By Steve Newton
You may have heard the sad news making the rounds in the music press today regarding Mark Hollis.
The singer-songwriter of Talk Talk, one of the most adventurous and under-rated of ’80s pop acts, has died at the age of 64.
Now, those who’ve read my stuff over the last 37 years or so know that synth-pop is not my forte. I’ve never been big on synthesizers–unless they’re being played by somebody like Tangerine Dream, on the Sorcerer soundtrack.
I’m waaayyyy more of a guitar guy.
That said, way the funk back in 1984 I happened to do an interview with Mark Hollis, because Talk Talk had recently released an album on a major label, and that was how it worked back then. The major label reps would set you up a phone interview to try and help sell a few–or a few million–copies of whatever vinyl they were marketing.
So even though I wasn’t a massive Talk Talk fan at the time, I got on the honker with Hollis and did an interview that turned out to be one of the few ones I did that never actually saw print. Talk Talk never toured to Vancouver, far as I recall, so the story was never written.
In the years since that little chat I really got to like the song that was a new hit single back then, “It’s My Life”. And nowadays I totally love that tune. It’s catchy AF, even without guitars.
So for all those who may be missing Mark Hollis right now, here’s him explaining in great detail the reasons and wherefores for the two music videos he had made for “It’s My Life”.
Have a listen, and sorry that the sound quality isn’t top notch, but it was 35 freakin’ years ago.
If I could buy my reasoning I’d pay to lose
One half won’t do
I’ve asked myself
How much do you commit yourself?
Don’t you forget
It’s my life
It never ends
I never knew if I was sometimes played upon
Afraid to lose,
I’d tell myself what good you do
Convince myself
Don’t you forget
It’s my life
It never ends
How much do you commit yourself?
Don’t you forget
Caught in the crowd
It never ends
The funny thing is that, until now, I’d only ever seen the one with only the animals and no band, even though 1984 was probably the peak of my MTV viewing.
Also, all this time I never realized he had tape across his mouth.