‘The glue that’s held my life together’: Stop Making Sense, Talking Heads’ concert movie released in 1984, changed how a novelist listened to music
- Widely acclaimed as one of the best concert movies ever made, ‘Stop Making Sense’ follows performances by seminal new wave rock band Talking Heads
- Richard Tunbridge, author of several Hong Kong-based detective stories, explains how watching the movie proved to be a pivotal point in his life
Widely acclaimed as one of the greatest concert films ever made, “Stop Making Sense” (1984), directed by Jonathan Demme, depicts the intricate staging and narrative of a series of performances in Los Angeles by seminal new wave rock band Talking Heads.
Australia-born, Hong Kong-based Richard Tunbridge, who under his pen name Richard Tong is the author of novels including the Neon Noir trilogy of locally set hard-boiled detective stories, tells Richard Lord how it changed his life.
The first thing I remember of Talking Heads was watching the “Once in a Lifetime” video, with David Byrne (Talking Heads’ singer, guitarist and main songwriter) floating in front of bad graphics.
It was on a pop television show on a Saturday afternoon, and my dad walked past and said, “What’s this nonsense?” but I thought it was amazing.
Stop Making Sense came after that. I was captivated. It was funny and uplifting. We listened to it non-stop, and it changed the way I listen to music. It was such a pivotal thing for me, and tied to so many other things: the storytelling element, the movie and the music.
I remember a good friend’s parents had invested in this amazing stereo, because CDs were coming. I thought, “If I’m going to buy a CD, I’ll buy this.” We put it in his stereo and cranked it up to 11.
