Midnight Mover is the Accept song that wasn’t Balls to the Wall. I actually prefer Midnight Mover to Balls to the Wall as both a song and video but Midnight Mover was never featured on Beavis and Butt-Head and is lesser known as a result.
The song is about a drug dealer, one who moves his product at midnight. The video is mostly interesting as an early example of the “bullet time” technology that would later be made famous by The Matrix. Accept did it first!
Enjoy!
Just to clear up some confusion that apparently shows up online, the Blair Underwood who directed this video for Megadeth is not the same Blair Underwood who co-starred on L.A. Law. Considering that Blair Underwood the actor reportedly based his L.A. Law character on a young Barack Obama and Dystopia was undoubtedly Dave Mustaine’s commentary on America under Obama, the collaboration would have been an unlikely one.
It was for Dystopia that Megadeth won their first Grammy. Unfortunately, during the Grammy ceremony, the house band played Metallica’s Master of Puppets when Dave Mustaine and the band went up to accept the award. Mustaine, who was famously kicked out of Metallica before then forming Megadeth, said that he didn’t take it personally. That doesn’t really sound like the Dave Mustaine that most people know but let’s take his word for it.
Enjoy!
The most interesting thing about this performance clip music video is that it was directed by Julien Temple. Temple was and still is best known for documenting the brief but memorable career of The Sex Pistols. He went on to direct two Sex Pistol films, The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle and The Filth and the Fury.
Temple has directed music videos for just everyone who was anybody on the British rock scene: Sex Pistols (naturally), Depeche Mode, David Bowie, Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, Sade, and many others. He also directed the music video for Planet Texas, in which Kenny Rogers is abducted by aliens. The music industry brings together even the most unlikely of collaborators.
Enjoy!
Nobody did it better than the Beastie Boys.
This video was shot at 262 Mott Street in Manhattan. Mix Master Mike, in his first song with the Beatie Boys, has to sneak into the building in order to perform with them. Anyone who has ever lived in New York or even just visited family in New York should be able to relate.
Enjoy!
When I wrote about the video for Live and Let Die, I mentioned that Guns N’ Roses were responsible for two of the best covers of the 90s. This is the other one. Axl Rose and the entire band proved that they were just as capable of covering Bob Dylan as they were Paul McCartney and Wings. Just as with Live and Let Die, Guns N’ Roses respected the original while also creating their own unique version.
There are actually two videos out there for GnR’s version of Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door. This one was filmed at the Freddy Mercury Tribute Concert in 1992.
Enjoy!
Today’s music video of the day is for a song that epitomizes the 80s for a lot of people. I don’t know how many John Hughes’s film featured Hold Me Now but it seems like everyone one of them should have. This was not only the group’s first big hit but the video was a popular one in the early years of MTV. This was one of those videos that proved that even a performance clip could be more than just a video of the band on stage.
Enjoy!
This song is the epitome of Oasis. They set out to be rock ‘n’ roll stars and they succeeded.
The video was filmed at the band’s Live By The Sea gig at Southend-on-Sea. The clips of the band offstage were filmed at Southend Pier. The bowling alley that the band visits later burned down. It’s a fairly simple video from veteran director Nigel Dick. Anyone who has ever been a rock ‘n’ roll star has been directed at least once by Nigel Dick.
Enjoy!
As Butt-Head once put it, while watching this very video, “His teeth are whiter than white.”
As far as commercial success goes, Winger had a brief but good run in the late 80s. Then grunge came along and the musical landscape changed for the better. Winger later found fame as the favorite band of Stewart Stevenson on Beavis and Butt-Head. It was rumored that Winger became Stewart’s favorite band after Kip Winger complained about his videos being criticized by Beavis and Butt-Head. It’s always better to laugh at yourself than to complain because being associated with Stewart is what really robbed Winger of whatever credibility they had. Of course, it didn’t help that Lars Ulrich was seen throwing darts at Kip Winger’s face in the video for Nothing Else Matters.
This video is typical Winger stuff. Kip sings that he’s headed for a heartbreak and you don’t believe him for a minute.
Enjoy!
I have to give credit for Guns N’ Roses. No matter what else may be said about the band, they were responsible for two of the best covers of the 90s, Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door and Live and Let Die. Both of these covers treat the original version with respect while also sounding very much like the type of music that Guns N’ Roses was known for.
The video for Live and Let Die features footage of the band in concert, mixed in with pictures of them in their younger days. This was also the last Guns ‘N Roses video to feature Izzy Stradlin as being a part of the band. This video was put together by Josh Richman, an actor who was also a friend of the band.
Enjoy!
When Kirkland (George Kennedy) appoints veteran cop Jake Quinn (Ed Asner) to command a division of the Massachusetts Metropolitan Police, one of Quinn’s main duties is to root out corruption. Everyone knows that Captain Jerry Clemente (Ray Sharkey) is crooked but no one’s been able to prove anything. This has led to Clemente getting so cocky that he tries to pull off the biggest bank robbery of all time. Working with two other corrupt cops (played by Steve Railsback and James Keach) and some ex-cons who owe him a favor, Clemente masterminds the theft of $25,000,000 worth of jewelry.
Unfortunately, stealing that much brings in not only the FBI but it also makes Quinn even more determined to expose Clemente and all of his crooked associates. As well, the Mafia wants their part of the action and the members of Celemente’s gang aren’t as smart as their leader. Soon the walls are closing in. Will Clemente get away with his crime or will he end up getting arrested and eventually writing a book about the theft that will eventually be turned into a television movie?
Though the title seems more appropriate for a comedy, The Cops Are Robbers is a drama based on a true story. It actually could have used some comedy because the movie itself is pretty dry and straight forward. Ed Asner and George Kennedy give their usual competent performances, cast as the type of characters that they could have played in their sleep. Unfortunately, Ray Sharkey is nowhere near as effective as the man they’re trying to put behind bars. When he first started out, Sharkey made a name for himself by giving convincing performances as characters who were tough and streetwise but also sometimes neurotic. He received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations before he became better known for his trips to rehab than his acting ability. I think that. as an actor, Sharkey’s downfall was that he saw himself compared to Al Pacino so many times that he started to buy it and he eventyally started to attack every role with the same method-style intensity. Sometimes, like when he played Sonny Steelgrave during the first season of Wiseguy, it worked. Most of the time, though, it just led to him overacting and bellowing all of his lines. That’s the case with The Cops Are Robbers. Sharkey is so loud and perpetually angry that it’s hard to believe that he’s managed to get away with his crimes for as long as he has.
For those of us who don’t live in Massachusetts, the most interesting thing about watching The Cops Are Robbers is trying to keep track of who works for what agency. When it was mentioned that Clemente works for the Metropolitan Police, I immediately assumed that meant he was a Boston police officer. Only later did I learn, via a review on the imdb, that the Metropolitan Police were actually a state agency. That Clemente was a state official and not just a city cop does make his crimes slightly more interesting, though not enough to really liven up The Cops Are Robbers.
Through the Shattered Lens 