Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

Music Video of the Day: Celebrate Youth by Rick Springfield (1985, directed by David Fincher)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

When I first read the blandly generic title and I saw that it was performed by Rick Springfield (who I don’t think has ever ben anyone’s idea of a cutting edge musical artist), I assumed that Celebrate Youth was going to be another cheesy, feel good anthem from the 80s.  Then I discovered that this song rocks!

As you could probably guess just by its visual style, this was one of the many music videos that David Fincher directed before moving onto feature films.  The black-and-white cinematography with the only splash of color coming from that red scarf clearly identifies this as one of Fincher’s videos.  The interesting thing about Fincher’s music videos is that they show that, even before he directed his first film, Fincher already had a clear and unique artistic vision.  Just as you would never mistake any of Fincher’s films for the work of another director, the same is true of his music videos.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Rock the Night by Europe (1987, directed by Nick Morris)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

If you were a member of the band Europe in 1987, you were all about rocking the night!

And what better way to rock the night than by going to the Hard Rock Cafe and watching one of your own music videos on television?

There were actually two videos filmed for this song.  The first one was a simple performance clip, featuring Europe rocking and the audience rolling.  The second and more popular video features Europe going to a Hard Rock Café and discovering that the first video is playing on TV!  This, of course, leads to the band rocking and rolling in the restaurant.  In the 80s, a hair band rocking a chain restaurant was as common a sight as a flapper doing the Lindy Hop in the 20s.

This video was filmed at an actual Hard Rock Café in Stockholm.  The first Hard Rock Café was opened in London in 1971 and the company really didn’t start to expand worldwide until 1982, five years before this video was filmed.  At the time of the video, the Hard Rock Cafe brand was still very cool and a pretty big deal.  (Yes, those shirts used to really stand for something.)  When the Stockholm Hard Rock Café first opened in 1985, it was only the chain’s seventh location.  (Today, by comparison, there are 180 operating Hard Rock Cafes.)  The Stockholm restaurant is currently still open but I don’t know if Europe still hangs out there.

This video was directed by Nick Morris, who also did the videos for both The Final Countdown and Carrie.

Enjoy!

 

Music Video of the Day: Come Sail Away by Styx (1977, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Leave it to Styx to take a seemingly straight-forward song about sailing away from life’s trouble and suddenly end it with an alien visitation.  Actually, I’ve read multiple interpretations of the film’s final verses.  Some see it as the subject of the song being abducted by aliens.  Others think that it means that he’s been taken into Heaven.  Because it’s a Styx song, the lyrics are open to many readings as long as you accept that it’s either angels or aliens.

Considering all of the debate that’s been inspired by this song, the music video is a pretty simple affair.  Like the majority of the videos that were released in the days before MTV, it’s a simple performance clip.  If you were hoping to see either aliens or angels in this video, you’ll be disappointed.  It’s good song, though.  It’s impossible not to get that chorus stuck in your head.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm by Crash Test Dummies (1994, directed by Dale Heslip)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I don’t know if I can possibly express how inescapable this song was in 1994.  It was on the radio constantly and the video was just as prominent on MTV.  At first, people loved the song and the video was viewed as being profound.  There was a lot of speculation about why the lead singer of Crash Test Dummies had such a deep voice.  I won’t repeat any of it here but it got pretty out there.

Of course, whenever any song is overplayed, it doesn’t take long for people to go from loving it to hating it.  Though I can only offer up anecdotal evidence, the span from love to hate seemed to be especially quick for Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm.  Before long, people grew sick of seeing the lead singer humming on MTV.  To me, this video proves that no one should be filmed while humming with their eyes closed.

The video takes place at a school play.  Each act features a different dramatization of what the the singer is humming about.  The adults in the audience start out as being amused but then become disturbed.  Are lessons learned?  I don’t know.

This song was nominated for a Grammy so make of that what you will.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Rappin’ Rodney by Rodney Dangerfield (1983, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Yes, this is a real thing that happened.

In 1983, Rodney Dangerfied released the Rappin’ Rodney album, which was basically Rodney doing his usual routine but this time, he was rapping about how he didn’t get no respect instead of just talking about it.  It’s always easy to make fun of these celebrity projects but this one gets a pass because it’s Rodney Dangerfield and he obviously wasn’t trying to start a new career as a rapper.  Dangerfield received a Grammy nomination for Rappin’ Rodney so there’s that.

