"Stay Up Late" Talking Heads

By the release of the 1985 album Little Creatures; it was safe to say that Talking Heads had somewhat accepted their newfound mainstream popularity. Brian Eno was no longer producing their albums and it appeared that dadaism and art-rock were going to have to go on the back-burner (or should I say back-byrner omg lol rimshot) for more traditional (but still way ahead of the curve) pop music. It seemed like David Byrne realized this and came to the conclusion that filmmaking would be his new means of artistic expression. The 1980 video for Once in a Lifetime directed by and starring the man showcased his burgeoning talents behind the camera :

The video though for Stay Up Late is as equally entertaining and unique even though it comes off the far less interesting album. Being that the song is an obvious narrative about a family and its newborn baby it would've been the easy choice to frame the video as a sugary comedy. Instead Byrne chooses to depict him and his bandmates suspended in harnesses being pulleyed up and down; sometimes in slow-motion and sometimes in a squishy lens.

What struck me as truly interesting about watching this video 25 years after its release is how dated it doesn't feel. Whereas the Once in a Lifetime video is still absolutely wonderful, Byrne's dabbling in visual art throughout screams "Woah, 30 years ago!" but the Stay Up Late video still holds a unique power. Making a three-minute and forty-four-second non-sequitur that defiantly has no actual relation to the song or any real story to tell makes it inherently interesting and stand-out amongst all the INXS and Paula Abdul (okay maybe not that one where she dances with the animated cat) videos of the time. Byrne was able to pull off a tone-poem of a music video, kudos. And interestingly enough his videos contained far more visual prowess that his actual attempt at feature films; the oddly static 1986 motion picture True Stories.