In 1988, Megadeth covered this Sex Pistols classic on their album, So Far, So Good … So What!? Even though they changed the name of the country to the U.S. for the song, they kept the title the same. Steve Jones also played on the song. The video, directed by David Mackie, mixes the brainwashing scene from A Clockwork Orange with the test video of the Parallax View.
This is one of the many song that, though having been a hit for the band, Dave Mustaine now refuses to perform. In this case, it’s because of the references to being an anti-Christ.
This was one of the earliest music videos, featuring a band that seemed to be destined to take advantage of the format. Compared to some of their other songs, People Are Strange sounds incredibly upbeat considering how paranoid the lyrics actually are. The song was written a time when Jim Morrison was going through a period of depression. While watching the sunset at Robby Krieger’s house, he suddenly had the realization that “If you’re strange, people are strange.”
The point of the video is that the majority of the people filmed for the video would not be considered strange by the standards of conventional society. It’s only through the eyes of The Doors and others who feel alienated from the mainstream that they are revealed as strange.
Since today is the birthday of guitar god Slash, today’s music video of the day is for the third single to be release from Slash’s self-titled debut solo album. Slash told TheSun that this song began as a piece of music that he wrote as “a score for a scene in a strip club” and he decided to have Fergie provide vocals after hearing her cover Heart’s Barracuda.
The video features Fergie as an obsessed fan of Slash’s who apparently ends up killing him. Slash said that the idea for the video came from Fergie herself. The video was directed by Rich Lee, who has also done several videos for The Black-Eyed Peas, Eminem, Lana del Rey, and others.
This video was a big part of Tony Bennett’s 90s comeback. He was the first of the old time crooners to embrace MTV and, in the summer of 1993, that made him the coolest senior around. The next year, Mel Torme would attempt to do the same thing, playing at the MTV Spring Break beach house.
Director Marcus Nispel has gone on to have a career doing feature films, most of which have been remakes and reboots. Among his film credits: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot, the Friday the 13th reboot, and the remakes of Pathfinder and Conan the Barbarian.
Both Sides of the Story was the lead single from Phil Collins’s fifth solo album. Collins has said that both the song and the music video were inspired by the 1991 film GrandCanyon, which featured a group of Los Angeles residents (played by Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, Danny Glover, and others) dealing with crime, racism, gangs, and income inequality.
The video was directed by Jim Yukich, who directed almost all of Phil Collins’s videos in the 80s and the 90s. The video follows the lyrics of the song, going from the poor to the rich to finally a violent confrontation in the streets. This is Phil Collins in a serious mood.
Fair warning: this video features many flashing lights so viewer discretion is advised.
Chasing Light is one of the many music videos that Metallica released earlier this year in order to promote their 11th studio album, 72Seasons. In this video, Metallica performs in a huge room that is bathed in flashing white and yellow lights. I like what I’ve heard of 72Seasons. The music goes hard and James Hetfield’s lyrics are intense and introspective. This is the second album that Metallica has released on their own label and there’s a renewed sense of purpose to the music.
Today’s music video of the day comes to us from the time when Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry were both truly living up to their reputation for being the Toxic Twins. It can be easy to forget now that they are both rock luminaries and both have, more or less, cleaned up their acts as far as hard drugs are concerned but it’s something of a miracle that the two of them survived the 70s and the 80s.
Chiquita was recorded for Aerosmith’s 6th studio album, Night of the Ruts. The recording of this album found Aerosmith on the verge of breaking up. Joe Perry actually did leave the band halfway through recording, saying that he wanted to get back to what the band used to be about before it all became about making money for the record companies. The album was panned when originally released but its critical reputation has improved over the years, with Steven Tyler calling it his favorite Aerosmith album.
The video was directed by Arnold Levine, who also directed videos for Cheap Trick and REO Speedwagon.
“This is London calling…” were the opening words used by the BBC World’s Service’s station identification. Those words especially became well-known during World War II, when the citizens of occupied Europe would listen to the officially-banned BBC in order to discover how the war was actually going.
In The Clash’s song, London is calling because it’s worried about what’s happening in both the UK and the rest of the world. Along with mentioning police violence, the rise of drug use, and the risk of the Thames overflowing, the song also finds time to mention the recent nuclear accident at Three Mile Island on the other side of the pond. At the time the song was written, it seemed that London was drowning in more ways that one.
The Clash managed to go for 23 years before finally allowing London Calling to be used in a commercial. At the time, Joe Strummer said that, after 20 years, the members of the group deserved something for having recorded one of the most iconic punk songs and, as such, the song was used in a Jaguar commercial. It has since gone on to be used in a British airways advertisement.
The video was directed by longtime Clash associate and Big Audio Dynamite co-founder, Don Letts.
Through the Shattered Lens 