The Avalanches – Since I Left You
2001 · Directed by Rob Leggatt & Leigh Marling (Blue Source)
190K Likes
Best comments
1.“I dunno how the YouTube algorithm figured out I have a deep and abiding love for big guys who can dance... but it did, and I do.”
More comments
- 2.“The dancing miner was my musical theatre teacher, Steve Elias. What a legend.”
- 3.“Came here expecting another WTF video from The Avalanches. Came out with tears in my eyes. Goddammit.”
The story
Two miners are digging through a black-and-white world when they hear music through the rock. They bust through some wooden planks and tumble into a dance studio in full color, where two dancers are performing an interpretive routine for a pair of judges. One miner, Arthur, can't help himself. He joins in. His buddy hangs back. By the end Arthur has fallen for one of the dancers and vanished in a flash of light, and his friend fades back to gray.
Then comes the coda: an old miner in a lounge room, a canary in a cage, a framed photo of two young men on the wall. Draw your own conclusions. Bring tissues.
Rob Leggatt and Leigh Marling of the Blue Source team directed it. The band's first idea was synchronized swimmers on a cruise ship, and the record company said no. Good call, record company. The video won Best Video at the 2001 MTV Europe Music Awards, and Pitchfork later ranked it fourth among the best music videos of the 2000s.
The song is the title track of an album the Melbourne group built out of roughly 3,500 vinyl samples, by Robbie Chater's own estimate. The chorus is lifted from a 1968 record by the Main Attraction. A whole record collection, glued into one love song.
