Author Archives: Jedadiah Leland

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!

Music Video of the Day: The Big Crash by Eddie Money (1984, directed by Martin Kahan)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In his video, Eddie Money returns to his roots.

Eddie was born in Brooklyn.  His father was a cop.  His grandfather was a cop.  His brother was a cop.  It was expected that Eddie would become a cop too.  Even while he was pursuing a career in music, Eddie joined the NYPD.  However, while he was still in training, Eddie was told that he would not be allowed to wear his hair long if he was a member of the NYPD.  That was the last straw for Eddie, who later said that he could not imagine spending the next 20 years of his life with short hair.  He left the force and returned to music.  Unfortunately, the band he was in suspected that he was an undercover narc and kicked him out.  Meanwhile, his father tore down and destroyed every Jimi Hendrix poster that Eddie had hanging in his room.  Perhaps realizing that New York was no longer going to be a friendly place to live, Eddie headed for California and the rest, as they say, is history.

In this video, though, Eddie is back in New York and working out the of the 18th precinct.  While he investigates crimes on the streets, a runaway is sucked into a dangerous lifestyle.  Eddie has longish hair in the video so he finally got to be a cop without having to cut his hair.

This video was directed by Martin Kahan, who also did videos for KISS, Scandal, Michael Bolton, and a lot of other people who probably would never have made it as a member of the NYPD.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Breakin’ … There’s No Stopping This by Ollie and Jerry (1984, directed by Joel Silberg)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Drummer Ollie Brown and bassist Jerry Knight were two Detroit-based sessions musicians who were also members of Raydio, along with Ray Parker, Jr.  In 1984, Brown and Knight were hired to provide songs for the soundtrack of the upcoming breakdancing movie Breakin’.  There’s No Stopping Us was named after a line that was spoken by one of the characters in the film and it was meant to not only reflect what was happening in the movie but also Ollie and Jerry’s own struggle and determination to make it in the music biz.

The video is made up entirely of clips from the movie.  (The video’s credited director Joel Silberg also directed Breakin’.  It seems if anyone deserve credit for the video, though, it’s the editor who put it together.)  Jean-Claude Van Damme was an extra in Breakin‘ and supposedly, he can be spotted dancing in this video.  I think I spotted him at the 2:32 mark, dancing in a crowd, but I could be wrong.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Heaven’s On Fire by KISS (1984, directed by David Lewis)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This is yet another KISS video from the era when the band was performing without their makeup because who needs a memorable gimmick when you can just be another overage hair metal band singing about banging groupies?

This video begins with Paul Stanley’s hands on fire.  Judging from the rest of the video, which features scenes of KISS performing mixed with scenes of KISS entertaining their fans, those hands probably weren’t the only thing that felt like it was on fire by the time filming on this video was completed.

Over on the imdb, director David Lewis has exactly two credits.  One is for this video.  The other is for directing a Linda Ronstadt television special.  Both of them came out in 1984 so it appears that Lewis went straight form Linda Ronstadt to KISS.  That was probably quite a journey.

Speaking of journeys, KISS eventually put the makeup back on.

Enjoy!