Yep! I’m in that picture!
Look for the guy about 4 deep from the stage with both arms up, the one with the big black watchband. Just to his right is a short woman, and I’m directly to her right. You can only see my head
Fans sometimes luck out when someone from the band finds tapes from a bygone era in an attic somewhere, clean them up and releases them.
I just pre-ordered a copy of “BRAND X – Theory Of Nothing”, consisting of performances from their 1977 tour.
Most people probably have no idea of who Brand X was, but those who have heard of them know what a great improvisational jazz rock band they were. The album is only being put out as a 2 CD set, but I’m sure someone will upload it to youtube at some point.
It is a very good, even great album. It’s not superb. I think it really works best with the visuals of the movie.
And this is - without a doubt - true. The experience of Stop Making Sense in film is a magnitude greater as compared to the album; there are so many songs missing from the vinyl nand the way the stage is built is not just a gimmick. Byrne and Demme made a conscious choice to include as few images of the audience as possible. They wanted to convey to the movie goes the feeling of being in the audience. Which, as I can attest to, they managed. I saw it in Chicago on opening (Carnegie?) without knowing what to expect. Byrne even had the color on the SM58s changed to black. The newly released and restored version (B-ray by A24) is a marvel. I had to import it from the U.S. and that cost me about $150 in all, since they didn’t distribute it here, at least at the time.
The bonis material gives a lot of insight as well.
This absolutely was an issue with the original release. Thankfully it’s been corrected since and there has recently been a complete re-mastered deluxe version that sounds great. Note that the included blu-ray is an audio blu-ray only, it is not the concert footage. Just a second copy of the complete live album on blu-ray for hyper-aficionados.
But I do agree (and this ties back in to my Danny Elfman rant above) they minimize the crowd noise and experience too much. For example you can hear the crowd go wild watching the concert when the drum kit is wheeled out about 2/3 of the way through the song Heaven. That has been almost entirely digitally erased in favor of just the song for the CD release. It’s as a result still a beautiful performance, but I think loses something without that little bit of audience ambiance. Just a matter of taste of course.
Probably a different thread for comedy albums, but Steve Martin’s A Wild and Crazy Guy?
Moderating, yes another thread.