Stop Making Sense Project
I’m obsessed with the movie, Stop Making Sense. It is, subjectively, my favorite movie of all time. Objectively, it’s one of the best movies of all time (not just one of the best “concert movies” or “rockdocs.” I’m trying to figure out the cause of this movie. What makes it great? How did it come to exist? How did it come to be so great? Obviously, EVERYTHING that came before led to this movie. But I’m trying to only get real detailed about the year or so before it was made. I’m at the research stage. One day this Project will form into a book, podcast and/or something else.
I’ve spent much of June 2023 trying to nail down Talking Heads activities of June 1983. There are a bunch of things that have generally been assumed to have occurred, that I’m trying to verify with documentation. But, why is documentation important?
Well, it might not be. While working on Stop Making Sense Project, I’m also in library and archives school. One of the issues archivists deal with is the imposition of colonialist values on indigenous ways of knowing. In many North American traditions, truth is passed on orally and embodied in the minds and hearts of elders. Paper records, such as deeds and treaties, are frequently tools of manipulating knowledge to the benefit of colonizers. For this reason, and others, documentation ought to be considered only as one step in the process of knowledge gathering. It ought to be weighed against comprehensive oral histories and other ways of knowing as well.
I’m planning on entering my oral-history era of Stop Making Sense Project soon. Frankly, I’m nervous about this part of the process, so I’ve been trying to pick the least famous key contributors to the film to talk to first. I keep approaching people for interviews and they say “who else have you talked to?” or “who’s your publisher” and I get intimidated. So this anxiety means I’ve been slow to move forward on this stage of the Project. If you are interested in being my booker, or you were involved in any capacity on Stop Making Sense, please reach out to me. I would love to talk to you.
But this is the background research era of Stop Making Sense Project, and I’m looking at records and documents. So if documentation is so subject to manipulation, what good is it? There is an old Chinese proverb that says something like “the faintest ink is better than the sharpest memory.” I know what you’re thinking. “Really? Ancient Chinese proverb? Yeah, right. That’s something people say but never have any evidence of.” So I tried to fact check it with a basic Google search. This is only a MetaFilter source, but these people seem to know what they’re talking about. If you’re a scholar of Chinese imperial literature and can shed some light on this, please reach out.
https://ask.metafilter.com/247533/Is-this-really-an-ancient-Chinese-proverb
At best, I think documentation provides evidence for specific “facts.” Facts in themselves are neither knowledge nor truth. They are simply a kind of data. They are one factor in making sense of something. If it seems odd that I’m trying to make sense of Stop Making Sense, that’s fair. I would only add that “facts don’t do what I want them to.”
So, what facts am I chasing? Specifically, I’m trying to document the release of the “Burning Down the House” single, the production and release of the “Burning Down the House video, the timings of the release of the cassette, standard edition and the deluxe editions of the Speaking in Tongues album, the East Village Tower Records in-person signing and, most significantly rehearsals, for the upcoming tour.
Firstly, Wikipedia asserts that the album was released on June 1st, without any citation. Rock journalist Lisa Robinson’s syndicated column had asserted (in mid-April) that the album would be released May 25th. A report in the Austin-American Statesman from one week later says that Rauschenberg’s cover has caused delays.
June 11 1983, the cover of Billboard refers to the “forthcoming album” by Talking Heads.
June 15 1983, Variety says the “new” Talking Heads limited edition album is list-priced at $12.98, the regular edition is listed at $8.98, the cassette has extended versions and that the band is planning an August tour.
June 15 1983, Variety also reports that Saratoga Performing Arts Center is re-jigging its summer lineup, with Talking Heads performing on August 5th 1983.
June 15 1983, Variety also reports, in a confusingly-worded article, about summer concert revenue expectations, that “Premier Talent” is the agency booking Talking Heads.
June 18 1983 Billboard is reporting the album as a “top add” for radio play, but is still not listing it on the sales charts.
Variety reviewed the album on June 22
The album enters the regular Billboard Top 100 chart on June 25 at position 77.
Although industry magazines, Billboard and Variety both have many articles about the “explosion” of CDs, there are no mentions of Speaking in Tongues.
So here are the FACTS gleaned from these documents:
-the three Speaking in Tongues releases were probably between May 25-June 15. I have not found any confirmation of a specific date. It seems clear, given that it was a “top add” to radio playlists that stations had promo copies by late May. I was unable to find advertisements for the album being sold in record stores before the beginning of July.
-The regular cassette and LP editions of the album were $8.98 list price. The 50,000 limited editions were listed at $12.98.
-Concert dates were already being booked in early-mid-June.
-Premier Talent was Talking Heads booking agency.
-the album entered Billboard’s chart at number 77 on June 25th.
-I’ve been unable to unearth firm documentation of rehearsal information. More to follow.
-there is no documentation of the “Burning Down the House” single or music video in June. More to follow.
-there is no documentation of the Rauschenberg/Byrne signing event at Tower Records in NYC. In fact, there’s no documentation of Tower Records in NYC at all. More to follow.