Talking Heads- Stop Making Sense 40th Anniversary- David Byrne, Jerry Harrison

As one of the best rock concert films both critically and commercially, the fortieth anniversary of Talking Heads’ movie and soundtrack album Stop Making Sense certainly warrants the remastering effort now available. By the time of the filming for the original movie release in October 1984, David Byrne and Talking Heads had more than five years of performing in front of increasingly larger crowds.

So the concert opener “Psycho Killer” ‘s solitary madness and coiled threat had been stripped down by then to Byrne’s wicked choppy acoustic guitar and an incessant pulsing beat, until David breaks out in some hypnotic St. Vitus dance. Similarly, the isolation and palpable paranoid violence lurking in the studio version of “Life During Wartime” are dialed down here, while the delirious tempo and arrangement are amped up into a five minute aerobic workout that is simply infectious.The collaboration between Talking Heads, David Byrne’s vision, and Silence of the Lambs award-winning director Jonathan Demme results in brilliant film making. Forty years on, with remastered optics and sound, everything works when you Stop Making Sense.

The communal joy of the Black American gospel church informs much of the live performance here, as it has on subsequent David Byrne projects including his recent wildly successful American Utopia on Broadway. And the seemingly insignificant choice that the concert audience is never shown on screen until the very conclusion of Stop Making Sense really aids the viewer’s suspension of disbelief, by making you an active witness rather than disengaged casual observer. David Byrne and the Big Suit plus Jerry Harrison are my guests here In the Studio on the fortieth anniversary of Talking Heads Stop Making Sense. -Redbeard