at this megasized
viewing. The small things Byrne does, a pair of spectacles for one song, the playing to the camera by lunging the standard lamp towards a camera. By the way the cameras were remarkably discrete , aided by the lighting you hardly ever saw them. Byrne’s interaction with the singers and Steve Scales and Alex Weir was in contrast to its absence with the founding members. Was there any eye contact from him? I don’t think so but there were attempts from the others. And the suit, still funny after all these years. Even funnier without the jacket and with the red baseball cap on.
Tina Weymouth up on the IMAX screen – hubba hubba! What also struck me was with the new additions to the Talking Heads ensemble, the ability to dance and be highly active while singing/playing was clearly part of the job description. But what of the founding members who previously could get away with just standing there playing these quirky songs with a skinny geek out front? She can dance and handled those choreographed moves just fine, all the while laying down those essential Heads bass lines.
The show really holds up after all these years and it was comforting that my memory of that remarkable couple of months wasn’t a fantasy.
A word on the audience. Normally for these big filmed concert shows it is a bit like seeing the gig again. It’s a lively vibe, band t-shirts, applause between songs, even dancing in the aisles. At the Toronto film festival the original members were in attendance and along with audience members TH well Byrne at least was up and dancing. How surreal would that be – to be watching a film of a concert of Talking Heads and seeing David Byrne dancing in the aisle? Let’s take it further. How weird would it be to be David Byrne and dancing to a huge screen of yourself in concert? Well, there was no dancing in Melbourne and the only ones clapping were me and my bro. There were a lot of young uns there. Twenties, early thirties? Why were they there? Their folks had the album? Wanted to see why this band were so revered? Who knows. The twentysomething woman next to me did not move or make any expression whatsoever – she was staring at the screen like it was movie. Well, it was a movie, but you know what I mean. Still, you pays your money you can do what you like I suppose.
Like most of you I have seen a lot of concerts. Stop Making Sense and Byrne’s American Utopia show readily come to mind as amongst the best I have seen. Spike Lee, interviewing TH at the Toronto premiere screening gushed that this is the best concert movie ever. It’s hard to disagree. and seeing it up on the big screen is where it’s meant to be.
Might appeal to people who enjoyed:
Talking Heads
I suspect there were some Australian snakes on your keyboard – »The best proof reading is no proof reading at all.« (Bob Dylan)
Bugger , always too quick to press submit.
A pedant writes: an analogue recording, transferred to digital mutlitrack and then digitally edited and mixed (using a Sony PCM-3324 24-track digital recorder).
Jeez , makes it all worthwhile
It’s on Wikipedia!
Is a “mutlitrack” anything to do with Dick Dastardly, Fento?
Hoisted by my own petard!
Arf!
I watched the 2015 1k blu ray which is great, and sounds great, but two of the tracks are hived off into bonus chapters and the video quality was noticeably less than perfect.
I hope the 4k release, like the original VHS and the recent 2LP set, reinstates them both into the body of the film.
The show ends with Take Me To the River. In concert they did Cross Eyed and Painless as an encore.
Excellent review, the typos are a sign of your enthusiasm methinks. I thought Stop Making Sense was the best music movie until Utopia came along
If you dont like typos dotn reda my stffu.
Cunningly camouflaged Shut The Fucking Fuck Up there, well done!
Yep, great review Junes.
And I’m not much of a fan, soz.
Have you seen it Fred?
I remember having or hearing the cd many years ago. Burning down the house was my fave.
A fine review of an excellent movie of an astonishing concert.
Best music movie/filmed concert I’ve ever seen!
I remember being stunned by the movie but disappointed by the album. It wasn’t until much later, when it was reissued, that I realised there simply wasn’t enough.
I’d love to see it again. Very limited showings in the UK.
You could play the dvd thru the hi fi and not watch it Tigger.
The 2015 blu-ray has the best sound of any of them. I could explain further, but it would be very dull.
Is there any word on a 4K blu-ray?
I watched it fairly recently on tv. It must have been either Netflix or Prime. Hooked up to my best extension speakers it was a joy to see again.
‘Stop Making Sense’ Now That’s What I Call A Concert Film!
I’ve seen it many times and have never tired of it. I will most certainly buy the 4K edition.
A fine review Junior.
Now I’m going to play the newly arrived ?Anniversary 2LP set.
