Dear Friends,
Today, I feel like really focusing on the record of the day so I’m just going to say a few things about other stuff.
1. My students were assholes to the sub on Friday.
2. Work was done on the blinds in my classroom over the weekend and the workers left a mess.
3. I was tired and grumpy yesterday and kicked a few asses along the way.
4. Today is going to be a better day.
*****
Stop Making Sense is a film I saw many times. Most recently, I saw it in the little theater in Rangeley and that was the only time I was not up and dancing during the movie. You read that right.
I loved Stop Making Sense as a teenager. It came out the day after my 15th birthday and I was way into it. I think my mom, aunt Julie, Ben, and I went to see it three or four times in the theater. We danced every time. Most of the audience danced at those screenings back in late 1984 and early 1985.
It’s a magical movie when you think about it. The band does sixteen songs over 88 minutes which is how long the film lasts. Not all the songs were big radio hits, but they are so powerful.
Another part of the power of the film is the choreography.
Viewing Stop Making Sense is viewing a work of art. Director Jonathan Demme and the band came up with an incredibly visual, incredibly moving piece of film that just happens to rock as hard as any concert movie ever.
The soundtrack, at least the one I had on cassette and now have on CD and vinyl is almost as engaging. It’s such a great collection of Talking Heads’ songs. Over the years, I have listened to it a lot. While I’m glad that the full soundtrack is available on the streaming services, I still kind of like the shorter version while just listening.
Whoever decided on the songs to keep and the ones to omit from the soundtrack’s audio release had a tough job. There are no weak moments in the film, but the limitations of what you could do with a single album or cassette release meant there was no way to get all the songs on the Soundtrack.
Starting off with “Psycho Killer” was so perfect on both the film and the record. It’s one of my favorite Talking Heads’ songs and the way they did it for Stop Making Sense was excellent. The song is haunting but totally pop, too. You can’t help but sing along.
“Swamp” is also fucking rad. It’s super slinky and the band is just jamming here. David Byrne’s delivery is captivating, too. It’s another one you can’t help but sing along to when you hear (or see) it.
One of my favorites from the movie, “Heaven,” is one of the tracks I wish was here on the first side, but I guess you can’t have everything. It’s a wonderful song, though.
All the songs that are on the soundtrack were pretty big over the years. You’ve got “Burning Down the House” and “Girlfriend is Better” on side one, in addition to “Slippery People.” Both of those I mentioned before “Slippery People” were huge and the latter is no slouch. The backing vocals on “Slipper People” are so damn good.
Side two is just stellar. “Once in a Lifetime” into “What A Day That Was” then “Life During Wartime” and my favorite track on the record, “Take Me to the River.” Every one of them are just epic, but “Take Me to the River” is a song that holds a really special place in my heart.
I’m sitting there in the summer of 2023 watching it in Rangeley in the dark with my wife and our cousin and at least one of the kids, I think, and I’ve got tears running out of my eyes. It took me back to those days in 1984/85 and seeing this film so many times in the theater.
For a second there, I was grieving for those memories, you know? I was thinking of how many things had happened over the years and if I could just go back, I could have righted so many wrongs. I could make better decisions. I could dip into the river of time and wash away my sins.
Good music can take you places, that’s for sure.
I’ve had a conversation with a few people over the last few years that goes like this:
“You know what makes Talking Heads so great?”
“What?”
“There are no bands that out and out copy them.”
If you think about it, you never hear a band and think, “They sound just like the Talking Heads.” The Talking Heads did their own thing and did it so well that no one could touch it. I wouldn’t even know where to begin if somebody asked me to write a song like they wrote songs.
Watching the film and listening to the soundtrack are kind of a religious experience for me. It reminds me that the universe is a good and loving place. Even though you can kind of see the strain on the faces of the band, at times, that foreshadowed the breakup that would come a few years later, it really is a movie and a record about love.
At least for me.
*****
See you tomorrow.

AI Warhol meets David Byrne or is that Jason Schwartzman or Keith Moon?
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