Talking Heads were wary of ‘Stop Making Sense’ film being “too Spinal Tap”
Talking Heads have spoken about the making of their iconic concert film Stop Making Sense, saying that they didn’t want it to be “too Spinal Tap“.
All four members of the New York band – David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison – appeared on yesterday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (June 13).
They talked to host Fallon about the upcoming 40th anniversary reissue of their 1984 album ‘Stop Making Sense’, the recent star-studded tribute compilation celebrating that record, and the A24 remastered Stop Making Sense film.
At one point in the interview, Talking Heads were asked whether they had approached director Jonathan Demme with any “notes” on how he should capture their performance onscreen.
“Do you all go like, ‘Hey, here’s what we definitely don’t want to do’?” Fallon said. Weymouth responded: “Yeah. We did that.”
The bassist continued: “We said, ‘We don’t want all the gimmicks’. We wanted the cameras to be like a sensitive eye; the way an audience member would be seeing it, without the camera getting in the way and playing around.”
She went on to say that the group wanted “no split screen” and “no interviews” to be featured. “That would be too Spinal Tap,” Weymouth added, referring to the classic comedy rock mockumentary – which was released the same year as Stop Making Sense.
The musician said the concert film could have “absolutely” gone in that direction without the band having their say. “I would be like the lukewarm water, and [Bryne, Frantz and Harrison] would be the fire and ice,” she joked.
Weymouth was referencing the This Is Spinal Tap scene in which bassist Derek Smalls (played by Harry Shearer) says: “We’re very lucky in the sense that we’ve got two visionaries in the band.
“David and Nigel are both like poets, you know? Like Shelley or Byron, or people like that. The two totally distinct types of visionaries… it’s like fire and ice, basically. And I feel my role in the band is to be kind of in the middle of that, kind of like lukewarm water.”
Weymouth previously looked back on Talking Heads’ “supreme Spinal Tap moment” when speaking to The Guardian in 2011.
Later in the new Fallon interview, Byrne recalled how he had “improvised” his famous dance moves for the Stop Making Sense performance. “I’d be inspired by preachers or people feeling the spirit,” he explained.
- READ MORE: Inside the tribute album to Talking Heads’ ‘Stop Making Sense’: “The music is just so striking”
“And I’d see the kind of moves they were doing. I felt [like], ‘Oh! Music makes me feel like that, too.”
Byrne added: “I put on some of the music [to rehearse] – some of our songs – and go, ‘This might make me move in a certain way. How do I wanna move with this song?'” The singer then watched some of the old rehearsal footage back in the talk show studio.
He said: “Those moves that you just showed everybody – none of those ones got used. So… still available! [Laughs]” Watch the video interview in full above.
The 40th anniversary edition of the ‘Stop Making Sense’ album will be released along with the remastered live film this summer as a 2LP and 2CD/Blu-ray set. You can pre-order it here.
In other news, Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz recently sparked rumours of a possible reunion of the band.
The group made their first public appearance together in over 20 years for a Q&A session at a screening of Stop Making Sense at the Toronto International Film Festival last September.
Last week, the band appeared together at a screening and Q&A at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California – where Stop Making Sense was shot over four nights in late 1983.
In December 2023, Byrne said he felt “removed” from the experience when he re-watched himself in Stop Making Sense. “It’s almost as if I’m watching a character,” he added.
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Tom Skinner
NME