Me and the guys in my band were all set on going to see it. We then realised how much we’d all love to take our kids of various ages too. Was waiting with bated breath. Sadly though, no screenings in Sydney.
@DanP A wider cinema release will happen. Just the IMAX thing that is done.
Magic. Thank you!
I just checked and one of my local fleapits is showing it once a day for a week. The next nearest is 50 miles away.
Brighton is showing this Friday and Saturday, still an hour’s journey though, despite only being about 15 miles and it’s not that close to the station.
The timings are a bit niche, I’d either have to take an afternoon off work or stay up well past my bed time (my snoring would drown out the THX sound system).
Thanks for the “heads” up. It’s being screened here in November.
Glad to be of service BC.
Tried and failed to get tickets for the live Q & A at TIFF. May take my 17 yr old daughter to see it next week on an IMAX screen here in Ottawa if I can drag her away from her friends for a couple of hours
Enjoyed reading the OP, jealous you saw them live
The Tom Tom Club bit was good. Byrne makes me uncomfortable with all that studied twitching.
I saw them multiple times pre Remain In Light. The band were very static as Junior describes. The spotlight was very much on Byrne. He has been diagnosed with autism in middle age. Looking back, you can hear it in his music and lyrics and see it in his stage performance. I always felt he had to psych himself up to sing and play. He knew his voice isn’t the best. The tics are there in the vocals. It seemed natural, as an observer, that the tics would be manifest as physical twitches. It was captivating, really held the attention. He appeared to be in pain, suffering for his art. It must have been exhausting.
When I watched Stop Making Sense, I barely noticed it. It was far more prominent in the seventies.
Similar to watching Ian Curtis. I was quite young at the time, but I remember feeling uncomfortable watching him but also fascinating to see his immersion.
Indeed. If anything, Curtis was more intense. He didn’t twitch as such and there were no vocal tics. He writhed. Immersion is a great word. He was lost, beyond reach, as he performed, consumed by the music and the meaning of words. Byrne had the distraction of playing guitar as well. Curtis was totally exposed, just him and his microphone.
Ian Dury was another who suffered torment. Fortunately, he had a natural flamboyance and there were many moments of comedic relief but watching him deliver What A Waste was disturbing.
Sadly, I never saw Joy Division live (I know that you did, Tigger).
But didn’t Ian Curtis occasionally strap on a guitar?
https://www.mdmarchive.co.uk/artefact/2842/JOY_DIVISION_PHOTOGRAPH_1979
In my mind’s eye, I can’t picture him with a guitar, but he must have done.
He played his Vox Phantom on Heart & Soul and LWTUA.
To be fair, you can hardly call that ‘playing’. He barely touches the thing.
Barney plays most of it (on an acoustic) on the record. Ian’s Vox Phantom had built-in effects, guitar nerds.
I saw them supporting the Buzzcocks and he didn’t play guitar, he also didn’t say a single word to the audience between songs. Boy was he intense though. A very loud friend of mine bawled “She’s Lost Control” at him when they came back on for the encore. It shook him a bit, which I thought was quite an achievement, but he didn’t say anything, or play the request.
Buzzcocks and Joy Division rotated the headline on that tour. Equally amazing in their different ways.
I never once witnessed Curtis interacting with the audience.
I thought it was all noo wave pose.
No, his diagnosis was post-TH, originally Asperger’s but nowadays comes under the wider ASD banner.
Reading Byrne’s and Frantz’s books, as someone who is aware of Asperger’s, it comes leaping off the page. What took them so long?
Not just the books. It’s all over his songs. There is a peculiarity, an otherness, a different world view with something of an emotional detachment in them. It’s what makes them so wonderful.
Here is a playlist of covers. When others sing his songs you can hear it even more:
https://tidal.com/playlist/3d7805e2-43e1-4d50-9a94-b3d3a08322ae
Mmm. I’m still thinking poseur. Not very nice either according to the divine Tina.
Key traits of autism are being rubbish at social interactions, obsessing over what matters to you and failing to notice adverse impacts on others.
(Looks around nervously)
We are all on the spectrum.
But some of us are looking at the pop stars.
What like making them reaudition for the band a few times? TW concluded he couldn’t cope with Tom Tom Club having a massive hit.
