Supertramp - Better Days

What this video is

Released in 1985 as part of Supertramp's 'Brother Where You Bound' album cycle — the band's first post-Roger Hodgson LP — 'Better Days' and its video reflect the intense Cold War anxieties and nuclear-age disillusionment permeating mid-decade popular culture. The song's extended fade-out features voice-overs from the four key players of the 1984 US presidential campaign, embedding it explicitly in contemporaneous…

Why it matters

Represents a transitional moment in progressive rock's adaptation to the MTV era: a conceptually ambitious narrative video deploying cinematic production values, archival montage, and political commentary at a time when the format was standardizing around performance clips. Sits within Steve…

The director

Steve Barron (born 4 May 1956, Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish-British filmmaker who began his career as a camera assistant on A Bridge Too Far (1977), The Duellists (1977), and Superman (1978). He co-founded production company Limelight, which became the…