Product Description

The Talking Heads concert film STOP MAKING SENSE, recorded at a 1983 Hollywood performance, brought audiences everywhere face to face with the very visual aesthetic of conceptual artiste David Byrne and his cohorts. Playing the part of performance artist, Byrne used elaborate visual gimmicks to enhance the themes of his songs for maximum visceral impact. Serendipitously, STOP MAKING SENSE captured the band at an artistic peak, as it consists mostly of material from the glorious funk-inspired albums REMAIN IN LIGHT and SPEAKING IN TONGUES. Live, complemented by a phalanx of great auxiliary musicians, the Heads emphasise the funkier aspects of their jumpy art-dance concepts, and tunes like "Burning Down the House" and "Girlfriend is Better", already impressive in their studio versions, seem to jump off the album.

Track Listing

1. Psycho Killer
2. Heaven
3. Thank You For Sending Me An Angel
4. Found A Job
5. Slippery People
6. Burning Down The House
7. Life During Wartime
8. Making Flippy Floppy
9. Swamp
10. What A Day That Was
11. Naive Melody (This Must Be The Place)
12. Once In A Lifetime
13. Genius Of Love
14. Girlfriend Is Better
15. Take Me To The River
16. Crosseyed And Painless

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4105 in Music
• Released on: 1999-09-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Live, Soundtrack

Amazon.co.uk Review
The soundtrack to the Jonathan Demme documentary, Stop Making Sense captures the Talking Heads live in 1984 on what would turn out to be their last major tour. This collection, and the film, is a true gift to the band's fans, a testament to their extraordinary talent, both in the studio and especially onstage. Frontman David Byrne infuses each song with a jolt of energy and drama that could only have come from a late-1970s New York art-school student. Now-classic tracks such as "Psycho Killer", "Girlfriend Is Better", "Once in a Lifetime", "Take Me to the River", and "Burning Down the House" have never sounded better. --Lorry Fleming

Customer Reviews

15th aniv. edit.
after owning this original album and somehow losing it between house moves etc , bought the anniversary edition and it was "welcome back."If you like t.h. this is the band live and at their best , not really a weak song anywhere, naive melody is awesome as are heaven and burning down the house .Don,t think this music ever shows its age and if you,ve not seen the dvd buy it now!

Talking Heads at their best.
I couldn't for the life of me understand why this special edition version wasn't the original version of the Stop Making Sense soundtrack. This CD contains (almost) all of the tracks that were performed at the concert whereas the original release only contained a handful.

As other reviewers have suggested, if you are thinking of obtaining this album, make sure you 'check out' the Stop Making Sense DVD/video. Back to this CD though....We are hit with live versions of some of the best Talking Heads songs including Burning Down The House, Girlfriend Is Better and Psycho Killer. There is also a performance of 'Genuis Of Love' by the Tom Tom Club (of which David Byrne and Jerry Harrison weren't/aern't members of). Talking Heads manage to top their studio recorded versions of many of the songs on this album in terms of their 'enjoyabilityness' and that is what makes this album really special as the songs were simply brilliant even before this album was made. The versions of Making Flippy Floppy and This Must Be The Place are epecially better than the studio recorded versions. As an added bonus, the recording method for the concert was technologically advanced so you get the sound quality you'd expect from a studio recorded session which makes it easier to listen to (no static noise etc)

The band line-up was extended for the Stop Making Sense performance and featured Bernie Worrell on keyboards/synthesizers, Alex Weir on Guitar and Steve Scales on percussion. This enabled the band to produce more complex rythmns and more energy within their songs. David Byrne is as enthusiastic as ever and plays some excellent guitar solos in Making Flippy Floppy and Crosseyed And Painless. My personal favourite on this album is 'This Must Be The Place' The version of this song on in album is definately one of the best tracks i've ever come across/ever will come across.

A great live album all in all from one of the most energetical and original concerts in music history - a real treat.

Preserving the Talking Heads' place in music history
When we are talking about Punk Rock Music, the genre might have been defined by Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols, and Hole's "Live Through This" might be my favorite Punk album, but when it is time to go before the Gods of Music I think David Byrne should stand before the Throne of Judgment and make the case for everybody else. While he is up there, the first piece of evidence he should intorduce would be the Talking Heads' soundtrack for "Stop Making Sense."
Of course, you can only listen to the soundtrack AFTER you have seen Jonathan Demme's documentary, because one of the key lessons here is that Punk music achieves full existence only in live performances. The opening track of "Psycho Killer" alone proves that, although this version of "Burning Down the House" certainly has it moments. My favorite is "Take Me to the River," but I may well be overestimating the spin the band puts on that one.

Finally, remember: "THE SPACE PEOPLE. Space People read our mail. The Space People think that TV news programs are comedies, and that soap operas are news. The Space People will contact us when they can make money by doing so. The Space People think factories are musical instruments. They sing along with them. Each song lasts from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. No music on weekends."

Here endeth the lesson.