DB says now he was a tyrant in the band and was awful for which he apologises. He doesn’t say it was down to his condition. He mellowed and became a better person. It didn’t have to be that way. Perhaps he was a better artist back then though. Or something was lost through being better adjusted. Not the first person to find their creativity compromised by being happier.
It started with Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place). That’s the sound of DB falling in love with Adelle Lutz. Little Creatures is fascinated with mature domesticity. Tina and Chris had a two year old by then. True Stories explores, sympathetically, the lives of people in the Big Country, people he’d literally looked down upon in 1978. By Naked, he was married himself and had a daughter the year after.
He grew up.
I think a lot of successful bands are steered by a bit of a tyrant. Maybe they need one. The Tull for example – Ian A is not exactly democratic though within constraints he allows the players to do their thing – he defines the constraints though. Keef/Stones etc etc.
I note the twitch had gone by 1992 according to YouTube. Maybe he just felt generally more comfortable.
Reply to Tigger.Thanks for the lesson. That was my point really. Except I think albums 2 and 3 are the best. I don’t care so much about the maturity and insight. Those early albums are where the original band gel best and it’s the music that interests me most. Byrne is a bit less prominent yet brilliant in his lyrics. RIL is better live on The Name Of This Band…better than SMS for having Belew on guitar.
I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be condescending.
Pop music is a young person’s game really. Even today. I see Kylie has released another cracking album! 😉
I have often wondered if the line in Wordy Rappinghood was about DB. What line? This one…
“words are like a certain person who don’t mean what they say and don’t say what they mean…”
Thanks Tigger. That’s an excellent playlist. (Sadly you have to sign up to Tidal to be able to listen to it. Fair enough, they want to get new customers.)
Sadly, it seems to be a very long time since Byrne wrote any memorable new songs. Rei Momo was the last album that impressed me.
When he toured with St Vincent to promote Love this Giant, it was the old Talking Heads songs that made the strongest impression.
I would be happy to hear that I am wrong about this!
Much as I am in broad agreement, KFD, the pedant in me is jumping up and down, shouting “but what about?”
Uh-Oh (1992) was mostly underwhelming but 1994’s David Byrne is excellent and features this, which is good enough that I was able to convince people it was a lost Talking Heads song (it isn’t!)
1997’s Feelings (with Morcheba) was ‘pleasant’, but 2001’s Look Into The Eyeball features this:
and 2004’s Grown Backwards features this:
Byrne really needs a solo Best Of.
Generally agree, I sort of gave up buying his albums after “David Byrne”, some good stuff on his last one but not enough to convince me to buy it. Rei Momo is brilliant. And he had a no. 2 hit in the UK (kind of) with Lazy. His biggest ever in any incarnation.
Always brilliant live though
Some good tracks on his last album, 2018’s American Utopia
Everybody’s Coming To My House
It’s Not Dark Up Here
Gasoline And Dirty Sheets
Oh. And quit Spotify and sign up to Tidal! 😉
Tidal indeed! It sounds more like a washing powder than a streaming site.
Thanks everyone for all those DB songs that I’d missed.
His last collaboration with Eno is excellent. Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.
Don’t know about twitching, but seeing this was a revelation. He became a completely different frontman, plenty of humour in there too. I never saw Talking Heads live, but have seen many David Byrne shows since 1989. All were superb in different ways. May actually prefer the Songs of Byrne and Eno tour (2008) to the much appreciated American Utopia show, brilliant as that is
This was a good write up.
https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/culture/film/2023/09/16/talking-heads-stop-making-sense
Excellent review, Junior. It got me thinking of all the times I’ve seen David Byrne live: twice with Talking Heads and then many times as a solo artist.
His tour with St Vincent and a brass band was quite magic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db293GrsDjo
As was the Rei Momo tour with a full Latin orchestra.
Here’s a complete concert from that tour recorded in Chile.
Angelique Kidjo re-recorded Remain in Light in 2018 re-inventing all the songs from her African perspective. This summer at Roskilde she performed several of them with her quartet, and very good they were too.
Here she is with a full orchestra.
While nosing around for my Funky Bus Stop thread, I came across a (now defunct) US funk band called Turkuaz. They were chosen by Adrian Belew and Jerry Harrison to be the backing band for their celebratory tour of Remain in Light.
Here’s the full concert, if you’re interested. The sound is not perfect.
