Nothing Is Better Than This

September 27, 2023 9:31 AM

Nothing Is Better Than This: The Oral History of ‘Stop Making Sense’

This stuff does make you scratch your head. Why choose this? And it’s just sort of like, “Well, it doesn’t matter, does it? It’s just part of the entertainment factor.”

A restored version of Stop Making Sense [previously] is playing in IMAX for its 40th anniversary.

Interviews:
Talking Heads Stop Making Sense Q & A Toronto film fest
'The everyday can be just fine': Talking Heads on making sense, together
Talking Heads’ Original Lineup on Stop Making Sense, Their Early Days, and the Future
Talking Heads on making sense, together

posted by kirkaracha (33 comments total)

The quote from Adelle Lutz struck me as funny, because I can't imagine anyone calling Byrne "Dave".

I was listening to the re-released soundtrack recently, and while it sounds great, it sounds so much better when heard with the movie.
posted by Ayn Marx at 9:48 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Tom Power interviewed all four members of Talking Heads on the CBC radio program, "Q".
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 9:55 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Thanks to the discovery of the movie’s original negative…

I’m kind of shocked that this had gone missing in the first place.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:59 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

Why a big suit?

Oh...

Byrne: In Noh, they’d come out with these really broad-shouldered outfits that were very rectangular looking, at least from the front. Like a band, they would perform facing the audience, rather than like a lot of times in Western theater, when they face one another. But anyway, that shape struck me, and then I thought, “But yeah, what if it’s a Western suit done like that?”

...

Byrne: We discovered things in touring and improvising and rehearsals. You discover that if you wiggle it—it’s made of linen—it would make all these weaves and wiggles, and all this kind of stuff. That’s just stuff you discovered, like, “Hey, that’s good. Let’s do that.”
posted by chavenet at 10:09 AM on September 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

I meant to see this in IMAX and I was too sick to go that night, so I'm delighted that I'll get another chance. Mr Epigrams and I have sort of the opposite experiences of 80s music weirdness: I'm a huge Talking Heads person and loved Stop Making Sense and he's a big Laurie Anderson person and loved Home of the Brave, but neither of us had seen each other's film of interest (we have gone together to see both Anderson and Byrne in concert at various times).

So we're gonna do this and then cross our fingers that Home of the Brave gets the same treatment.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 10:13 AM on September 27, 2023 [12 favorites]

Archival footage of David Byrne practicing his moves for Stop Making Sense
posted by gwint at 10:46 AM on September 27, 2023 [6 favorites]

I'm a huge Talking Heads person and loved Stop Making Sense and he's a big Laurie Anderson person and loved Home of the Brave, but neither of us had seen each other's film of interest

You two are awesome.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 11:00 AM on September 27, 2023 [12 favorites]

I saw the movie in IMAX and it looked and sounded awesome. I've seen the movie enough I could look for interesting things in the background, like when the stagehand takes the boombox.

It's been a while since I've seen the whole movie start-to-finish. I've started it a couple of times with my daughter but she gets bored after a couple of songs. (She's also more of a classic rock fan.)
posted by kirkaracha at 11:27 AM on September 27, 2023

Saw it twice in theaters this run (so far); it’s still the best thing.

Note it’s not shot on actual IMAX film, and I believe the imax theaters showing it are the smaller IMAX screens — that said, those theaters in general are still a cut above others and have killer sound. Having seen it a number of times in less fancy theaters, definitely recommend going to one of these “IMAX” rooms to watch it now. It sounds great!!
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:42 AM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I believe the imax theaters showing it are the smaller IMAX screens

Don't know about that--it's showing at Lincoln Square here, which is real, not "Liemax."
posted by praemunire at 11:43 AM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I totally get people wanting to get up and dance to it. I almost did, the first time I saw it in the theater, and I never dance.
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:04 PM on September 27, 2023

I saw them on this tour and then I saw the movie and they were both amazing.
posted by freakazoid at 12:43 PM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

So if I saw them on Aug 12, 1983, that was the tour just before this, right? It was outdoors, we were in the grass, and I danced like a monkey.
posted by pracowity at 1:44 PM on September 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

I love love love this film. I recently shared it with my wife who had somehow never seen it.

I also recommend the Documentary Now homage. Bill Hader dressed like Chris Frantz but dancing like Tina Weymouth was sublime.
posted by Abehammerb Lincoln at 1:45 PM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

I saw them on this tour and then I saw the movie and they were both amazing.

same here, but if I had to choose, I'd say the movie is better. And I had a great seat, five or ten rows back, right in the middle (not that anyone was doing much sitting). But something about how it all comes together on screen, every nuance of the stage presentation accentuated, brought into focus.

