- Included among the Record Descriptions of Favorite Albums (Part 1).
- Stop Making Sense covers only a portion of the film but works as a live performance of many of the familiar songs by Talking Heads.
Talking Heads – Stop Making Sense (1984): Talking Heads is a critically acclaimed band that has been described as art-punk; after all, they did meet in art school, and the band got off the ground early in the punk era. The core of Talking Heads – David Byrne (guitar and lead vocals), Chris Frantz (drums), and Tina Weymouth (bass guitar) – met at the Rhode Island School of Design in the early 1970’s and moved to New York City in 1974 to start making music together. In 1976, the three were joined by Jerry Harrison (keyboards), who had been in Jonathan Richman’s original proto-punk–rock band called the Modern Lovers (confusingly, this is a quite different band from Richman’s long-time backing band also called the Modern Lovers).
The albums and singles by Talking Heads are known for being wide-ranging in musical style, running the gamut of post-punk, world-music (particularly African rhythms), funk, and conventional rock and roll. Three of their albums were produced by experimental musician Brian Eno, an early member of the glam rock band Roxy Music. Stop Making Sense – with the front album cover appearing to show only a part of the cover with the disc sticking out – is basically a soundtrack album from an acclaimed concert film made by Jonathan Demme also called Stop Making Sense (1983). I am not so familiar with Talking Heads as I should be, since I only managed to buy two of their albums, although I also own a DVD of the film Stop Making Sense. As a single disc, Stop Making Sense the album covers only a portion of the film Stop Making Sense. However, the album works as a live performance of many of the familiar songs by Talking Heads, including “Psycho Killer”, “Burning Down the House”, “Once in a Lifetime”, “Take Me to the River”, and my personal favorite by Talking Heads, “Life During Wartime” – the full name of the latter song is one of the longest song titles ever: “Life During Wartime (This Ain’t No Party . . . This Ain’t No Disco . . . This Ain’t No Foolin’ Around)”. Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth, who have been married since 1977, are also known for their side project, the new wave/dance-pop band Tom Tom Club. Talking Heads were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. Three of the songs on Stop Making Sense – “Psycho Killer”, “Life During Wartime”, and “Once in a Lifetime” – are included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s list of “500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll”.