This video was reportedly popular when it was released on MTV in 1983.  Since MTV didn’t play black artists during the first few years of its existence, you have to wonder how many many early MTV viewers were first exposed to rap as a result of Rodney Dangerfield.  Pat Benatar and Don Novello both make appearances in this video.  Novello appears as Father Guido Sarducci, his SNL character who was never really that funny but still showed up on a frequent basis.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Penthouse and Pavement by Heaven 17 (1981, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I only recently discovered this band.  Heaven 17 is an English band, one that is still together.  The band was made up of two former members of The Human League, keyboardists Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware, and singer Glenn Gregory.  Gregory had been Marsh and Ware’s original choice to serve as the lead singer of the Human League but, when he proved to be unavailable, they went with Philip Oakey instead.  Oakey had a different vision for the The Human League than Marsh and Ware so Marsh and Ware ended up leaving the band and forming Heaven 17.  This time, they were able to get Glenn Gregory as their singer.

Heaven 17’s first album was called Penthouse and Pavement and the album’s title track was both their first single and their first video.  The video features not only corporate espionage but also the three members of the band pretending to be corrupt businessmen.  That Heaven 17 was a much more overly political band than The Human League is obvious from listening to the song’s lyrics.

The band, incidentally, was named after one of Alex’s favorite bands in A Clockwork Orange.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Paradise City by Guns N’ Roses (1988, directed by Nigel Dick)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Paradise City seems to be the Guns N’ Roses song that’s liked even by people who don’t like Guns N’ Roses.  (My cousin John, who was once the lead singer of a band called Carlos Is A Bastard, still refers to them as being Guns N’ Poses.)

Paradise City is a good song and a good video.  The video keeps things effectively simple, with clips of the band performing the song at Giants Stadium mixed in with behind-the-scenes footage of the band.  All of the members of the band look like they’re getting along and, at no point, do Slash and Axl look like they’re about to come to blows.  It’s a look at Guns N’ Roses that definitely goes against their later reputation for intraband strife.

This is what I like to call a “They sure can play” video because the emphasis is on the band as professional musicians who know what they’re doing and who aren’t just spending all of their time doing drugs and entertaining groupies.  I’m usually not a fan of these type of videos because they often feel phony but it works for Guns ‘N Roses because they really could play.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Suicide Blonde by INXS (1990, directed by Richard Lowenstein)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Despite the title, Suicide Blonde is not about suicide.  (That, of course, still doesn’t make it any less difficult to watch Michael Hutchence sing a song with the word suicide in the lyrics.)  Instead, it’s about a woman who colors her own hair, literally “dyeing by hand.”  It was a phrase that Hutchence first heard used by his then-girlfriend, Kylie Minogue.  Minogue said she was going to dye her hair “suicide blonde” and Hutchence was so taken with the phrase that he crafted a song around it.

This video was directed by Richard Lowenstein, who directed several videos for the band and often made use of the type of composited imagery, in which the band members seem to travel across the screen separated from what else is happening, that appears in Suicide Blonde.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us by R.E.M. (1997, directed by Lance Bangs)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This song is from one of R.E.M.’s more underrated efforts, New Adventures in Hi-Fi.  As to what the song is actually about, there are many differing interpretations.  That’s kind of the par for the course when it comes to R.E.M.  The most frequent interpretation that I’ve seen is that Michael Stipe is singing about himself and all of the things that he wants that are unattainable.  Or it could be that Michael is actually singing about all of us and saying that no one will ever get what they want.  I’ve read at least one message board post that claimed that this was yet another song about the death of Kurt Cobain.

The music video was directed by Lance Bangs, who is still directing music videos to this day and who is married to Corin Tucker of Sleater-Kinney.  Bangs was also heavily involved with MTV’s Jackass, a show that changed the culture for better or worse.  Incidentally, Lance Bangs does not appear to be related to Lester Bangs.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Learning to Fly by Pink Floyd (1987, directed by Storm Thorgerson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I usually wouldn’t ever consider sharing a Pink Floyd video, despite enjoying some of their music.  Roger Waters is simply too odious a figure for me not to feel conflicted about sharing any video that he was involved with.  Fortunately, Waters wasn’t involved with Learning to Fly, which was the first video that Pink Floyd released after Waters left the band and David Gilmour took over.

In fact, the song is almost a middle finger directed at Waters.  Waters claimed that Pink Floyd was moving too far away from being about the music and expanding minds so what did GIlmour do?  He composed a song about how much he enjoyed flying his private airplane.  Oh, I know that a lot of people will tell you that this song is also about Gilmour learning how to lead the band in Waters’s absence but come on.  We all know that it’s ultimately about David Gilmour having his own plane while you don’t.

The video, which features a Native American shaman and a man turning into an eagle after jumping off a cliff, is just pretentious enough to fit in with the Pink Floyd’s work during the Waters era.

Enjoy!