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For good reason, the Talking Heads have gotten a lot of mileage out of their triumphant restoration of the live concert film Stop Making Sense. Brilliantly remastered and reissued in theaters last year by A24 - an event that got the group to reunite for multiple interviews to promote it, including just last night at the Pantages Theater in Los Angeles, where the film was shot - the audio was released on vinyl and digital by Rhino Records. (A24 also put out a luxe Blu-ray and 4K version of the film, as well as a less enthusiastically received tribute album featuring Paramore, Lorde, Miley Cyrus, The National and others.)
Now, there's one more bridge to cross: on July 26, the restored audio will be released as a 2CD/Blu-ray deluxe package from Rhino. Like the vinyl and digital sets before it, the CDs include a complete portrait of the concert audio as released over time, building on the "special new edition" soundtrack from 1999 by adding two tracks - "Cities" and "Big Business/I Zimbra" - not previously released on audio formats but included in certain edits of the film on video and laserdisc. (The accompanying footage is included as bonus material on the A24 Blu-ray.) The accompanying Blu-ray Disc does not include the film, but does include the celebrated Dolby Atmos mix of the audio, previously only available on streaming or alongside the picture itself. Band member Jerry Harrison and original album mixer Eric "E.T." Thorngren (who sadly passed away less than a month ago) collaborated on this restoration. The book-style package is rounded out with new liner notes penned by the band - singer David Byrne, bassist Tina Weymouth, drummer Chris Frantz and guitarist/keyboardist Harrison - along with rare photos that have not been published alongside the soundtrack before.
Directed by the late Jonathan Demme, Stop Making Sense captured the post-punk icons at the peak of their commercial powers: 1983's Speaking in Tongues gave them a Top 20 album and an unlikely Top 10 hit in the herky-jerky "Burning Down the House." Over four nights in December 1983 at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, the group embarked on a striking career-spanning set on a minimally-designed stage. Band members join the set song by song - only from "Found a Job," the fourth song of the set, does the original quartet appear together; the line-up later expands to accommodate Lynn Mabry and Ednah Holt on backing vocals, second guitarist Alex Weir, percussionist Steve Scales and Parliament-Funkadelic co-founder Bernie Worrell on keyboards. Classic singles mingle with deep cuts and selections from side work (Byrne's soundtrack to The Catherine Wheel, Weymouth and Frantz's classic "Genius of Love," released as Tom Tom Club). And in one of the most visually striking sequences in concert film history, Byrne gyrates onstage during "Girlfriend is Better" (which features the song lyric from which the film takes its title) in a Noh theatre-inspired oversized suit. The unique camera framing, prop work and performances really do contribute to one of the best concert films out there, and it's a treat that Stop Making Sense is so readily available now, after the independently-made film languished without a distributor, in dire need of a sonic and visual upgrade.
You can start making Stop Making Sense a part of your collection with this new reissue available next month. Pre-order links and the full track list are below. (As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases at those links.)
Stop Making Sense (Deluxe Edition) (Sire/Rhino, 2024) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)
CD 1
- Psycho Killer
- Heaven
- Thank You for Sending Me An Angel
- Found a Job
- Slippery People
- Cities
- Burning Down the House
- Life During Wartime
- Making Flippy Floppy
- Swamp
CD 2
- What a Day That Was
- This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)
- Once in a Lifetime
- Big Business/I Zimbra
- Genius of Love
- Girlfriend is Better
- Take Me to the River
- Crosseyed and Painless
Blu-Ray Audio (same track list as CDs mixed for Dolby Atmos by Jerry Harrison and Eric "E.T." Thorngren)
CD 1, Tracks 1, 5, 7-8 and 10 and CD 2, Tracks 1, 3, 6 and 7 released on Sire CD 25186, 1984
CD 1. Track 2 released on "Stop Making Sense (Girlfriend is Better)" single - Sire 29080, 1985
CD 2, Track 2 released on "Once in a Lifetime (Live)" single - Sire 29163, 1984
CD 1, Tracks 3-4 and 9 and CD 2, Tracks 2, 5 and 8 released on Sire CD 47489, 1999
CD 1, Track 6 and CD 2, Track 4 released on Sire/Rhino LP R1 724897, 2023 - previously unreleased on CD
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It’s about time. I couldn’t understand for the life of me why they initially went for just a vinyl/digital release when (I’m assuming) most of the original buyers of the film’s soundtrack in the ‘80’s probably purchased it on CD. Better late than never.
As someone who once made a cassette rip of the full film soundtrack from a rented VHS tape, I am grateful for the 1999 CD of that full soundtrack, apart from my disappointment over the deletion of Frantz's "snow white" line. (See the 4K disc review on The Digital Bits for details about that.) I still have that, but I'm enough of a fan to want the extra three songs on this set, too.
Still, I hope the actual original edition of Stop Making Sense is also available for people to find and hear. It's a just-about-perfect live album in the classic sense: a short & sweet single LP suitable to hear in one sitting, with a great sound mix to make it an ideal party album, and able to entice new listeners to the band (like I was) by leaving one wanting more. Even separated from the visuals that make the movie essential, those performances have an extra pop to them that keep them from being redundant compared to the original studio recordings. Also, the more radio-friendly version of "Psycho Killer" shouldn't get lost to the ages. Personally, I grew up with the cassette's somewhat extended renditions and prefer that to the slightly truncated vinyl version, but one of those editions should still remain available to searching listeners rather than replaced by this soundtrack.
While I'm making wishes, I hope the original 2-LP The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads gets a proper CD re-release someday. The re-imagined version is a nice expansion in a lot of ways but it also cuts a few essential bits like the slow intro to "Crosseyed and Painless" and some of the in-between pieces of Byrne commentary that I miss.
A little clarification- the 4K UHD edition includes both the theatrical cut AND the 'laserdisc' version.