David Byrne’s still going strong. The forthcoming 25th Anniversary Blu-ray Edition of Stop Making Sense reminds you he’s been around longer than you. Talking Heads were clearly more than Byrne, but he’s often at the forefront of the action in the Jonathan Demme-directed concert film, which captured the band live over three nights at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood in December 1983 while they were promoting Speaking In Tongues. You know, “Psycho Killer,” “Burning Down The House,” “”This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody),” “Life During Wartime,” “Heaven,” “Once in a Lifetime,” and that giant hard-to-miss white suit. Stop was remastered for a re-release in 1999, and the Talking Heads — Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison — did a press release at the time. There are clips floating around, but the Blu-ray release, remastered in high definition from a 35mm interpositive, includes the 90-minute conference in full. It also comes with two bonus songs “Cities” and “Big Business/I Zimbra,” the video short “David Byrne Interview … David Byrne,” storyboard/staging comparison, and trailers?. Going back to my original thought: This never-before-seen bit from the press conference gives you a sense of the band dynamic as they talk about their music’s funkiness and the fact that it didn’t seem especially ’80s or dated in 1999. Same goes for today.
As an overall refresher, here’s the 25h Anniversary Edition’s trailer:
Stop Making Sense (Blu-ray) is out 10/13 (tomorrow) via Palm Pictures. This clip’s from the earlier edition, but after all that, you should watch something in full:
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Who in Britain will bother buying it when the DVD was given out for free with the Sunday Observer a couple of years ago ?
Because not everyone bought the Sunday Observer a couple of years ago? Plus it’s totally badass
I enjoy songs three and four when everythings stripped down to just them as much as later when all the additional people come out and he’s dancing with lamps and everything…
One of the best concert films ever.
THE best concert film ever.
I was just watching this last night…weird.
ESSENTIAL! This film captures everything that I love about music. It is so much fun watching this flick.
Now we can examine David Byrnes pores.
The same typographer as Dr Strangelove. Now that’s badass!
I saw the West Coast premiere of this film 25 years ago, at the Palladium (I think), in LA. The band was there along with Jonathan Demme, but what was really cool was standing in the crowd and looking across this sea of people watching the screen. Whenever the camera angle was taken from the audience, it seemed to just continue from the screen into the live crowd watching the film. It really felt like being at the concert. I’m showing my age, but what the hell. It was great.
My first time seeing it was at a house party in college. It was on in the background and it drew me in even as the party raged all around. Slowly it drew several other people in as well.
Best concert film ever.
I saw The Heads at Forrest Hills Tennis Stadium Aug 21, 1983, shortly before they filmed the movie (Dec 1983). Still to this day, one of the best concerts I have ever seen. And I have on average seen about a show a week since that one 26+ years ago. It was kid of a welcome home concert celebrating that they had hit the bigtime. My friends and I had someone sneak us throgh the turnstiles for $10. The show was totally sold out. After that tour, the Heads released more records but never played live again.
Last time I saw this was in a Florida bound RV. SO GOOD.
I wish there was one band today that was 1/4th as good as the Talking Heads.
Stop That Television
What A Fine Picture
Don’t Get Upset, It’s Not A Major Disaster
Happy Birthday SMS!