Stop Making Sense (album)

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Stop Making Sense
File:Stop Making Sense - Talking Heads.jpg
Live album by
Talking Heads
ReleasedSeptember 1984 (1984-09)
RecordedDecember 13–16, 1983
VenueThe Pantages Theatre, Hollywood
Genre
  • New wave
  • post-punk
Length39:37 (1984 original LP)
74:17 (1999 Special New Edition)
84:56 (2023 Deluxe Edition)
Label
  • Sire
  • Warner Bros. Records
Producer
  • Talking Heads
  • Gary Goetzman
Talking Heads chronology
Speaking in Tongues
(1983) 		Stop Making Sense
(1984) 		Little Creatures
(1985)
Singles from Stop Making Sense
  1. Once in a Lifetime
    Released: October 1984 (US)
  2. Slippery People
    Released: October 1984 (UK)
  3. Girlfriend Is Better
    Released: November 1984 (UK)

Stop Making Sense is a live album by Talking Heads, also serving as the soundtrack to the concert film of the same name. It was released in September 1984 and features nine tracks from the film, albeit with treatment and editing. The album spent over two years on the Billboard 200 chart. It was their first album to be distributed by EMI outside North America.

Limited pressings of the original LP version featured a full-colour picture book wrapped around the album jacket; standard versions had many of the pictures (printed in black and white) and captions on the album's inner sleeve. The CD release of the album includes the full-colour book, but it rearranges the layout to conform to the dimensions of a square CD booklet (compared to the vertically-oriented rectangular shape of the LP book). In 1999, a 16-track re-release—with content and sound closely matching those of the film—coincided with the 15th anniversary of the concert filming. An expanded 40th anniversary edition was released by Rhino Records in August 2023, marking the first official release of the complete concert recording, alongside a theatrical re-release of the film by A24. A24 Music announced a tribute album to be released during 2024, featuring artists such as Paramore, Miley Cyrus, Lorde, The National, Girl In Red, Blondshell and BadBadNotGood. The album was ranked number 345 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of The 500 greatest albums of all time. In 2000, it was voted number 394 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2012, Slant Magazine listed the album at #61 on its list of "Best Albums of the 1980s".

Background and recording

Frantz stated in the liner notes of Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads, "When [Slippery People] was originally recorded on Speaking in Tongues, it had a funky and compact sound. This Stop Making Sense version is funky and big as a house. (Or should I say church?)"


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)
  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-inch and UK 12-inch 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

2023 Expanded Edition Remaster

Bonus live tracks include "Cities" and "Big Business/I Zimbra", both of which were cut from the original 1984 film and soundtrack. Produced by Jerry Harrison.

  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. “Cities” (Byrne) - 3:34
  7. "Burning Down the House" – 4:06
  8. "Life During Wartime" – 5:51
  9. "Making Flippy Floppy" – 4:40
  10. "Swamp" – 4:30
  11. "What a Day That Was" (Byrne) – 6:00
  12. "This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)" – 4:57
  13. "Once in a Lifetime" (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 5:25
  14. “Big Business/I Zimbra” (Byrne, Eno, Hugo Ball) - (7:24)
  15. "Genius of Love" (Weymouth, Frantz, Adrian Belew, Steven Stanley) (performed by Tom Tom Club) – 4:30
  16. "Girlfriend Is Better" – 5:06
  17. "Take Me to the River" (Green, Hodges) – 5:32
  18. "Crosseyed and Painless" (Byrne, Eno, Frantz, Harrison, Weymouth) – 6:11

Personnel

Additional personnel

Production

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