“I have a tape that I want to play for you”
With that begins The Talking Heads’ masterwork film Stop Making Sense . Directed by Jonathan Demme, director of such Oscar powerhouses as Philadelphia and Silence of the Lambs , this film is considered by many a film critic as the best concert film ever made. Famed film buff, Leonard Maltin calls it “One of the greatest rock movies ever made”.

Unlike many concert films, this is more than simply a live performance caught on celluloid, rather it is a document of a show considered in a striking cinematic scope. At the start of the film, lead singer David Byrne journeys out to the front of a barren stage. The stage is so barren that the scaffolding remains still visible behind him. Draped in a white suit, an acoustic guitar, and holding a boombox; he non-assumingly places the audio device down and mutters the aforementioned line:"I have a tape that I want to play for you”.
A ménage of electronic beats emanate from the stereo, serving as the background for an acoustic rendition of the Heads’ classic Psycho Killer.

For each of the following songs, one additional band member takes the stage until the stage is littered with not only the core lineup, but also their touring band which include backup singers and Funkadelic alums Bernie Worrel and Alex Weir.

Byrne lives up to his reputation as a consummate live performer as his charisma beams from the screen during performances of such hits as Once in a Lifetime, in which he dons thick, black, nerd glasses and delivers the lyrics in the fashion of a mad professor. Not only did Radiohead take their name from a Talking Heads song, but Thom Yorke apparently pilfered some of Byrnes stage mannerisms as well. Then there’s Byrne’s giant suit. You have to watch the film to see what I mean about that. Classic.

The film faithfully captures something that is more than a show, but a full on performance put together with a painstaking, orchestrated care.

The Talking Heads/Jonathan Demme
Stop Making Sense
Palm Pictures DVD
1984/1999 Reissue

- Rob Walsh