The only downside is that Jonathon Demme didn't make movies of all my favourite concerts.
posted by philip-random at 1:57 PM on September 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

I showed this movie to my painfully unhip parents when they were around 70 years old. They loved it! My mom and dad are 82 and are fans of Byrne's recent American Utopia, too. I think they stumbled onto it on HBO or something. They really only like the stage shows, they wouldn't listen to Talking Heads without the visuals.

Back ~1980, my mom listened to Evita soundtrack and Elton John records on repeat. My dad claims to like classical, but I rarely ever hear him listening to any music. They both like old-school pop-jazz like from the 1930s-50s.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:04 PM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I love this movie. I only wish that Adrian Belew had stuck around long enough to be in it.
posted by SoberHighland at 2:06 PM on September 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

I totally get people wanting to get up and dance to it. I almost did, the first time I saw it in the theater, and I never dance.

I didn't get up, but I didn't sit still the whole time.

So if I saw them on Aug 12, 1983, that was the tour just before this, right?

Indeed!
posted by kirkaracha at 2:27 PM on September 27, 2023 [1 favorite]

I read the main article, but I still didn't get a very good sense of what makes this film so much better than other concert films. I haven't seen many concert films, at least not for a long time, so I don't have much in my head to compare with.
posted by straight at 2:35 PM on September 27, 2023

but I still didn't get a very good sense of what makes this film so much better than other concert films.

My takes is that the film offers a narrative, something I don't think is common for concert films. It essentially goes through the evolution of the band, form Byrne writing songs on his guitar, to Talking Heads as a trio, then Harrison joining, etc. But another narrative is that of the joy and value of community. Byrne starts off all solo and high-strung, and as the concert goes on he loosens up and we see the utter joy of varied people coming together to make something.

The movie also avoids disruptions with band interviews and backstage shots. It just gets you into a flow of the performance. The focus on the band, the music, really pulls you in.

I've seen and enjoyed, for example, The Last Waltz, and good as it is I don't think it has the same level of sustained energy. Stop Making Sense feels like a fun journey, not a documentary.
posted by Ayn Marx at 2:51 PM on September 27, 2023 [11 favorites]

The movie starts with an empty, bare stage with no set decorations. David Byrne comes onstage by himself with an acoustic guitar and boombox, then they build up the band and sets over the first five songs:

"Psycho Killer": David Byrne solo
"Heaven": Byrne and Tina Weymouth
"Thank You for Sending Me an Angel": Byrne, Weymouth, and Chris Frantz
"Found a Job": Byrne, Weymouth, Frantz, and Jerry Harrison (completing the Talking Heads regular band)
"Slippery People": the rest of the "Afro-Funk" touring band: Alex Weir (guitar, backing vocals), Bernie Worrell (keyboards), Ednah Holt (backing vocals), Lynn Mabry (backing vocals), and Steve Scales (percussion, backing vocals).

So the sound and energy builds and builds and the stagehands build the set as the band is performing.
posted by kirkaracha at 3:15 PM on September 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

It was a great tour (saw them twice) and I thought the movie did a remarkable job of recreating (translating?) the experience. I have it on DVD and it's probably time for a spin.
posted by aught at 3:41 PM on September 27, 2023

but I still didn't get a very good sense of what makes this film so much better than other concert films.

I'm trying to think of the concert films I've seen.

The Last Waltz is a film of a great concert, and it's a miracle the film exists, but I don't know that it's a great concert film.

U2's two movies, Rattle And Hum and U23D, are both really interesting rock and roll documents, but I don't know they either of them are great concert films. Although U23D is really amazing.

David Byrne has another concert film out, Ride Rise Roar, that I'm really glad exists because it is a document of a really interesting tour I saw in person. But I don't think it's a great concert film.

Is The Song Remains The Same a concert film? Or is it a rock and roll movie? That's a weird line to ponder.

I have a lot of filmed concerts -- I don't consider those to be the same as a concert film.

I think truly the greatest concert film that I can think of might be Woodstock, esp if you can see it in a theater in the full wide screen presentation. But... is that a concert film, or the documentary of a cultural event?

There are a lot of concert films that contain some of the best moments. There are a lot of films that contain amazing concert moments. But there aren't many that do what Stop Making Sense does in the way that this film does it.