And here’s the same line up doing a few songs on Zoom or whatever they used. The sound is far better.
Remain In Light was a big influence on Don Cherry’s Home Boy, Sister Out album. Recorded in Paris with French African musicians, there’s funk, jazz and African influences. Apparently it was slated in the jazz press at the time and was only released in France. It is now considered an avant funk masterpiece. I first came across this track n the Disco Not Disco (Leftfield Disco Classics From The New York Underground) compilation.
I Walk
It’s ridiculous how much quality live footage there is of both the Heads and Byrne on YT.
How about a 1982 concert in Switzerland.
A slightly unexpected cover! Whitney Houston!
And a show from David and St Vincent and that amazing brass band.
So brilliantly staged!
Tigger has put together a fine list of TH and DB covers.
Anybody got any favourite cover versions?
Burning down the house by Tom Jones and the Cardigans takes some beating. I just discovered k.d. lang’s version of Heaven.
My absolute favourite is Kishi Bashi Naive Melody. It makes me cry.
Tigg has posted a live Mavis version, but I really like The Staples Singers go at Slippery People:
While we’re talking about the Heads, I’d like to mention True Stories from 1986.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092117/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Directed by Byrne it’s something of a vanity project but enjoyable nonetheless.
And it had some great tunes.
Then there’s the record label which he founded Luaka Bop.
Beleza Tropicale and those other Brazilian compilations really helped to put Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa and others on the map of rock fans like myself.
Here is DB “duetting” with Caetano at Carnegie Hall in 2012.
There’s a language barrier but it does strike me that David is not really a chap to do duets with.
Here’s Caetano showing how a duet should be done!
Such a great give and take.
Shall have to play my copy of True Stories again.
Many of the soundtrack versions work better than the band’s own album, which was the second option.
It needs a bit of editing. Try this:
https://tidal.com/playlist/3d530e7c-32dd-4f7c-ae36-df26d370d960
They released the soundtrack album (as opposed to the band version) a couple of years ago. I prefer it. I tried to copy an Amazon link but it wouldn’t work.
This always makes me laugh:
That made my evening @fentonsteve. I can imagine it went down a storm at parties.
A Boston band on an Aussie TV show called Rage.
Here’s one of their hits.
Actually I think their hits were rarer than hen’s teeth.
It was heartening to hear that Byrne has apologised abut how he used to be.
@Diddley Farquar commented:
“Perhaps he was a better artist back then though. Or something was lost through being better adjusted. Not the first person to find their creativity compromised by being happier.”
But I can’t agree with that. I’m with Dai on this. He has become a superb showman who clearly enjoys performing.
The Rei Momo tour with a top notch Latin orchestra. Playing with that flamboyant livewire, St Vincent. I’ve seen him twice since then and his stagecraft and desire to put on a show that is both musically and visually entertaining just increases all the time.
Then again, Talking Heads were pretty fab on the More Songs about Buildings and Food tour.
Remember this golden oldie?
I am not a one for celebrity gossip….Not like some people I could name!
But, while trying to jog my memory about Luaka Bop releases, I stumbled across the fact that David Byrne is a granddad. His daughter, Malu, has a five year old son, Bo.
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/david-byrne-gives-rare-insight-130000990.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKUcaJmli3CGRvSSyO4yyQFTaK1mRJOFo6eobqeSbXYxd3Mx0AWbehrCn-m05QsJW2r3H7nN31Rhip57p_PjQNJQDbxm8obZr5aAO4vhpcbAOseKV_TTMJN1umhoh9kJ5t9KM0Z9TTyGNLX9V-1Sj5CqaU3Qxk6eBjjAm-DAo7kC
It actually makes me warm to him. Difficult to be an aloof hipster when you’re a grandad! Just ask Clive Dunn! His street cred when own the toilet after that song.
I don’t suppose David Byrne will be doing a cover of Clive’s mega hit.
“Psycho Grandad! Watcha say? Da da da da da da.”
If you don’t know Luaka Bop, I can warmly recommend you to look at their back catalogue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luaka_Bop
Some fantastic artists!
Susanna Baca from Peru, Los del Abajo from Mexico, Jim White, Zap Mama, Tom Ze, William Onyeabor, Los Amigos Invisibles…
They released three Cuba Classics albums.
