Stop Making Sense

“This is how you see the face of God”There’s just something about Stop Making Sense that I just can’t comprehend into words but I’ll try my best. It’s electric, it’s magnificent, it’s truly just a spectacle that while I’m witnessing this, I truly feel like I’ve seen something on a higher plane of existence. Talking Heads over the past year, I’ve made attempts to dabble into their discography but I’d just resort back to Psycho Killer as it’s their only song I was familiar with before watching this but I’m definitely diving deep over the next few weeks into their music.  Being hailed as the greatest concert film, I thought it was a bit of an overstatement. Personally, I’ve seen a few concert films where it’s just a few cameras on the performers and a few on the crowd during some songs. I realised about 30 seconds into Stop Making Sense, that I was 100% wrong about my preconceived notions about this film. This is truly the best concert film and honestly up there for me as a wonderful film. There’s just something that Jonathan Demme brings to the Talking Heads music with his cinematic prowess it just makes for a beautiful experience when watching this. The lighting, the framing, the fact that I feel like an otherworldly deity just experiencing this, like I truly was there during the performance. Stop Making Sense just proves to me that the Talking Heads are just the perfect blend of musicians and performers, most acts struggle to find that perfect middle ground by either doing too much or not enough as a musician or a performer but it just works so well for them. Also just having this start with David Byrne for Psycho Killer, then bringing out the rest of Talking Heads one by one is such a cool fucking aspect to this, it gives what I think may be my favourite song from this ‘Heaven’ which is Byrne and Tina Weymouth playing acoustic guitar and bass with Lynn Mabry providing harmonies from backstage, ooo something about that just wakes me up, it’s so beautiful. Hilariously oversized suit is a W!