I don't know if it's the BEST concert film, but it is certainly better than most of those I can think of.
posted by hippybear at 3:48 PM on September 27, 2023 [5 favorites]

My teenaged daughter and I attended a screening of Stop Making Sense at the Cinerama Theater in Seattle a few years ago. When the full band kicked in, the entire audience was on its feet, with people dancing in the aisles. It was a joyous, glorious experience, and my daughter's perma-smile during the second half is forever cemented in my memories. After many dozens of live music experiences together, we still consider Stop Making Sense as one of the best concerts we've attended.
posted by prinado at 3:49 PM on September 27, 2023 [8 favorites]

Sitting through symphony concerts, I’ve always wished that as the music started a bunch of people would rush to the front of that stage and start dancing. But no…
posted by njohnson23 at 5:07 PM on September 27, 2023 [3 favorites]

Sitting through symphony concerts, I’ve always wished that as the music started a bunch of people would rush to the front of that stage and start dancing. But no…


Instead, at best, people start clapping on the 1 and 3 :(
posted by Ayn Marx at 7:48 PM on September 27, 2023 [2 favorites]

but I still didn't get a very good sense of what makes this film so much better than other concert films.

The Strong Songs episode on the film does an excellent job of breaking down why this is, IMHO.
posted by augustimagination at 8:16 PM on September 27, 2023 [4 favorites]

but when does the damn 4k bluray drop??
posted by AlbertCalavicci at 2:54 AM on September 28, 2023 [1 favorite]

interesting how they gloss over byrnes’s typical backstage activities during the costume change, i.e. “time to take a toot and put on my big suit.”
posted by bombastic lowercase pronouncements at 5:09 AM on September 28, 2023

I bought the DVD some years ago. At first I did not notice that there are additional segments after the main show. One of the segments is David Byrne in black face talking. He has since apologized for this.
posted by DJZouke at 5:20 AM on September 28, 2023

OK, gonna pop in this thread again. Prior to Stop Making Sense, many if not most rock concert films and videos were produced very differently. Directors often added terrible "psychedelic" video effects like doubling the image, posterizing the video, slowing it down, making the picture have "trails" or smears behind it. Weird cuts, various tricks to simulate a "trippy" experience that usually looked extremely dated and cheap even a handful of years later. The stage lighting often was full of color, bloody red gels, fog machines, strobe lights, you name it. Camera placement was usually done in a simple setup, just recording the stuff on the stage.

Stop Making Sense uses clear, white light. It all feels very personal. The cinematography is very different than any older rock concert films. You can clearly see all the people on stage, their facial expressions, their entire bodies. Camera angles and setups are more personal feeling, not just set on a tripod in the fourth row. There's zero crappy "psychedelic" camera effects! The staging is minimal and the film is about the people and the music.

I am not a film expert or student so I don't have the best vocabulary to describe all this, but SMS was revolutionary when it was new. It really was a very, very different way of seeing rock music (or funk or post-punk funk or whatever you wanna call this iteration of Talking Heads and company) on film.

It had a big impact on music cinematography that followed it. And that was 40 years ago! That's so far in the past that it's hard to fully grasp if you are younger and don't remember the "before" times.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:59 AM on September 28, 2023 [6 favorites]

I've had the decided joy of being the David Byrne in a Talking Heads cover band. I say "cover" rather than "tribute" band because we don't particularly dress up, let alone recreate any visuals (although I do have a bank of arbitrary video junk that I project when we play, and I do borrow Byrne's general affect).

Our little community turns out for us — young, old, anyone. I'd say we're pretty good, not killer — but Talking Heads, as a band to bring people together, is peerless. People act out the bits as they dance; they yell the lyrics to each other; they ride each others' shoulders and scream during "Life During Wartime." We've been searching for any other band to cover, but the combination is: many recognizable songs; danceable; varied sound; nostalgia-inducing; good.

Maybe The Cure? I'm drawing blanks for others. I think Talking Heads is tops that way.

Also, as a person without much show-show in him, getting to adopt Byrne's affect onstage is a relief. Every once in a while I'll say "you're welcome to dance if you want to" through clenched teeth.
posted by argybarg at 7:55 AM on September 28, 2023 [3 favorites]

Locally, the movie is only being shown in standard format in small theater rooms. I have to decide whether to make time this weekend to drive 2 hours to The Big City to see it in IMAX. I have a lot of crap that needs to get done this weekend, though.
posted by neuron at 9:01 AM on September 28, 2023