Here’s the opening track from Volume 3: Diablo al Infierno.
It’s a scorcher
And here’s the title track Diablo al inferno! Performed by Cuban metal band, Zeus:
We have a lot to thank David Byrne for!
I was intrigued to hear that Byrne had worked with Morcheeba, so I had to find out more.
https://chaoscontrol.com/morcheeba/
“You worked with David Byrne – how did that come about?
Ross Godfrey: “We’d just finished our first record and we weren’t sure if anyone was going to like it or not. We got a phone call from David Byrne in New York, saying he loved the record and could we produce his album. Which was very bizarre, since we’d only just produced our own record and never anyone else. And David Byrne was one of our all-time favorite musical heroes, one of the best in the world, and he was asking us to work with him. It was very, very strange at the time. He came over and met us, to see our studio and stuff, just to check that we weren’t completely mad drug addicts [laughs] and when he realized that we were mad drug addicts he decided to have us do the work anyway. We just came over and spent like three weeks working on his record. He’s sent us a DAT with like 30 songs on it, him playing acoustic guitar to a drum machine. That was very bizarre as well, it’s not very often that you get to hear David Byrne’s bedroom demos. Then we recorded 9 songs with him and had a lot of fun doing it. We got to experiment very much, he didn’t seem to be too precious about letting us get wild on it. I was playing the sitar, and we got this guy Pierre La Rue to play Cajun fiddle on it. Paul played some drums and loops, so we had hip-hop beats with Indian sitar and cajun violin and banjos, he was sort of yodling over the top … it’s a really bizarre mixture of music that works reasonably well. I think my favorite track is “Daddy Go Down”
Here they are together on Later.
Tigger praised the 2012 Byrne and Eno album, Everything that happens…. so I’ll be exploring that.
Here’s one of the songs together with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus.
And while we’re doing Byrne and choirs….
There’s been so much else to talk about that no one has mentioned the other Eno and Byrne project, the extraordinary My life in the bush of ghosts.
Bri reckons this is TH at their finest
Yes I think so. Remain In Light was the last great album. The live stuff was even better around 80/81. Of course much of what the band did after then plus solo projects was worth listening to. Some was excellent but the band had peaked.
Tell that Bri that he knows what he’s talking about.
The original Heads augmented by Adrian Belew made for a wonderful live band.
Not that there weren’t other permutations that worked very well.
I have to chuckle at Bri’s contributions to the AW from “The Other Side”.
It’s all rather like a seance with Lodey, armed with tarot cards, a crystal ball or a ouija board, playing the part of a kind of Mystic Meg.
“Bri is among us, He would like to speak to you.”
Spooky!
https://view.nl.npr.org/?qs=9754d2b1e11afe4b8d6b2eb1d7278432cb57348f1e9121b5c9cc7a7c514ffefb8bcea373550abd40b2f4008fc4a49322a072ca3bad7cfec3aa564a1e63436c7feb4d79ae0c8211ce98fc12f2a0ff2125732b60d4b709333e
Excellent article, Lodestone. I’m very glad to read that they can sit in the same room again.
I can’t wondering how many people, not only fans but also venues, music promoters, festivals etc are wondering there is any chance they might play together again.
Unlikely I know, but it would be a very lucrative tour.
Maybe they’ll follow ABBA and use holograms?
Tried to get hold of this for a review on here but was told the record company weren’t making anything available for promotion, not even a stream, even though it’s the first time the complete show had been released. Very odd.
Watching that film of Talking Heads live in Rome in 1980, really reminded me of how much Adrian Belew’s guitar playing contributed to the band’s sound.
This interview explains how he first came into contact with them.
https://www.westword.com/music/adrian-belew-talking-heads-remain-in-light-tour-jeremy-harrison-16111420
The first time I heard him was probably when he toured with Bowie.
He played with Zappa early in his career and was a long-standing member of King Crimson.
Quite a career!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adrian_Belew
Belew is great but I expect Alex Weir was chosen partly for his dynamic movin groovin presence on stage.
Zappa was allegedly rather peeved when Bowie nabbed Adrian Belew from him.
Belew’s vocal ability to the fore on this clip.
Naked would be few people’s favourite album but it has this little gem, where he took his African direction down to the Congo rather his usual West African Afrobeat groove.
Great choice, Junior.
