Rick Springfield’s performance in this video confirms that he was excited and he wanted to make sure that everyone knew it. This is the type of video that was very popular in the early days of MTV, where the emphasis was on both the musicianship on the band and the number of people willing to pay money to see them perform. Watch the audience get excited as Rick points at his drummer.
Enjoy!
Rest in peace, Blackie Onassis. Onassis joined Urge Overkill as their drummer in 1991 and he played with the band until their first break-up in 1997. He was the drummer who played on their cover version of Neil Diamond’s Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon. The song became a hit for the band when it was featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and, even today, hearing it brings to mind memories of Uma Thurman as Mia Wallace.
Though Onassis would collaborate with Urge Overkill’s Nash Kato on the latter’s 2000 solo album, Onassis was not a part of the band when it reformed in 2004. Instead, Onassis largely stayed out of the public eye, with the band announcing his death yesterday.
The video for Girl, You’ll Be A Woman Soon mixes clips from Pulp Fiction with clips of the band performing the song at the type of establishment that would probably be frequented by Tarantino’s characters. In a 1992 interview with Spin Magazine, Onassis said that the mission of Urge Overkill was to “resurrect the era of the swinger” and that describes the feel of this video.
Director Drew Carolan also directed the video for Living Color’s Cult of Personality and The Mighty Might Bosstones’s Don’t Know How to Party.
RIP, Blackie Onassis.
What if Glenn Frey never joined the Eagles and became a superstar before pursuing even more success as a solo artist?
This video imagines that Glenn would have been the type of talented bar musician who had his fans but who was still able to sit down and have a drink in peace between performances. In this video, Glenn finds somebody at the bar and they leave together. It’s a simple video that probably made a lot of 1982 teens wish they had a job singing at a bar.
This song originally appeared on Glenn’s debut solo album, No Fun Aloud. Despite the title, this album was all about mellow fun in the California sun.
Enjoy!
It’s a funny story. My first choice for today’s music video of the day was I’m Just A Singer (In A Rock And Roll Band) by the Moody Blues. I wrote up a long and in-depth post about the history of the song, the history of the Moody Blues, and the history of the video. It was the type of post that I would hope to be remembered for.
Then I discovered that I had already featured the video in 2020.
With a deadline looming and not much time to find something new, I did what I think anyone would have done in my situation. I grabbed the first Styx video I could find.
This simple video is for Styx’s song Boat on the River. Boat on the River appeared on Styx’s 9th album, Cornerstone. It was only released as a single in Europe, where it proved to be very popular in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Like many of the music videos that were made in the days before MTV, the video for Boat On The River is a performance clip, with the emphasis less on what the song is about and more about the musicianship of Styx as a group.
Enjoy!
The music video for AC/DC’s Jailbreak was filmed for the Australian musical program, Countdown. This was in the years before MTV, when music videos were still a rare thing and there certainly weren’t any channels or streaming sites dedicated to showing them. The video was filmed in Albion, a suburb of Melbourne. Bon Scott, Phil Rudd, and Angus Young all played prisoners. Malcolm Young and Mark Evans played the guards who, during the attempted jailbreak, shoot Bon Scott dead.
At the time, this video was controversial for its use of violent imagery. It is considered to be the first music video to make use of fake blood and explosions.
The video’s director, Paul Drane, was also the director of Countdown. In the United States, his best known work is a television special that he directed about Nostradamus which was re-edited and released theatrically as The Man Who Saw Tomorrow.
Enjoy!
This song, which appeared on Lisa Loeb’s fourth album, Firecracker, features Loeb asking her significant other to just move on from whatever they are fighting about. She sings that there is no use in crying over the little things in life but, at the end, she says that she’ll stop crying if her partner stops lying, suggesting that their fight may not have been as minor as it seemed.
This video features Lisa Loeb trashing a hotel room and was directed by Chris Applebaum, who has done videos for everyone. If you were a successful musician or rock artist back in the day, Chris Applebaum did at least one video for you.
This song peaked at #38 in the U.S. It did somewhat better in Canada, reaching the 21st position in the charts.
Enjoy!
The year is 1898 and the frontier is still a tough and harsh place where even horses can face the long arm of justice. Because a horse named Duke is viewed as being wild and uncontrollable, a judge is on the verge of sentencing him to death. Fortunately, John Drury (John Wayne) happens to be passing through town and he agrees to take the horse for himself. Duke is so grateful for being rescued that he not only allows Drury to ride him but he also looks out for Drury when Drury announces that he is going to go after a mysterious outlaw known as the Hawk.
