Facing the Music
Just by way of a change I thought I’d put up these two classic videos featuring very different singers. One connection between them is that both of them are records that I bought when they came out. The other is that both videos essentially consist of nothing but close-ups of the artiste’s face. The first is Private Life, by Grace Jones
and the second was a big hit for Sinead O’Connor in 1990:
Incidentally I once saw Sinead O’Connor in person at the Zap Club in Brighton when I literally bumped into her trying to get to the bar. When she turned around I was staggered to see such a beautiful face looking at me, although to be honest I did for a moment assume she was a boy…
Anyway, that wasn’t the point of this post. In fact I was wondering if anyone can think of any other pop videos done like this, entirely in close-up? Answers through the comments box please!
In the Dark 
August 24, 2010 at 7:30 pm
Radiohead – No Surprises.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgzeqwhNTDk&feature=av2e
A word of warning though. Thom Yorke is not nearly as attractive as the two examples you give, especially once the goldfish bowl over his head is completely full of water.
August 24, 2010 at 7:31 pm
I assume they are a popular beat combo of some sort.
August 24, 2010 at 8:02 pm
Grace Jones, amazing looks, unexceptional singer and musical style – for which reasons she was perfectly cast in A View To A Kill, the best of the Roger Moore Bond films.
August 24, 2010 at 8:36 pm
>> I assume they are a popular beat combo of some sort.
Yes, and much better than Grace or Sinead – but as we all know, snobby musical arguments will get us nowhere 🙂
August 24, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Of course I was just pretending to be an old fogey. I remember that Radiohead made a record with a young tearaway trumpet player called Humphrey Lyttelton…
August 24, 2010 at 8:47 pm
I loved Grace Jones at the time, during the 80s. Along with Private Life I also liked Warm Leatherette . They sound a bit dated now, but who from the 80s doesn’t? I still think the mask at the beginning of the video is totally brilliant.
August 25, 2010 at 4:58 pm
The clear answer to “who from the 80s doesn’t … sound a bit dated now” is Talk Talk, as in their 1988 “Spirit of Eden”. OK, I admit that their earlier albums were very 1980s, but “Spirit of Eden” is, IMHO, utterly brilliant and utterly timeless.
And as luck would have it, the video for “I Believe in You” pretty much qualifies for the all-in-close-up-on-the-singer criterion after the first 10 seconds. As the YouTube comments make clear, however, Mark Hollis was completely against making such a video, but was forced to do so under the terms of his contract with EMI. And, famously of course, the cretins at EMI so hated “Spirit of Eden” that they sued the band for wasting the year it took them to make it, which led to Talk Talk moving to the revived jazz label Verve for their equally fantastic 1991 “Laughing Stock”.
Sorry; a bit of a Talk Talk fan boy, I’m afraid 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHUDNZD5N88&feature=av2n
August 25, 2010 at 5:00 pm
Ugh – EMI win again. By linking to their higher-quality version of the I Believe in You on YouTube, you discover that embedding is disabled.
So here’s a lower-quality but (hopefully) viewable version. Either way, watch it.
August 24, 2010 at 9:44 pm
Björk – Hunter
August 24, 2010 at 11:00 pm
Of course there is Godley and Creme with “Cry” – although not just one
face it still has effectively a single closeup
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxtPRF6NG7I&feature=related
August 25, 2010 at 9:08 pm
I disagree. The best James Bond film was undoubtedly Dr No, starring Mark Brake.
August 26, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Well Phillip, we seem to have pretty divergent views on good Bond films but I agree with you that George Lazenby did a good job and had an undeserved bad press. My all-time fave is Thunderball. Most underrated: Licence to Kill, whic is rather like Daniel Craig’s Bond.
Anton
(Damp at Lords cricket ground)
August 27, 2010 at 7:47 am
Peter,
Elvis Costello – I Wanna Be Loved, from around 1984. Not one of his best songs, I think, but an interesting video nonetheless.
Steve