Proof that even on the “weaker” albums there are gems to be found! Excellent video!
Here’s a surprise. The Heads performing a (rather decent) song from a Jerry Harrison solo album.
And now a superb live version of one of the Heads best ever songs.
I like Naked quite a lot, as well as the above I also love Blind and Mr Jones
You’re darn right there, @Dai!
Two fine songs!
And talking about forgotten TH gems….
Uh Oh Love comes to town
Yep they are good uns too.
I was browsing through wiki about THs’ earlier albums and came across these anecdotes about the recording of the first album. I’m sure all you Headsheads know all this.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talking_Heads:_77
“In November 1975, Seymour Stein, a representative of Sire Records, had heard Talking Heads open for the Ramones. He liked the song “Love → Building on Fire”, and the next day, offered a record deal, but the group was still unsure about their studio abilities, and wanted a second guitarist as well as a keyboard player to help improve their sound. They agreed to let him know when they felt more confident.[5]
A month later, Lou Reed, who had seen a few Talking Heads shows at CBGB, invited the trio to his New York apartment, where he began to critique the group’s act, telling them to slow down “Tentative Decisions”,[6] which had originally been fast and bass-heavy.[7] Reed also suggested to David Byrne that he never wear short sleeves on stage, in order to hide his hairy arms. Over breakfast at a local restaurant, Reed expressed a desire to produce the group’s first album and wanted to introduce them to his manager, Jonny Podell. That same day Podell called the trio to meet at his office, where he immediately offered them a recording contract.”
………
“Within two weeks the basic tracks were down, but still needed overdubs. Sessions were halted when Ken Kushnick, Sire’s European representative, offered them a chance to tour Europe with the Ramones in order to promote their “Love → Building on Fire” single.[12]
While on tour the group continued to develop their sound, and on May 14, performed at The Rock Garden in Covent Garden, London, where John Cale, Brian Eno and Chris Thomas saw them.[13] Linda Stein, the Ramones’ co-manager brought Cale, Eno and Thomas backstage after the concert where they all shook hands. Thomas allegedly heard Cale say to Eno “They’re mine, you bugger!” All members of Talking Heads already knew Cale fairly well, as he had produced Jerry Harrison in 1972 for The Modern Lovers (1976), and was a regular at CBGBs throughout the original trio’s growth.”
Another forgotten gem that I just stumbled across.
A 1979 South Bank Show doc about Talking Heads! Enjoy!
Toronto film fest Q&A.
What a find @fentonsteve!
Fascinating to hear their comments about the show and the making of the movie.
They were very blessed to be working with Jonathan Demne.
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001129/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_6_nm_2_q_jonathon%2520demne
The four Heads seem to be doing a mini tour. This interview took play a few days later in Brooklyn.
The interviewer dares to ask the question we’re all thinking:
“Could putting this out and seeing people’s reaction potentially open the door for more live stuff?”
Well, at lest they didn’t do an ABBA and say it will never happen.
4 comments , make that 3 after this , off a hamper for a film review. Is this a first? I suppose Get Back racked em up but it wasn’t a movie.
Given what Christ Frantz had written about David Byrne in his “Remain in Love” memoir, I’m surprised there weren’t fisticuffs at the recent events where the band have appeared at the same table. I imagined that it would be like those press conferences before a big heavyweight title fight, when someone says something, and then it all KICKS OFF, and before you know it, there’s a massive brawl on the floor….
Great work, Junior! This was a thread that really captured the Zeitgeist of September 2023.
There’s an enormous interest in the Psychokiller Hitmakers all over the world. From Haparanda to Harrow, everyone is talking about the Heads.
It may amuse @Locust to know that Swedish music journalist, Jan Gradvall, has been striving to find out how many times TH actually played in Sweden. After considerable research he ascertained that they only came here once and played three gigs: Stockholm, Gothenburg and ….Ronneby. I have no idea where that is. The club was only half full.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Cxm-P1-NakV/?img_index=1
“Bekräftat!
