Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

Music Video of the Day: Room For One More by Anthrax (1993, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The video below features flashing lights and similar visual effects that may be difficult for viewers with photosensitive epilepsy so, as always, watch it at your own discretion.

This music video features Anthrax doing what they did best, rocking it.  Like many of the older metal bands, Anthrax usually kept it simple when it came to their music videos.  Instead of going for gimmicks or a lot of bells and whistles, they just picked up their instruments and played as fast and as loud as they could.  It’s not a bad approach.  Though this video does feature clips of cattle and construction, it still puts the band front and center.

The song was recorded and this music video was shot during the time that John Bush was lead singer of the band, replacing Joey Belladonna after the latter was fired.  Belladonna, of course, would later rejoin the band.

Who directed this?  I have no idea.  Neither does the imdb or the imvdb.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Send Me An Angel by Scorpions (1991, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This music video from the German group Scorpions has an old west theme that fits the song well.  Send Me An Angel is Scorpions at their most soulful and showed audiences outside of Germany that the band was capable of much more than just singing about being rocking you like a hurricane.

This song was included on Scorpions’s 11th studio album, Crazy World.  It was the 4th and final single to be released off the album and it went on to become one of Crazy World‘s signature tunes.  While the song peaked at #44 at the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and at #22 in the UK, it was a huge hit for the band in the rest of Europe.  It was especially popular in Belgium, proving once again that Belgians just have better taste in music than the rest of the world.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Playground Twist by Siouxsie and the Banshees (1979, directed by Clive Richardson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In this music video for Playground Twist, Siouxsie and the Banshees show that, despite it’s fearsome reputation, punk rock could be just as fun as any school playground song.  The children who appeared in this video probably had no idea that they were dancing with the woman who Bill Grundy was attempting to hit upon when Steve Jones of the Sex Pistol called him a “dirty sod” on live British television.  The British tabloids labeled this exchange and the entire interview between Grundy and the Sex Pistols as being “the filth and the fury.”

This was one of several videos that Clive Richardson did for Siouxsie and the Banshees.  He also directed videos for several other groups that were a prominent part of the New Wave scene, including Depeche Mode, Tears for Fears, and Adam and the Ants.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Take This Job And Shove It by Dead Kennedys (1984, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

If this song isn’t the unofficial anthem on Labor Day, it should be.

Of course, Take This Job And Shove It is best known as a country song.  The most popular version of the song was performed by Johnny Paycheck and it spoke to the frustrations of everyone who was stuck in a bad job and who dreamed of just telling the foreman or the shift manager to go to Hell.  The song was Paycheck’s biggest hit and it was subsequently performed by many artists, some country and some not.  Dead Kennedys covered the song and, as seen in this 1984 performance at Olympics Auditorium, they added their own spin to the song.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Hero of the Day by Metallica (1996, directed by Anton Corbijn)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This video was directed by Anton Corbijn.  If you were a rock star in the 90s, Anton Corbijn probably directed a music video for you.

In this video, a young man discovers that Metallica is inescapable.  Even on television, every channel features either a show or a commercial that features the members of the band.  For someone who has access to 24-hour Metallica television, the young man doesn’t seem to care about much.  Not even his girlfriend can get much of a response from him.  He would rather just fantasize about monsters fighting.  The young man in the video is played by George Clements.  He also appeared in a music video that appeared on Queen’s Made In Heaven compilation.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: A Farewell to Kings by Rush (1977, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

To quote Neil Peart, this song “seems to encapsulate everything that we want Rush to represent.”  The song is about dealing with the hypocrisy and finding your own truth, away from the demands of the establishment and the so-called “kings” who think that it is their place to tell others how to live their lives and what to believe.

Both the song and the music video are filled with imagery that harkens back to the Middle Ages, a reminder that hypocrites have always been there and they always will be but that the people will always find a way to be free.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Another Rainy Night Without You By Queensryche (1991, directed by Matt Mahurin)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“Sometimes rockers have to pretend to be all sensitive like that to get chicks.”

When Butt-Head uttered those words of wisdom, he was talking about the Red Hot Chili Peppers’s Under the Bridge but he could have just as well been talking about Queensryche and Another Rainy Night Without You.  Of course, Queensryche was always more given to emotion than some of the other prominent metal groups of the era.

The most interesting thing about this black-and-white video is that it was directed by Mary Lambert, who also directed both the original Pet Semetary and it’s sequel.  Lambert also directed the music video for Queensryche’s Empire.

Update (9/9/22) — Actually, there are two videos of this version.  One of them was directed by Mary Lambert.  However, the video at the top of this post was directed by Matt Mahurin, who has been directing music videos since the late 80s and who has also worked with everyone from Peter Gabriel to R.E.M. to Metallica.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Tovarish Gorbachev by Midnight Moscow (1987, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Yesterday, when I heard that Mikhail Gorbachev had died, I went on YouTube and did a search to see if I could find any music videos featuring him.  I was expecting that maybe I would find something from U2, as Bono used to be quite the Gorbachev fan.

Instead, I found this from 1987:

Don’t ask me what to make of it because I couldn’t begin to tell you.  I can’t even be sure what the name of the band is.  Some sites say the band was named Midnight Moscow while others claim that their name was Midnight’s Moscow.  What I can tell you is that this band is from Italy, not Russia.  And the majority of the lyrics of the song are pure gibberish.  They’re not singing in Russian or Italian.  Outside of “Welcome to the USSR,” almost all of the words appear to be made up.

I can’t even really tell you if this song is meant to be anti or pro-Soviet.  I still enjoyed seeing that picture of Stalin get ripped in two.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me by Weird Al Yankovic (2011, directed by Koos Decker)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In honor of the coming release of his biopic, today’s music video of the day is from Weird Al Yankovic.  Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me is one of his more underrated song but, as anyone who has ever had to clean out their email inbox knows, it’s also one of his most important.  Thanks to the rise of Facebook and Twitter, it’s not as much of a problem as it used to be but there was a time when I dreaded sharing my email address with anyone because I knew I would soon be forced to deal with anything that made them laugh, cry, or think.  Anyone who says that they’ve never wanted to say, “Stop forwarding that crap to me!” is lying.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Cage by Billy Idol (2022, directed by SRS)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

After all this time, Billy Idol is still out there, making music and making videos.  Cage is his latest and it features Billy singing about dealing with his own demons while breaking free of a straight-jacket.  Harry Houdini has nothing on Billy!

The video was directed by SRS, which I assume is a pseudonym.  Remember when music videos used to be directed by guys with names like Nigel and Spike?  Now every music video appears to have been directed by a computer program.

Right now, this video only has 419,000 views on YouTube.  Times are forever changing and musical tastes change with them but that’s still no way to treat Billy Idol!

Enjoy!