Movie Stop Making Sense | Release date September 1984 | |
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Released September 1984 (1984-09) Recorded December 1983 (1983-12) Venue The Pantages Theatre, Hollywood Length 39:37 (LP)46:29 (CD/Cassette)74:16 ('Special New Edition' CD) Similar Talking Heads albums, New wave albums |
Talking heads stop making sense full album vinyl
Stop Making Sense is a live 1984 album by Talking Heads, the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The original release of the album features only nine of the songs from the movie, many of them heavily edited. The album spent more than two years (118 weeks) on the Billboard 200 chart. In 1999, a 16-track re-release coincided with the concert's 15th anniversary.
Contents
- Talking heads stop making sense full album vinyl
- Reception
- Track listing
- Side one
- Side two
- FilmSpecial New Edition Soundtrack
- Personnel
- Additional personnel
- Production
- Charts
- Songs
- References
Byrne's intention was not to make a traditional soundtrack album, but to have it be a separate experience. Limited pressings of the original LP version featured a full color picture book wrapped around the album jacket. Regular versions had many of the pictures and captions on the album's inner sleeve. In 1999 - to correspond with the theatrical re-release of the movie - the album was extended and remastered, restoring all of the songs from the movie with only very minor edits. The newly included tracks and one track from the original album, "What a Day That Was", feature Frantz's original drumming from the concert recordings.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 345 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2012 Slant Magazine listed the album at #61 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".
Reception
"A bona fide classic," opined Neil Jeffries in a five-star review of the reissue for Empire, "a perfectly measured snapshot of a widely loved and respected band playing at the height of their powers… No other band could do this. No other music movie soundtrack sounds this good." "A timely reminder of the achievements of perhaps the most underrated band of the post-punk age," agreed Q. "From its stripped-down intro… to the nine-piece finale, Stop Making Sense remains heady, stirring stuff."
Track listing
All songs written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth except as noted.
Side one
- "Psycho Killer" (Byrne, Frantz, Weymouth) – 4:28
- "Swamp" – 3:50 (LP) 4:28 (cassette, CD)
- "Slippery People" – 3:35 (LP) 4:13 (different mix; cassette, CD) ["When this song was originally recorded on Speaking in Tongues," says Frantz in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads, "it had a funky and compact sound. This Stop Making Sense version is funky and big as a house. (Or should I say church?)"]
- "Burning Down the House" – 4:14
- "Girlfriend Is Better" (Byrne) – 3:32 (LP) 5:07 (cassette, CD)
Side two
- "Once in a Lifetime" (Byrne, Brian Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:34 (LP) 5:34 (cassette, CD)
- "What a Day That Was" (Byrne) – 5:08 (LP) 6:30 (cassette, CD)
- "Life During Wartime" – 4:52 (LP) 5:52 (cassette, CD)
- "Take Me to the River" (Al Green, Teenie Hodges) – 6:00
Film/Special New Edition Soundtrack
Bonus live tracks "Heaven" and "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" were available as B-sides on various US 7" and UK 12" singles during the album's original release. These versions were released on the Special Edition soundtrack.
- "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 (Naive 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
Personnel
Additional personnel
Production
Charts
Album
Songs
1Psycho Killer4:29
2Swamp4:29
3Slippery People4:14