Talking Heads

I only recently realized that the 1999 reissue of "Stop Making Sense" is also remixed and edited to fit in 80 minutes. So aside from a laserdisc mentioned upthread, the audio tracks found on the Blu-Ray is the way to go to get what matches the movie (with some minor editing apparently).

My favorite of theirs is the one where they go “James Redd, James Redd.” Oh wait.

James Blecch, James Blecch

Just learned about this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbgzXFrFmRQ

don't know if this concert was shared before, I definitely haven't seen it until now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldwpwrW6tno

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-2CfqA9P0Y

Colbert loves Talking Heads. I sensed David Byrne was consciously letting Chris Frantz take the lead in talking

did Frantz start randomly yelling 'james browwwwwn james browwwwwn'

That was really fun, kinda music nerd-y for a general interest TV talk show.

If I didn't know Byrne well enough already, I'd think, "Boy, what a weirdo" watching him laugh at the wrong parts of Frantz's anecdotes.

I think you can still think 'what a weirdo' even when you do know him well enough, because he is

did Frantz start randomly yelling 'james browwwwwn james browwwwwn'

No, but Tina did a little bit of her "Genius of Love" dance when they came out.

the best part

Colbert showing knowledge of Modern Lovers

Very nice to see them being civil to each other…but for the love of god don’t reform

It would be cool if their reunion lasted for 20 years, like the Pixies...except instead of playing music, all they do is show up on talk shows and introduce movie screenings together, etc.

lol I can imagine them doing the festival circuit, except each set is just them on stage answering questions about "Stop Making Sense."

That would a bizarre reversal of bands who reform as a live unit but otherwise avoid each other like the plague

That's kind of like the surviving Beatles after the mid-'90s, when the Anthology patched things up further and George was more aware of his mortality due to his struggle with cancer. All three got together quite a bit, but it wasn't really seen in public.

But yeah, I hope they don't tour. Just look at them on Colbert and compare them to, say, the HOF induction. They've really aged, and even in the HOF performance, you can tell they're not quite where they were as a band performance-wise.

Maybe if they do what Byrne does (and what Harrison did on this Remain in Light tour) and surround themselves with a lot of younger performers, I could see them pulling off an enjoyable show, but it really wouldn't be the same.

I don't see faked bonhomie in these clips. Byrne has never struck me as someone who would laugh at Chris "James BROOWWWNNN" Frantz's anecdotes unless he genuinely found them funny, and Frantz-Weymouth need him more than he needs them.

Of course HOF performance they clearly had barely rehearsed, like they would for a tour

I don’t think they have plans of doing a tour, they sort of dodged the question about it happening and made clear they just want to promote “stop making sense”.

It’s probably for the best, at this point any new material would probably be subpar and the chemistry is probably too fractured to withstand the pressure of touring. And yeah, they are too old too and touring requires a lot of energy, specially if you haven’t played those songs as a band in decades.

Maybe I can see them doing a very small tour 10 concerts max in big venues but I don’t know. They don’t seem interested in it.

They do seem genuinely amicable to each other, at least in low doses.

Byrne, Weymouth and Frantz introduced the film at Alamo Drafthouse tonight in Brooklyn - pretty cool they’re still doing all the promo together (and they didn’t need Harrison as a “buffer”)

awwww, nice.

New A24 SMS Blu-Ray coming..

https://shop.a24films.com/products/stop-making-sense-collectors-edition

https://www.billboard.com/business/touring/coachella-wanted-talking-heads-reunion-1235593270/

they were unsurprisingly approached with offers for reunion shows and turned them down

Turning down a 80 million dollar offer for a few gigs is insane or even 10M for Coachella alone. Must be nice to be able to turn them down, good for them.

I bet three of them would happily reunite for less money.

Or maybe two of them. You can bet Harrison got him some points on all those shitty '90s bands that went platinum on his producer watch.

I bet Jerry would do it just for kicks. Well, kicks and money. He’s been on Jonathan Richman’s last couple of albums, I don’t think he had a problem play with old friends. I think The Heads would have a blast and Byrne would hate it, or art it up enough to make the others hate it.

