David Byrne of the band Talking Heads lip-syncs and sporadically dances to the 1980 single "Once In a Lifetime".David Byrne of the band Talking Heads lip-syncs and sporadically dances to the 1980 single "Once In a Lifetime".David Byrne of the band Talking Heads lip-syncs and sporadically dances to the 1980 single "Once In a Lifetime".
- Directors
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Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaMany of Byrne's mannerisms, such as the physical spasms, unfocused eye movements, and sharp intakes of breath, were inspired by his choreographer Toni Basil.
- Quotes
David Byrne: And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack And you may find yourself in another part of the world And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife And you may ask yourself, "Well, how did I get here?" Letting the days go by, let the water hold me down Letting the days go by, water flowing underground Into the blue again, after the money's gone Once in a lifetime, water flowing underground.
- ConnectionsEdited into Talking Heads: Storytelling Giant (1988)
- SoundtracksOnce In A Lifetime
Written by David Byrne, Brian Eno, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth
Performed by Talking Heads
I might be wrong but this is Talking Heads very first video, a little earlier before MTV come to the scene and show what video clips was all about and how they could make an impact to audiences. Therefore, all what's wrong with this clip can't and won't be thrown here (OK, my only complaint is that it's an edit version of the actual song). While David Byrne's song reflects a pounding and immortal existentialism about the question we make while going through life ("How did I get here?" among others), the video presents the man himself dressed in a 1950's style (those huge glasses) making some spasmodic dance and movements, lip-synching the song against those old chrome-key background - revolutionary then, strange to look at it now. Sweating, nervous, out of control...but it's all we need to see when he gives us the lyrics, a desperation that won't go quietly, everything that pounds into our brain when we had lived long enough to understand the ways life go without we notice.
I might be looking far too objectively to the video and that's not the ideal. You can watch it and still find it positively amusing, hysterically funny because everything Byrne does here is out of this world. Million dollar question: the 1950's thing was a look back at the American Way of Life and how it turned out to be in the following decades, so there we have Byrne's appearance as if he was transported 30 years later to ask himself what happened or it's just something the band liked? After all, how many 1980's groups looked back to the 1950's style/fashion/culture to introduce to the then current audiences? Several groups.
Good classic clip that despite the age hasn't lost its charm. Letting the days go by...9/10
- Rodrigo_Amaro
- Sep 10, 2016
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime4 minutes
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