Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

Music Video of the Day: I Alone by Live (1994, directed by Tim Pope)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In retrospect, this music video is probably best known for drummer Chad Gracey wandering around in the background while the rest of the band performed the song.  Beavis and Butthead speculated that Gracey forgot to bring his drums to the video shoot and that…

Well, why take it from me when you can hear it from the boys themselves?

To the band’s credit, they actually had a sense of humor about the whole thing and, in fact, later credited Beavis and Butthead for helping to make the song a hit.  That’s quite a contrast to the reaction that some artists — *cough* Kip Winger *cough* — had to being featured on the show.

The song rocks, by the way!

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: 911 Is A Joke (1990, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

A common misconception about this song is that it’s about the police.  Instead, the song is about the slow response time of paramedics responding to emergency calls in black neighborhoods.  The video makes this clear, featuring paramedics arriving late after someone has a heart attack and a seizure.

911 is a Joke was the 3rd single to be released off of Fear of a Black Planet.  It was also Public Enemy’s second song to reach number one on the rap charts, following Fight The Power.  Despite the song’s popularity, it was not regularly played on the radio and MTV rarely aired the song’s video.  In 1990, criticizing 911 was still too controversial for the mainstream to touch.

While watching this video, keep an eye out for Samuel L. Jackson playing a worried father.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Turn You Inside-Out by R.E.M. (1989, directed by James Herbert)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Sometimes, I feel like R.E.M. is the forgotten great band of the 80s and 90s.  They produced hit after hit and their songs were both catchy and intelligent but, after the band called it quits in 2011, it’s almost as if people have forgotten about just how great they were.  Maybe it’s because they were so catchy and radio-friendly that people seem to overlook the fact that their music epitomized two decades.

Turn You Inside-Out is one of my favorite R.E.M. songs.  The video is simple but effective.  Michael Stipe gets to show off his moves.  This video was directed by painter and filmmaker James Herbert.  This was the ninth video that he directed for R.E.M.  Sometimes a video director and a band just click and that appears to be the case with R.E.M. and Herbert.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Beautiful Girl by INXS (1992, directed by Mark Pellington)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Supposedly, this song was written about a runaway that Michael Hutchence had befriended and who he wanted to protect in a platonic way.  However, when the song was released in the United States, it was selected to be the theme song of an eating disorder awareness campaign and the music video, directed by Mark Pellington, reflects that.

Mark Pellington, of course, should be a familiar name.  He directed music videos for just about everyone was relevant in the 90s.  He also directed the film Arlington Road, which feels more prescient every day.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Wild and Exciting by Earth and Fire (1970, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

There’s not much to say about this video for Wild and Exciting.  Earth and Fire were a Dutch band and this song is off of their first album, which was also called Earth and Fire.  As was typical at the time, their music video was a performance clip, though one that was more energetic than the typical 1970s music video.

Earth and Fire never hit it in big in the US or the UK but they were huge in the rest of Europe.  Consider this, then, to be a reminder that good music is not simple defined by what’s happening or what’s popular in only one or two countries,

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Kind & Generous by Natalie Merchant (1998, directed by Mark Seliger and Fred Woodward)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“I’m proud of the song because I always wanted to write a song that had an extremely universal, simple sentiment. And just gratitude, that’s all this song is about and really I feel like I accomplished my mission: simple, to the point. And everyone knows what I’m talking about the first time they hear the song, and they can sing along.”

— Natalie Merchant on Kind and Generous 

I always wonder how many people actually know the name of this song.  I always just think of it as being the “thank you song,” better than Alanis Morrisette’s but not quite as good as Dido’s.  For the record, the end of the song features Natalie singing “Thank you” a total of 30 times before the song fades out.

The music video finds Natalie as a member of the circus.  The members of the circus were all actual circus performers which lends this video an authenticity.

Thank you and enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: With or Without You by U2 (1987, directed by Meiert Avis and Matt Mahurin)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today, it’s easy to make fun of the world’s most self-important band, U2.  It’s not that their music has really gotten bad or that Bono doesn’t do commendable work when he’s not touring.  It’s just that most people still associate them primarily with the debacle surrounding the release of Songs of Innocence.  Forcing a lukewarm album on people who may not even be fans of the band is never a good look.

But, in the band’s early days and before they got so openly pretentious, U2 was one of the top groups around.  The Joshua Tree still stands as one of the best musical accomplishments of the previous century and With Or Without You is one of the signature songs from that album.

As is always the case with U2, it helps if you don’t know what the song was actually about.  I’ve always assumed that this was meant to be a sad love song but then I did some research and I discovered that it was just Bono singing about his conflict about whether he wanted to be a touring musician or a family man.  Bono can’t live without or without … himself.

It’s better not to think about that and to just bring your own interpretation to the lyrics and the song.  The video is simple but it captures the feel of the song.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Worried About You by The Rolling Stones (1981, directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

The Rolling Stones keep things simple in this music video for Worried About You.  Worried About You was first recorded in 1975 but was not released until 1981, when it was included on Tattoo You, an album that was largely made up of outtakes from previous recording sessions.

When Worried About You was first recorded, Billy Preston played the piano and the guitar solo was performed by Woody Perkins, who was then under consideration for the lead guitarist spot that had been vacated by Mick Taylor.  By the time the song was finally released and this video was filmed, Ron Wood had joined the band and, in the video, he’s the one who performs Perkins’s solo.  Jagger, meanwhile, stands in for Billy Preston.

This video one of many Tattoo You videos to be directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.  Lindsay-Hogg is probably best known for directing Let It Be.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Things Can Only Get Better by Howard Jones (1985, directed by Nigel Dick)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Without a doubt one of the best pop songs ever written, Things Can Only Get Better was meant to be a gift of positive energy for the people who had purchased Howard Jones’s first album.  There’s no irony or sarcasm in this song, which is one of the thing that makes it so effective.  Howard Jones is telling his fans that things can only get better.  It’s not just humans that Jones’s song has helped through the years.  He also recorded a version in the language of the Sims for The Sims 2.

This video was directed by the prolific Nigel Dick.  The video features Jones trying to get ready for a concert, while Charlie Chaplin and … I guess that’s supposed to be Daniel LaRusso from The Karate Kid, hang out backstage.  Chaplin was played by Jed Hoile, who was a mime who regularly performed as a part of Jones’s stage act.  It was the 80s.  It didn’t have to make sense.

The video was popular on MTV and helped make the song into a hit, though I’d like to think that a song this upbeat and catchy would have been a hit even without the video.  This is another song that I have fond memories of listening to while driving around Vice City.

 

Music Video of the Day: Let Me In By Eddie Money (1989, directed by Nigel Dick)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“You’re listening to the man with no control who loves his rock ‘n roll, the Money Man!”

Let Me In is from Eddie Money’s seventh studio album, Nothing To Lose.  It was the third single released from that album and made it up to number 60 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 30 on Billboard′s Album Rock Tracks chart.  The song was later covered by Laura Branigan.

The video was directed by Nigel Dick, who directed music videos for just about everyone.  According to the comments that Dick left under the video on YouTube, this was a one day shoot.  The woman at the typewriter is played by French actress Borovnisa Blervaque, who is also known as both Blair Valk and Blueberry Blervaque.  She also appeared in the videos for Money’s Walk on Water and Richard Marx’s Endless Summer Nights.

Enjoy!