Talking Heads Stop Making Sense Sire, 1984 amazon

In 1999 my good friend and indie guru Lance invited Veronica and i to a screening of the newly remastered 1984 Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense at the Castro Theater. Having been conscious in the 80's i was aware of Talking Heads ... "Wild Life", "Once in a Lifetime", "Burning Down the House", sure ... but i could only loosely be called a fan. The film though was oddly engrossing. I say oddly because it is essentially a video recording of a Talking Heads performance. Other music films tend to try to add something to the concert experience to make it visually interesting, like The Who's The Kids Are Alright. Recently, Coldplay released a rather arty shooting of one of their shows on DVD, which certainly had its problems. But back to the subject at hand: Stop Making Sense is an eye-opening performance by a collection of extraordinarily gifted musicians. David Byrne enters the stage with a boombox, stating "Hi, I've got a tape want to play", which provides the drum beat for "Psycho Killer". The band then emerges and plays through a series of modern rock standards. By the time they reach "Making Flippy Floppy", the playfulness of the performance is apparent, as are the complexity and resonance of the arrangements. The climax comes in the sequence of "This Must Be The Place (Naïve Melody)", "Once in a Lifetime", and the Tom Tom Club's contribution of "Genius of Love". By the middle of Lifetime i'm in tears, and then find myself giggling as Chris Frantz grumbles "James Brooooooooown!" during Genius ("He still is the godfather of soul y'all, so check it out!"). The set then winds down with the aggression of "Girlfriend is Better", an interesting spin on the gospel-flavored "Take Me to the River", and the frenzy of "Crosseyed and Painless". While writing my thesis at UCSF in 2001 i would listen to this soundtrack in its entirety over and over again. The whole is a real musical journey, a record of the talent of the four Talking Heads. It makes me proud that Lance did take me to the Castro Theater that night, to be in attendance as David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Jerry Harrison, and Chris Frantz discussed their work.

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