Demme’s genius was to not be seduced by crude ideas about what constitutes “cinematic.” For this reason, the film focuses on the people, and not the special effects included in the concerts he filmed. This was a wise choice, but it does mean that I’ve spent 40 years wondering about the other word slides for the song Making Flippy Floppy.
What slides am I talking about? Act Two of Stop Making Sense (following the “Does anybody have any questions?” bit that ends the build-the-band Act One) begins with the song Making Flippy Floppy. Behind the musicians, on a giant screen, various white words appear on red or blue backgrounds in groups of three. These words may or may not be related to the music we’re hearing. Byrne admits, in the commentary on the original SMS DVD, that these slides were heavily influenced by the fine artist, Ed Ruscha. Talking Heads later used one of Ruscha’s works for the cover of their compilation Sand in the Vaseline. Ruscha has been in the spotlight a bit recently, for his cover design of the new Beatles single, Now and Then.
As I already noted, not all of the slides actually appear in the movie. A few missing slides appear in the photos included in the centrefold of the limited edition booklet that accompanied the original soundtrack release. And a couple of errant words were reported in Steve Morse’s glowing review of the show in the October 6 1983 Boston Globe.
But other than that, the exact details of the remaining slides have been a mystery to most fans. Were they the same words every night? Were they in the same order every show?
Well, I’ve been continuing my project of going through all the available tapes of the 1983 tour, and I was thrilled to discover that on September 1 1983, at the Costa Mesa Pacific Amphitheatre, the legendary taper, BFOQ, VERBALLY CALLED OUT ALL THE SLIDES while recording the show!!! I soon determined that BFOQ repeated this procedure just over one month later at the Rochester War Memorial, confirming the consistency and order of the word slides.
Here is BFOQ’s recording of Making Flippy Floppy with all the slide information.
Here is a chart of all the slides, where they occur in the song, and what the source of the information is. Even more information about the slides coming soon.
BEAUTIFUL VIEW | EIGHT-THIRTY PM | RELIGIOUS UPBRINGING | Recording | |
COWBOYS | ONIONS | PARTIES | Recording NOTE: ONIONS appears in the film later, but it is probably an asynchronous edit piece | |
SNACK | DOCTORS | PLAYBOY | Recording but SMS booklet shows DOCTORS substituting for ONIONS above | |
CABLE TV | AIRPLANE CRASH | BURNT TOAST | Recording And SMS booklet | |
DINNER | NYLONS | ABSORBENT | Recording | |
GERMAN ACTOR | DOLLFACE | PUBLIC LIBRARY | 1-Recording 2-3 Film | |
DELI | ROAD HUGGER | ICE CUBES | 1-Film 2-3 Recording | |
AIR CONDITIONED | UNDER THE BED | DRUGS | Film | |
VIDEOGAME | SANDWICH | DIAMONDS | Film | |
Drumming starts | STAR WARS | FACELIFT | PIG | Film |
“Wait a minute…” | GRITS | DOG | TIME CLOCK | Film |
“…everybody, get in line..” | DIGITAL | BABIES | DUSTBALL | Film |
“Nothing can come between us… | ||||
“…open up.” | ||||
8-bar Worrell keyboard solo | HAPPY HOUR | AROUND | SIX PM | Recording and newspaper article |
NOON | TILL | EIGHT-THIRTY PM | Recording | |
16-bar Byrne gtr solo | BEFORE | DINNER | TIME | Film |
BEFORE | YOU’RE | AWAKE | Film | |
LATE | AT | NIGHT | Film | |
JUST | ABOUT | LUNCH | Recording | |
“Oh I can’t believe it….kill it!” |