Magic Jewball

all signs point to no

 

A life on every face

Filed under : Music
On June 4, 2010
At 12:00 pm
Comments :Comments Off on A life on every face

And now, a bleed from my other blog, the video one with all the 80’s songs. I barely remember this song from back in the day and I absolutely never saw the video because I’m fairly sure I’d remember it. But I heard it the other day on Radio Nigel and instantly realized I’d missed out, because it’s such a great track. Then I added the video and ladies and gents, I have to admit to you that I watch this video every day. Every day. I don’t know why I find it so riveting, and so I’m going to attempt to explain it to myself through blog.

My favorite song by Talk Talk is not the one everyone knows, It’s My Life, but actually, Life’s What You Make It, which is certainly one of the most played songs on my iPod. And I do know that video fairly well, I think because of all the bugs. It’s not even my favorite video with bugs in it, that would be Matthew Sweet’s Time Capsule. But I digress. Here’s a still from Life’s What You Make It:




Hope you weren’t eating lunch. Here’s another frame.




The first one’s a bit more memorable, no? Even if there weren’t lots of creepy-crawly insects to distract me, I don’t think I could pick the lead singer of Talk Talk, pictured above, out of a line-up. He’s not exactly in the limelight here, so to speak.

This other video actually came first but having seen Life’s What You Make It, as well as It’s My Life (that was the one with all the nature documentary footage) and Talk Talk (that’s actually one of the first videos I ever saw on MTV and is, I believe, next to “early 80’s video” in the dictionary), for years and years, I wasn’t really prepared for this one which consists mostly of Mark Hollis, the lead singer with the, er, hobbit-like appearance, having nearly the whole video focused on his face. And, not only is he unusual looking, but I think he gives the word expressive new meaning. I’ve read that he did this exaggerated version as a sort of protest against the record company’s demand for lip-synching but who knows.

And who cares, really, because either way, I am utterly fixated on this guy’s face as I watch this video, which is a feat in itself given my short attention span. Maybe it’s the intercutting of scarf Mark with open-collar Mark and various other Marks to form a sort of one-man play. Maybe it’s the impish look of mischief and humor. Maybe it’s because this is the way we all used to sing into our hairbrushes half-seriously, half-cracking up, as kids. I don’t know. I think he just has the kavorka, as they say on Seinfeld.

But so, without further ado, the video I view every day in utter fascination, Such A Shame. You get down with your bad self, Mark Hollis!

[flv width=”480″ height=”360″]http://www.magicjewball.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/tt-sas.flv[/flv]



Title is the second line from Talk Talk – Such A Shame