As a teenager (in the ‘90s) I used to collect Talking Heads bootlegs. I had about 40 in the end I think, but only one from this tour (and that was missing Psycho Killer 😡). We’re so lucky to have access to all these amazing recordings nowadays. Thank you for putting this up, it’s the first time I’ve heard a live ‘Pull Up The Roots’ and I’m delighted. It’s always been my favourite off Speaking in Tongues.
They only performed it a couple of time during the last months of this tour as an encore. The Burlington version was already on youtube, so I uploaded the Providence version.
@@davidbadiola3005 yeah that’s a shame, I’d love to see it it’s always been one of my favourites. The speed they’re playing it at is amazing, right at the limit, a few more bpm and it’d fall apart into chaos. It’s beautiful 😢
With shows of this band I only skip ahead to songs that interest me like Life During Wartime, Cities, Pull Up The Roots and that's about it but i had a migraine recently and I was just laying in bed trying to feel better and decided to listen to a show in full. One of the coolest things ever. I never wanted to move around and dance so much until this show. The sound is amazing, vocals are amazing (especially Holt and Mabry's on Big Blue Plymouth, Life During Wartime, and Pull Up The Roots) and they it sounds like a blast to be there. So the lesson I learned is that there is cool gems in these shows and I will look for them now. Thank you.
Love -> Building on Fire and The Book I Read are two of my favorite Talking Heads songs. Getting another live recording of them outside of The Name of This Band is Talking Heads is amazing. Brings me back wearing my dad’s sport coats and dancing with David as I played my dad’s vhs of Stop Making Sense
00:00 - Psycho killer 05:21 - Heaven 09:23 - Thank you for sending me an angel 11:41 - Love-building on fire 14:53 - Book I read 19:38 - Slippery people 25:02 - Cities 29:48 - Big blue Plymouth 34:21 - Burning down the house 38:14 - Life during wartime 44:00 - Making flippy floppy 50:12 - Swamp 55:27 - What a day that was 01:02:01 - This must be the place 01:07:08 - Once in a lifetime 01:12:47 - Big business/ I Zimbra 01:21:19 - Houses in motion 01:27:51 - Genius of love 01:34:10 - Girlfriend is better 01:39:58 - Take me to the right 01:48:49 - Pull up the roots 01:54:26 - Crosseyed & Painless
The song was only performed live 3 time, and we are lucky to have a bootleg recording for each : Burlington (Talking Heads channel uploaded it on youtube); Providence (might be the best quality) and Plattsburgh (not the best quality but might be the best performance of the 3). Those 3 are on youtube ! ;-) The band dropped the song shortly after, although it appeared on the setlist for a couple of more shows, the first time an electrical problem stopped the show early, the second time it was just not performed.
"Houses In Motion" was a regular song on the "Speaking In Tongues" tour... it wasn't included on "Stop Making Sense" because Jonathan Demme thought it was breaking the rhythm of the whole movie...
it might also be a tape issue, running a bit faster than expected, David Byrne's voice is a little bit pitched up as is most of the music But they were definitely playing faster here than when they were recorded
The second half of this show, pre-encores (starting with Making Flippy Floppy) is played to a click-track so the band can sync with the video projections; the real live show on the night would have been the exact same tempo as the nights of filming. (I saw this show 2 nights earlier in Billerica, Mass--amazing)
They dropped "Houses In Motion" (as well as "Love / Building On Fire", "The Book I Read" and "Big Blue Plymouth") for the film shooting because Jonathan Demme wanted the film to have more rhythm, as in, this song was maybe too long. As for "Pull Up The Roots", the band only performed it 3 or 4 times as a rare encore...
I agree, but I'm sure even if they were able to perform those songs for the "Stop Making Sense" performances, Jonathan Demme would've edited those songs out, just like he did with "I Zimbra", "Cities", "Big Blue Plymouth" or "Houses In Motion"...
hey! glad to find this. i was at this show. drove from Boston. they were at the very top of their game for this. who was opening act(s)?? i remember seeing Elvis Costello here about same year....
![Talking Heads - Live in Providence 1983 [w/ Pull Up The Roots]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
