"I've got a tape I want to play."

Until about a year ago, I thought that Prince's 1987 concert film for his Sign O the Times tour was the best concert film ever made, although many critics at the time felt that either "The Last Waltz" or the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" was much better. I saw "Last Waltz" at a rather young age (14; before I could really develop a true taste for good music), so I wasn't as impressed (at the time) compared to the baby boomers who rave(d) over it.

"Stop Making Sense", however, was out of my grasp for a long time. As most people in Alabama, I was introduced to the Heads via "Burning Down the House". I then picked up True Stories, after reading about them in Rolling Stone (Don't laugh; in Northeast Alabama, Rolling Stone was more hip than reading Village Voice or NME in bigger cities; I was the only one at my high school who even read rock criticism. Everyone else read the metal mags). After buying Naked in 1989, I didn't think much about them until college when they released Sand in the Vaseline. Finally listening to their entire breadth of work (Little Creatures was even hard to find at Camelot, the best record store in the 5-county area; remember, this is 1991 in Alabama), I was floored.

Although I like R.E.M. and U2 better, as groups go, Talking Heads was beyond anything I had heard before, especially the early stuff. I read more about them, seeing that they came from the NY/CBGB scene, but, to me, as much as I like them as well, the Ramones and Television didn't have anything on them. Perhaps my love for Prince's music, and his dense sound, made the Heads more palpable to my ears.

I decided to give what I feel is the best of all possible worlds, the soundtrack to Stop Making Sense. In a town where the idea of a concert film on DVD or tape in a rental shop is Miley Cyrus or Toby Keith, I had to go the route of Utorrent for this one; Netflix is not in the cards since I've avoided credit cards like the plague ever since one of my closest friends got royally screwed up in college by overspending, so that leaves Netflix and even Amazon out of the question, unless they take money orders. If you haven't seen it yet, see it. Until then, enjoy the magic of the Heads.




"...Home is where i want to be, but i guess i'm already there..."

Enjoy!