The reviews for this were terrible at first. Critics were uncomprehending: "This band released one of the most interesting live albums ever just a few years ago — what's the point of releasing an inferior live album so soon afterwards?" It's only selling point seemed to be the better versions of Speaking in Tongues songs. I remember looking at the text on the inner sleeve —
Singing is a trick to get people to listen to music longer than they would ordinarily… Everything on stage should be larger than in real life… [a preview of Music from the Knee Plays] In the future, love will be taught on television and by listening to pop songs… [and my personal motto] People will remember you better if you always wear the same outfit
and thinking that it was almost worth buying the album for that alone. But not quite.
No one had seen the film at that stage. That changed everything.
After a while, it seemed every Friday night the Arts Cinema had a late night showing of Stop Making Sense. By the time Slippery People came on, people were up and dancing at the sides and at the front of the cinema. I thought that was a common experience that bonded everyone who was a student in 1985. Lucy, however, danced a lot to all the same songs, but has never seen the film to this day. Go figure, as they used to say.
Another memory: going on holiday on the Norfolk Broads just before Easter, 1985. Students leave everything to the last minute. It got to our penultimate day when we realised that we still had half of our booze left. So we dedicated Thursday afternoon to getting rid of it. As you know, most of the Broads are narrow, but we a more expansive stretch of water at , where it was possible to be more lax about helming our boat. We put a tape of SMS on my old Sanyo C3 (still in daily use in our kitchen, 26 years later), cranked it up and created a four-person party. Later that evening, though walking had become a challenge, we made our way to an almost-deserted restaurant with an open fire where I enjoyed a nut cutlet more than any other nut cutlet in my life.
Soon started referring to SMS as one of the best live albums ever. Along with this review, I don't think it is, though it's enhanced no end when you've seen the film enough times to be able to remember where each set piece occurs in each song. Still, when Fopp had the new edition, which adds seven songs so that the album maps more directly to the film, for £7, it became a no-brainer. This is what we danced to, when we danced.
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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