Stop Making Sense (album)

Stop Making Sense
File:Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads.jpg
Live album by Talking Heads
Released	September 1984 (1984-09)
Recorded	December 1983 (1983-12)
Venue	The Pantages Theatre, Hollywood
Genre	New wave, post-punk
Length	39:37 (LP) 46:29 (CD/Cassette) 74:16 ('Special New Edition' CD)
Label	Sire/Warner Bros.
Producer	Talking Heads, Gary Goetzman
Talking Heads chronology
Speaking in Tongues (1983)Speaking in Tongues1983 Stop Making Sense (1984) Little Creatures (1985)Little Creatures1985
Singles from Stop Making Sense
"Once in a Lifetime" Released: February 1984 "Slippery People" Released: October 1984 "Girlfriend Is Better" Released: December 1984

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Allmusic
Robert Christgau	B+
Rolling Stone

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.

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".

Track listing

All songs written by David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth except as noted.

Side one

1. "Psycho Killer" (Byrne, Frantz, Weymouth) – 4:28
2. "Swamp" – 3:50 (LP) 4:28 (cassette, CD)
3. "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?)"]
4. "Burning Down the House" – 4:14
5. "Girlfriend Is Better" (Byrne) – 3:32 (LP) 5:07 (cassette, CD)

Side two

1. "Once in a Lifetime" (Byrne, Brian Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 4:34 (LP) 5:34 (cassette, CD)
2. "What a Day That Was" (Byrne) – 5:08 (LP) 6:30 (cassette, CD)
3. "Life During Wartime" – 4:52 (LP) 5:52 (cassette, CD)
4. "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.

1. "Psycho Killer" (Byrne, Frantz, Weymouth) – 4:24
2. "Heaven" (Byrne, Harrison) – 3:41
3. "Thank You for Sending Me an Angel" (Byrne) – 2:09
4. "Found a Job" (Byrne) – 3:15
5. "Slippery People" – 4:00
6. "Burning Down the House" – 4:06
7. "Life During Wartime" – 5:51
8. "Making Flippy Floppy" – 4:40
9. "Swamp" – 4:30
10. "What a Day That Was" (Byrne) – 6:00
11. "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" – 4:57
12. "Once in a Lifetime" (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:25
13. "Genius of Love" (Weymouth, Frantz, Adrian Belew, Steven Stanley) (performed by Tom Tom Club) – 4:30
14. "Girlfriend Is Better" – 5:06
15. "Take Me to the River" (Green, Hodges) – 5:32
16. "Crosseyed and Painless" (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 6:11

Personnel

• David Byrne – guitar, vocals
• Chris Frantz – drums, vocals
• Jerry Harrison – guitar, keyboards, vocals
• Tina Weymouth – bass guitar, synth bass, guitar, vocals

Additional personnel

• Bernie Worrell – keyboards
• Alex Weir – guitar, vocals
• Steve Scales – percussion
• Ednah Holt – backing vocals
• Lynn Mabry – backing vocals

Production

• Talking Heads, Gary Goetzman - producers
• Ted Jensen at Sterling Sound, NYC - mastering

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."

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
1984	The Billboard 200	41/53
	UK albums	37/24

Certifications

Organization	Level	Date
RIAA – U.S.	Gold	March 1, 1985
BPI – UK	Gold	November 26, 1985
RIAA – U.S.	Platinum	July 2, 1986
	Double Platinum	August 17, 1994