Despite Stop Making Sense being the first Talking Heads tape I bought in the '80s—primarily due to its collection of song titles I recognized at the time functioning as a sort of "greatest hits" to adolescent me, concerned as I was by stretching every dollar spent on music as far as possible—I never actually saw the movie until a few weeks ago.
And I hadn't even realized that was the case until I dug through my memories and realized I had constructed a version of Stop Making Sense (the film) in my head by reading about it over the years, and seeing a fair amount of the footage from the film as snippets over the years. But I had never sat down to watch the whole thing as a complete piece!
I am fascinated by what a powerful documentary it is, and how incredibly fresh and exciting it feels despite me being old enough to recognize how even the wilder moves Demme and the band undertook at the time have become some of the most basic components of the modern concert film.
I will also be eternally thankful that my first full experience with the film was on a big screen with a great sound system, instead of the grainy VHS I would have otherwise imbibed after its release. (Despite my love of music, as a teenager the idea of spending money on a full price movie ticket to watch "a long music video" would have never even entered my consideration set. I similarly skipped Rattle & Hum at the theater just 4 years later for similar reasons. Too expensive for little me, at the time!)
It also served as an important lesson: I really need to go back and reinvestigate what "classics" I've missed that I thought I saw!
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