Underneath his mask, the Hawk is actually Henry Simms (Frank Hagney), who everyone thinks is a trustworthy member of the community. When Simms and Drury go searching for the Hawk, Simms ties Drury to a tree and then frames Drury for murder. Fortunately, both Duke and Ruth Gaunt (Ruth Hall) are determined to clear Drury’s name and help him stop the Hawk’s reign of terror.
This was one of John Wayne’s early films, from the pre-Stagecoach days when he was getting small roles in A-list films but was spending most of his time appearing in in the type of B-westerns that were typically shown as the bottom part of a double bill. Though it is obvious that Wayne was still getting used to being in front of the camera when he made Ride Him, Cowboy, Wayne shows hints of the charisma that eventually led to John Ford casting him as the Ringo Kid in Stagecoach. The true star of the film is Duke, the horse that is smart enough to unsaddle another horse, untie the bound Drury, and keep the bad guy from escaping. Without Duke, John Drury would have spent the rest of his life tied to that tree and the Hawk would never have been stopped. Duke did such a good job that he was rewarded with a film career and he would go on to co-star with John Wayne in five more films.
This video of a 1982 concert in St. Louis is probably as close as we will ever get to a music video for Remember the Heroes, Sammy Hagar’s tribute to the men and women who have fought and died in America’s wars. I know that some people think this is a pro-war song but the lyrics are actually a plea not to forget the soldiers once the war is over and they’ve returned home. The song calls out those who expect the military to fight for them but who then “turn their back” once the fighting is finished.
This song was co-written with Jonathan Cain, the keyboardist from Journey.
Enjoy!
In the mining town of Gold Creek, an outlaw gang has been hijacking shipments of gold. Newspaper publisher Rufus Todd (Milburn Morante) has learned that the head of the gang is saloon owner Jim Rand (Harry Woods). Todd is planning on publishing a story identifying Rand as the outlaw leader on the front page of his newspaper so Rand’s secret partner, businessman John Corbett (Jack Daley) arranges for Rufus’s printing press to be blown up.
Rufus calls in his old friend, Marshal Buck Roberts (Buck Jones). Buck arrives in town with his fellow Rough Riders, Tim McCall (Tim McCoy) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton). As usual, everyone is working undercover. Buck pretends to be an outlaw named Rocky Sanders. Tim claims to be a preacher who is not afraid to draw his gun and force everyone in the saloon to put down their drinks and listen while Rufus identifies Rand as being an outlaw. Sandy is the new undertaker and his coffins prove useful for smuggling in some much needed equipment.
The eighth Rough Riders film trods familiar ground. Once again, Buck is framed for a crime he didn’t commit and, as always, the villains are a businessman and a saloon owner. Still, I enjoyed seeing Tim to pretend to be a preacher and Sandy had some funny moments are the town’s garrulous undertaker. As always, McCoy, Roberts, and Hatton possessed an authentic western toughness that made them compelling heroes even in B-westerns like this one.
Since Tim McCoy reenlisted in the U.S. Army following Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, this was the last Rough Riders film to feature the original three riders and their chemistry and friendship are as strong as when the series first began. The movie ends with the promise that the Rough Riders would ride again but sadly, it was not to be. Though West of the Law doesn’t break any new ground, it’s still a decent finale for the original team.
Previous Rough Rider Reviews:
In a frontier town, a gang of rustlers are stealing cattle as a part of a plot to force cash-strapped ranchers to take out exorbitant mortgages on their ranches. Ma Turner (Sarah Padden) summons her old friend, Marshal Buck Roberts (Buck Jones), to come to town and take on the rustlers. When the town’s corrupt banker is murdered and Ma Turner’s son, Steve (Dennis Moore), is framed for the crime, Roberts calls in his fellow Rough Riders, Tim McCall (Tim McCoy) and Sandy Hopkins (Raymond Hatton), to help him take down the gang.
In many ways, this is a familiar Rough Riders film, right down to the main bad guy being the owner of the town’s saloon and Charles King showing up as a member of the gang. What sets it apart from the film that came before it is that, this time, Tim pretends to be an outlaw while Buck sets himself up as the new law in town. Tim takes on the identity of Tim Steele, a sarsaparilla-drinking ne’er do well who has just gotten out of prison. Jones and McCoy both seem to enjoy getting to switch their typical roles. As for Sandy Hopkins, he goes undercover as a peddler of snake oil and provides the comic relief. Riders of the West is a typical B-western but the chemistry between the three leads continues to shine through.
Previous Rough Rider Reviews:
Through the Shattered Lens 