Talking about not-wasted talent (they do exist, trust me), I see that Suzanne Vega’s still around. I consider her one of the better lyricists around, probably on par with the other lyricist I can appreciate, Leonard Cohen. Um, I wouldn’t really call him a singer, but you know what I mean.
Vega’s official site has descriptions and meaning of several songs, so in case you’re still not sure about the background of a particular song you may, now might be a good time. Only fragments of movies, but I find this one, Book and Cover (1998) [WMV, RAM also available] [around this page], a kind of out-of-time, if you know what I mean, particularly when the shot with the guy and the plane comes up. Was this really shot in 1998? [Note, although Jonathan Demme shot one of Vega’s videos, I’m actually more impressed by the video that accompanies the ‘Book of Dreams’ song (WMV, RAM also available)].
Too bad not too many artists provide complete videos, like Sonic Youth does, for example.