“Okay guys, we can reunite, but only if we’re backstage playing the music for a stage production of True Stories.”

byrne has always been the one who really doesn't want to, the rest would all like to - harrison's just done a talking heads tribute tour with belew! obviously relations between byrne & frantz/weymouth having improved hasn't been enough to change that

Oh, Harrison would do it, I just meant that he and Byrne don't need the money, but I bet the other two wouldn't mind the late career cash infusion.

This may be a dumb question, but why are the Tom Tom Club not active? Obviously they wouldn’t headline Coachella, but I would think they could still be a draw(?)

oh well i think frantz & weymouth would still reunite for less money if they could get byrne to do it

Wasn't "Genius of Love" a bigger seller by far than any Talking Heads song?

I wonder what kind of money Chris & Tina made off of the "GoL" sample and co-writer credit in Mariah Carey's "Fantasy"?

Good question. Nick Lowe I think has said he made about $1.5 million from the Curtis Stigers cover of "What's So Funny 'Bout Peace, Love and Understanding" that was on "The Bodyguard" soundtrack. That soundtrack sold around 17 million+, but of course he was the only credited writer on that song. The more or less contemporaneous "Daydream" has sold around 20 million, but there are six credited songwriters on "Fantasy," so however much it made was divided up that many times, to degrees (like, I'm sure a bigger hunk went to Mariah than anyone else). So I guess the answer to the question "I wonder what kind of money Chris & Tina made off of the "GoL" sample and co-writer credit in Mariah Carey's "Fantasy"?" is: probably not enough to say no to a Talking Heads reunion.

It's a pet peeve of mine that people think Chris & Tina were the only writers on "Genius," btw. The song also credits Belew and Steven Stanley, so four writers. As to why they are not active, I think Chris had some health problems?

i of course don't for sure know about their finances but i think it's probably safe to say that (at least) tina weymouth comes from enough money that they don't need to trot out "Tom Tom Club" reunion concerts in their 70s.

not even getting into the sampling and licensing of genius of love, and their decade-plus tenure in Talking Heds. All these guys are most likely set for life lol, they're fine

was going to say I saw the TTC live not so long ago and looked and it was 2011, opening for the Psychedelic Furs. dang.

their reunion performance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame was enough to convince me I dont need to see them reunited again, especially now that theyre all 20 years older than they were then

Not only is A24 doing the Stop Making Sense Blu-Ray, they're also curating a tribute album to the movie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrjHhIGl90I

BADBADNOTGOOD
Blondshell
The Cavemen
Chicano Batman featuring Money Mark
DJ Tunez
El Mató a un Policía Motorizado
girl in red
Jean Dawson
Kevin Abstract
The Linda Lindas
Lorde
Miley Cyrus
The National
Paramore
Teezo Touchdown
Toro y Moi

I'm fairly certain Chris + Tina are set for life or can at least plan a decent retirement thanks to "Fantasy" and the numerous rap samples of "Genius of Love." This is when artists still made coin pre-streaming.

I read an interview published in the mid '00s where Frantz-Weymouth admitted they made "close to" a million bucks in royalties from "Fantasy" in the last ten years. Admittedly, this ain't Mariah Carey money, but it's a LOT of money for two punks who earned little to no publishing income from the Heads and depended on touring.

They also seem to live quiet lives in Connecticut, and their children are all grown up and on their own now (and I think doing well) - given their age, I imagine the enticement of a big payout is no longer that great, not unless they want to make their kids enormously wealthy or suddenly adopt an extravagant lifestyle.

They've been shockingly inactive compared to the other two, so clearly whatever they're getting is "enough." But there's comfortable, and then there's really rich, and I bet Chris and Tina would prefer to be the latter.

I don’t think it’s possible to look up the members of Tina Weymouth’s family and think anything other than “there is family money here”

Who's in her family? I thought she, like Chris, was a military kid?