Jeff’s Playlist: Stop Making Sense

Talking Heads — Stop Making Sense

Did you see David Byrne with Miley Cyrus on New Year’s Eve? He’s still look­ing good and per­form­ing well at 70. Cyrus and Byrne teamed up to per­form Byrne’s “Everybody’s Coming To My House,” as well as David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance.” Byrne returned to sup­port Sia dur­ing her take on her song “Unstoppable.” This was the best New Year’s Eve show I’ve seen in a while.

Talking Heads’ Stop Making Sense is such a well-done con­cert recording/movie. I par­tic­u­lar­ly love this ver­sion of “Heaven,” as well as about every ver­sion of their songs on this video. Byrne comes out with a boom box and acoustic gui­tar, play­ing a rous­ing ren­di­tion of “Psycho Killer,” and is then joined by Tina Weymouth on bass. The band con­tin­ues to show up, as well as the set. The chore­og­ra­phy on this is fan­tas­tic, and it’s hard to tell if this is a con­cert or a typ­i­cal evening at Planet Fitness. 

If you’ve nev­er seen or heard this, sit your butt right down and take the time to watch/listen to it all the way through. You’ll prob­a­bly be on your feet through most of it, though. This has to be one of the all-time great live rock albums/concerts/movies ever cre­at­ed. And thanks to Christopher Hazard on YouTube, we can enjoy it here.

Album Information

All songs were writ­ten by David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth except as noted.

“Psycho Killer” (Byrne, Frantz, Weymouth) – 4:24
“Heaven” (Byrne, Harrison) – 3:41
“Thank You for Sending Me an Angel” (Byrne) – 2:09
“Found a Job” (Byrne) – 3:15
“Slippery People” – 4:00
“Burning Down the House” – 4:06
“Life During Wartime” – 5:51
“Making Flippy Floppy” – 4:40
“Swamp” – 4:30
“What a Day That Was” (Byrne) – 6:00
“This Must Be the Place (Naïve Melody)“ – 4:57
“Once in a Lifetime” (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:25
“Genius of Love” (Weymouth, Frantz, Adrian Belew, Steven Stanley) (per­formed by Tom Tom Club) – 4:30
“Girlfriend Is Better” – 5:06
“Take Me to the River” (Green, Hodges) – 5:32
“Crosseyed and Painless” (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 6:11

David Byrne – gui­tar, vocals
Chris Frantz – drums, vocals
Jerry Harrison – gui­tar, key­boards, vocals
Tina Weymouth – bass gui­tar, synth bass, gui­tar, vocals
Bernie Worrell – key­boards
Alex Weir – gui­tar, vocals
Steve Scales – per­cus­sion
Ednah Holt – back­ing vocals
Lynn Mabry – back­ing vocals
Talking Heads, Gary Goetzman – pro­duc­ers
Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, NYC – mas­ter­ing
Stop Making Sense — Talking Heads

Directed by                Jonathan Demme
Written by                  Talking Heads Jonathan Demme
Produced by              Gary Goetzman
Starring                      Talking Heads
Cinematography      Jordan Cronenweth
Edited by                   Lisa Day
Music by                    Talking Heads
Production                Arnold Stiefel Company
Distributed by            Cinecom Pictures Palm Pictures
Release dates           April 24, 1984 (SFIFF) October 19, 1984 (United States)
Running time            88 min­utes
Country                      United States
Language                  English
Budget                       $1.2 mil­lion
Box office                  $5.1 million

Released       September 1984
Recorded     December 1983
Venue           The Pantages Theatre, Hollywood
Length          39:37 (orig­i­nal LP) 74:17 (Special New Edition ver­sion)
Label            Sire Warner Bros.
Producer      Talking Heads Gary Goetzman