“Tears Were Blue” explores similar territory to Britney Spears’ “Lucky”, albeit with a more sinister and less symapathetic tone. The song is the words of a man who realises that his attempts to make a young woman a star may have been a little too heavy-handed as – oops – she appears to have gone and tragically died.
Bike perform the song on stage in an empty theatre, lit with dry blue tones. This is cut with black and white flashes of Baby Blue, sometimes looking beautiful, other times looking messed up. This makes it clear that Miss Baby Blue is not part of Bike’s world any more.
But was she ever? We only see parts of Baby Blue, never the whole person. Is the song actually sung from the perspective of a fan, someone who never had a personal relationship with his idol, but felt like he did. Ugh, this whole mess could have been avoided if only Tumblr had been around in 1997.
Note: this video is geoblocked for New Zealand and Germany, but it should be watchable in any other region. Why don’t Warner NZ just let it play for its biggest audience?
Best bit: Baby Blue’s make-up – Audrey Hepburn delicacy with heavy ’90s makeup.
Director: Jonathan King
Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision
Next… corporation soldier takes Manhattan.