Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense: Special New Edition (1984 Film)
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Free Music Notes for Stop Making Sense: Special New Edition (1984 Film)
Free Music Review: "The less we say about it the better...."
Hit: 5 Stars
Back when I was a kid, during the 80s, my first love, whom I met at camp, used to write to me long detailed letters of her life, which seemed far more interesting and visceral than my own backwoods existence. She once mentioned that she liked Talking Heads, a group I'd never heard of but I ran straight out and bought the first cassette by them I could find -- "Stop Making Sense."I used to go around on my paper route, in the freezing rain, under a hooded sweatshirt, cranking "What a Day That Was" and "Burning Down the House" on my Walkman, chilled to the bone and soaking wet but warmed by the incredibly upbeat rhythms and confusing lyrics.
By the time I was finally able to get the movie on VHS, I'd listened to the tape a million times and knew most of the songs. But I didn't know what the band looked like or what their stage show involved. Not only was I blown away anew by the Heads, but there were all these other songs I'd never heard. How, I wondered, could they ever have left "Naive Melody" off the initial album?
Anyway, that old first love is long gone, but she turned me on to the Talking Heads before she split and now the album has been reissued with the set-list intact (except for two songs). This music is caffeine in a bright cold can; it's like waking up and looking out the window and finding snow; it's drier-warmed sheets, and it's also the sound of a Saturday wake and bake, the sound of the first spring-forward Sunday afternoon. Good sounds. Enjoy!
Free Music Review: Even better as a re-release
Hit: 5 Stars
I saw Talking Heads on the Speaking in Tongues tour, most likely a few months before the film was shot. That concert had a number of similarities to the Stop Making Sense performance captured on film (and audio), and it remains, for obvious reasons, probably the best concert I've ever seen. I saw the Stop Making Sense movie in 1986, and bought my first CD player a couple of months later. The original release of this CD was one of the first 2 or 3 I bought, and to this day it remains as one of the discs I keep in my portable wallet for listening in my car. I was disappointed from day one that "This Must be the Place" and "Crosseyed and Painless" were not on the original Stop Making Sense CD. These are perhaps my two favorite Talking Heads songs, and the live versions really are something special. Needless to say, I'm delighted at the re-release, which includes both of these songs, as well as "Making Flippy Floppy" and "Heaven," two other great live recordings. I agree with the reviewer below -- the Tom Tom Club song could have been easily omitted. That bit certainly hasn't aged well. "I Zimbra" would have been a much better choice for the re-release. However, this is on the whole one of the great live albums ever, and well worth the upgrade if you already have the original version.Free Music Review: different versions...
Hit: 5 Stars
To the reviewers who pointed out that these aren't the same performances as seen in the movie:Those ARE the same ones, they just used different edits of the songs. In fact, 5(!) "versions"of "Stop Making Sense" do exist:
- The Vinyl-Version (9 Tracks)
- First CD-Version: same 9 tracks, but some songs have longer edits, most noticeable on "Girlfriend is better" and "Swamp"
- New expanded CD-Version (16 tracks): For total confusion, some of the songs which appeared on the original CD are different (longer) edits again, but differ also from the movie-version!
- Movie-Version (16 Tracks): This is the cinema-version, which is identically to the DVD-version. Some tracks (for example "Crosseyed and Painless", "Take Me To The River") are longer than on the expanded CD)
- VHS-Version (19 Tracks): Contains three bonus tracks ("Big Business / I Zimbra", "Cities"), which were integrated in the original movie. These appear on the DVD as Bonus-tracks, not as part of the movie, which is correct, because they DO NOT belong to the movie (which does not mean that they aren't great too...). The other tracks are the same versions as the original ones however.
The true fan of course needs all these different versions, "Stop Making Sense" is really THAT good!!!
Free Music Review: Brilliant, Intelligent Music
Hit: 5 Stars
The movie remains one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, concert film of all time, and this re-release finally does it justice. While the earlier version was just a sort of live greatest hits CD, this one is a more complete look at the band and its skills. From the simplicity of "Psycho Killer," which consists solely of David Byrne playing an acoustic guitar over the rhythm of a boombox to the lush orchestration and gospel-inspired power of "Take Me To The River," this CD amazes. The addition of "Heaven" "Crosseyed and Painless" and others add depth and breadth.The truly remarkable thing about Talking Heads is that they make intelligent music. Not only are their lyrics far more sophisticated than just about any other band, but the music is also a notch above. They play challenging chord progressions, non-syncopated drum beats and complicated harmonies that force us to listen to music in entirely different ways. And although this album precedes Byrne's total immersion into world music, you can definitely see its influence in the music. This album belongs on the shelf of anyone who considers himself/herself a fan of music.
Free Music Review: Nerd Funk
Hit: 5 Stars
Talking Heads were one of the few breaths of fresh air in 80s music, and the complete "Stop Making Sense" (the original version of the film) is one of the 10 best albums of the decade. The music, even with synthesiser galore, still sounds fresh - simply because it suits the music, and the musicians knew how to use them - it perfectly compliments what I call the Heads own particular brew of music - "nerd funk". At times hilarious, meditative, perceptive, at other times downright scary, "Stop Making Sense" is consistently rhythmic and energetic (minus the embarrasing Tom Tom Club song - the producers would have been better informed using "Big Business" "I Zimbra" or "Cities" - the 3 songs not included on the album, from the extended videocassette version of the film). Too bad the re-release of the film, undoubtably the greatest concert film ever made, didn't make it's way to theaters everywhere - it might have reminded people of what real filmmaking, and more importantly, real music, produced with real passion, is capable of accomplishing.