Talking Heads var endast i Sverige en gång, juni 1978, och gjorde då 3 spelningar:
14 juni, Göta Lejon i Stoclholm tillsammans med Mink DeVille (Talking Heads imponerande inte på DN:s recensent: “Sångaren David Brynes (sic) påminner om en gymnast som just fått finnar”)
15 juni på Crazy Daisy på Gårdavägen 9 i Göteborg (135 sålda biljetter, 35 kr styck, lastpallar som scen, spelning sponsrad av Handels, Tina Weymouth tog polaroid på publiken)
17 juni på klubben Ron i Ronneby (halvfullt, har vittne som stod längst fram och fick sitt “77”-album signerat efteråt)
Klubb Ron i Ronneby hade spelningar med Clash (77), The Jam (77) och Ramones (78). The Jam fick avbryta i andra låten på grund av vilt slagsmål. Deras manager, Paul Wellers pappa, och gruppen skruvade loss stolsben och hoppade ut och slog tillbaka (sann historia).
Talking Heads var förband till Ramones 1977, närmare 20 spelningar i UK, men följde inte med till spelningen på Jarlateatern.
Tack snälla alla, typ 40 personer, som hjälpt till med fakta, bilder, frågat runt. Fantastiska historier.”
Back to the film. Another good article about the reunion.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/a-talking-heads-reunion-for-the-return-of-stop-making-sense/
“Byrne, Frantz and Weymouth had met as students at the Rhode Island School for Design, where Byrne and Frantz had already formed a cover band called The Artistics. “We both really enjoyed it,” said Frantz. “I could see that David had a gift as a front person.
Weymouth recalled, “I heard stories from Chris: ‘Oh, yeah, that’s Mad Dave.’ He would do things, you know, performance art where he would shave off half his beard vertically.”
The interviewer asked about the feuding.
“Do you feel like over the years you guys, in one way or another, hurt each other?”
“Families do that,” Weymouth replied. “They don’t just, you know, bite each other. They take chunks out! But the beauty of it is, well, maybe you don’t forget, but you forgive.”
I suspect that Jerry Harrison, who did all the work on the film, was the peacemaker and brokered the reunion. Here he is talking about the challenge of remastering the movie.
https://www.indiewire.com/features/craft/stop-making-sense-restoration-talking-heads-sound-imax-a24-1234907266/
This article will really appeal to the tech nerds.
nice research KFD !
I am enjoying myself enormously, @Junior. Thanks for curating the thread and providing that review which got this all started off so well.
Another piece that’s well worth a read. From 2018, Alex Petridis ranks DB’s top 20 albums
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2018/jun/14/david-byrne-every-one-of-his-albums-ranked
Several albums I’ve never heard of. I’d no idea he’d worked with Fatboy Slim and then sundry Scottish artists like Belle and Sebastian, Snow Patrol and Mogwai!
There’s an excellent Spotify playlist to be had from all this.
Seconded, Junior.
Interesting to hear the audio has been remixed from scratch (the multi-track masters) again, as it was for the 1999 version.
I’m also keen to see the 4k transfer from the negatives as the 1k blu ray from 2009 sounds great but the picture is a bit dusty in places and the extra tracks (Cities & I Zimbra/Big Business) look pretty bad.
I saw it on Saturday and thought it looked like a really good print, not over restored or too bright and sharp like some digital content.
“Deras manager, Paul Wellers pappa, och gruppen skruvade loss stolsben och hoppade ut och slog tillbaka (sann historia).”
Now that I can believe – John Weller was a well-known hardcase!
David Byrne’s website is a real treasure trove. So much information!
https://www.davidbyrne.com/explore#filter=all&sortby=date:desc&display=grid
Well worth a browse!
https://www.davidbyrne.com/explore/look-into-the-eyeball/about
Curse you, KFD – that’s another live DVD I’ve gone and bought.
That’s what friends are for @fentonsteve!!
When the movie True Stories was released, “Rock’s Renaissance Man” was on the cover of Time Magazine. He also made an appearance on the Letterman Show.
Here’s an article about a chap that DB mentions: Bill Harding, the Grass Suit Man.
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/01/16/Grass-man-returns-to-his-roots/3979474699600/
And here’s that amazing Grass Suit live!
@kaisfatdad I sat down last night to watch the blu ray disc of Ride, Rise, Roar – the 2008 tour of Eno/Byrne songs. Everyone is dressed in white, and the’re a trio of choreograhed dancers on stage, at times almost balletic. It reminded me a bit of seeing Wojtek with the Blue Aeroplanes.
I could have done without the interviews before every song – I’d have put them in the DVD extras – but it’s well worth picking up for 72 pence, like wot I dun.
I was exhausted watching the dancers after one song. Here’s one example:
Very interesting @fentonsteve.
When DB toured with Saint Vincent it was also very choreographed which worked extremely well.
Here’s another Letterman interview, this time with a performance by the extended band of Burning down the House.
Tina is playing a keyboard and is completely ignored by the cameraman.
From the same visit, here’s I Zimbra. Tina is now back on the bass and is little more visible.
Both these performances are stupendous.
Something I’ve noticed in quite a few TV clips of bands with non-singing female musicians.
If they don’t sing, female band members tend to be ignored.
To be fair, bass players of any gender are often ignored in such clips if they don’t sing. Drummers are always shown at some point, if present.
Need to get togged up for a special occasion? Here’s the store for you!
Very droll!
Sadly, I don’t think Mr Byrne ever appeared on The Fast Show.
Suits you, Sir!
If only every pop star were so self-aware.
Cinephiles, I have a treat for you.
Here is a very thoughtful, very well-illustrated talk which explains why SMS is such a stupendous movie.
Just the simple detail that we don’t any shots of the audience’s reaction until the very last song, which goes completely against the normal conventions of a concert movie.
KFD – I see that “Stop Making Sense” is being shown a couple of times at Kulturhuset in Stockholm in December…
Bio Cafe Tellus showed it yesterday @duco01.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CyFtLPzoVAA/
Their projectionist also works at Bio Reflexen so I’ll ask her if it was sold out.
I went to see this at the local Imax last night – absolutely magnificent. It had probably been a good twenty years since I watched it through and I had forgotten just how damn funky the band was. Beautifully shot too – it was, if anything, better than my memory told me. It is bound to spark a Heads revival in our household – as per the other thread, Mrs H will be less than delighted.
I have the Don Cherry mentioned above on order too. Thanks for sparking the reignition Junior.
Excellent that you got to see it Paul.
I missed it at my local cinema due to a combination of the showings either being too late for me or clashes with big Rugby World Cup games. It’s apparently coming back to a downtown fleapit in a couple of weeks, will endeavour to see it then assuming the previous restrictions don’t apply. I did notice that at my massive local Imax theatre it seemed to be about 5% full for the showings I checked.
Thanks to @fentonsteve for this gem!
Erm, KFD, did you mean this?
Ooops! I did indeed! Thanks @fentonsteve.
Is it screened with the concert mix or the album mix with overdubs and corrections?
I have read nothing to suggest they used the album mix.
The last restored version of this film had both soundtracks, so they’ve created a sync master of the album mix. If they create a new Atmos mix, they might take from both to create it. That would give them more isolated sound elements.
A recent Tina Weymouth interview gives some insight into David Byrne’s incredible energy on stage – cocaine.
That’s not surprising but a bit disappointing.
Just come back from it. I dragged my teenage twins along – they weren’t kicking and screaming because fast food was happening afterwards. It was every bit as good as I remember and the twins both enjoyed it. Pretty sure neither of them have seen a performer like Byrne.
I’d forgotten the Tom Tom Club bit – so that was a nice surprise. I had also forgotten how joyful they were as a band, particularly the eager, good-natured energy of Chris Frantz.
I liked the fact that the audience was seated and not featured much early on, but you see more of them as we move through the show and can almost see the roof lifting off by the time we get to Girlfriend is Better and Crosseyed and Painless.
Conversation in the car was that this could have been from last week, rather than 40 years ago. Some haircuts perhaps looked of-the-time. My daughter said Tina Weymouth’s tights were definitely unavailable now and wouldn’t even be ironically worn by a quirky pop star of today.
You got twins? Cool! I’m a twin (dizygotic). It’s great growing up a twin, but we both really hated being referred to by grown-ups as “the twins”. I think we saw it as a denial of our differences, which were manifold.
I took my 17 year old daughter to see it. Halfway through she whispered in my ear “This is changing my life!” 🙂
It’s great when that kind of thing happens!
Indeed
That must have been a real thrill.
I remember when my youngest, then eleven, declared I Am The Walrus to be his favourite song. That reminds me, I must ask what he, now 23, thinks of the remix.
Any news on a 4K blu-ray release? Every time I ask my record shop man, he says “announcement due soon”.