It was practically unavoidable to do at least one, if not more Russell Mulcahy videos on here during this run of surreal/weird music videos. I could probably fill all 30 days by just doing Russell Mulcahy, Anton Corbijn, Steve Barron, and Richard Casey videos.
I have no idea what to say about this one. I knew the name Ultravox, but this is probably my first song of there’s that I’ve listened to. This video seems to have just about everything Mulcahy could of thrown into it.
Hands reaching out to grab you through the walls.
A giant fan.
A disorienting floor.
Frightened bisected swimmers in sand.
Playing with gravity.
Seeing as it is Russell Mulcahy, there’s liquids.
Lots of liquid.
Just watch it. There’s other stuff in it as well.
Lexi Godfrey produced the video. Godfrey seems to have only produced about 15 videos. The ones we’ve done so far are pretty good. She also produced A View To A Kill by Duran Duran, Rockit by Herbie Hancock, this one, Video Killed The Radio Star by The Buggles, and one of the versions of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Since I started with Rainbow, I might as well do a video by Dio next.
This video is bizarre. Not only because of Ronnie James Dio watching children through a crystal ball…
but because this music video seems to exist in a universe parallel to Young Turks by Rod Stewart where the kids happen to be metal-heads.
Unlike a lot of the videos I do on here, this one comes with info from the book I Want My MTV. The following is from the director Daniel Kleinman about Ronnie James Dio and this video:
Ronnie Dio was a funny little guy. I made a video called “Rock n’ Roll Children” for him. He had two huge minders with him. Because Ronnie was very short–about five-foot-four–they told us we weren’t allowed to allude to his height. But there’s a type of spotlight in America called a “midget.” It’s a very small spotlight, and it has a different name in England. We were getting ready to do a take and the gaffer shouted, “All right, bring on the midget!” The minders thought we were referring to Dio. They went out of their minds.
The video starts with a couple of young lovers who are on the outs that decide to take refuge from the rain in a shop. What they didn’t know is that the shop is Dio’s. I like to think that he waits in there in the dark for runaway metal-heads.
The kids spot someone with a cop looking for them so they go hide in Dio’s closet. This transports them inside Dio’s crystal ball. Dio flips his “Open” sign and pulls down the blinds. Two are his max for a trip through the maze of conformation confrontations.
Inside, we get a far-shot of the maze.
After getting separated, we get the first confrontation. It’s Christmas time, or the time when parents get you things they want you to wear instead of letting you be yourself.
Inside is a sweater that is a far cry from the kind of thing she wants to wear.
Then we get a nice little touch that Kleinman didn’t have to do, but I’m glad he did. The mirror not only has lets her see the sweater over her, but it changes her appearance in general to the established norm that these kids don’t fit into.
Next we cut back to the other kid who has to face the double whammy of a We’re Not Gonna Take It reference by Twisted Sister after he picks up his guitar on the bed and a Girls Just Wanna Have Fun by Cyndi Lauper reference in the form of an abusive looking version of “Captain Lou” Albano.
Jeez! I’ve lost count of the number of 80’s music videos that seem to be inspired by German Expressionism.
You’re not welcome here.
Now she faces a teacher because if you’ve already referenced We’re Not Gonna Take It, then why not I Wanna Rock.
Sorry kid, you’re not the kind of help we want at our store.
Metal-heads don’t play basketball. Get out here!
Get out of here wannabe T-Bird.
I’ll kick you out of my home if you don’t cut that hair!
The kids are finally reunited and get ambushed by actors from the previous scenes, so Dio smashes his crystal ball to let them out.
They leave Dio’s shop and seem to be reunited to fight for their right to be themselves.
Then Dio flips the “Closed” sign back to “Open.”
I’m a little confused here. Does that mean Dio has a supply of crystal balls in there in case more kids wander in? Does he magically repair the ones he breaks? Did Dio cause the rain in the first place to rescue the kids? Was he invisible in there or was he really just cloaked in darkness? Also, again, why does this feel like the dark metal version of Young Turks? So many questions!
The video was produced by Simon Fields who there are some stories about in the book I Want My MTV. In particular, the ones that involve Madonna. I’ll just quote the one from director Daniel Kleinman about him in general.
Simon Fields and I used to share a house together. Simon has an edge of the wheeler-dealer about him, but he’s also the most charming man in the world, which is quite a quality for a producer. I had the looks and no charm, and he had the charm and no looks. I thought he had a face like the back of a bus. I mean, how he got Janice Dickinson into bed, I do not know.
I know these aren’t the best pictures, but here’s a comparison between Daniel Kleinman and Simon Fields as they appeared in Billboard magazine back then.
Daniel Kleinman
Simon Fields
Simon Fields
Simon may or may not have slept with Madonna as well. I’ll include those quotes when I do one of her videos where he was involved.
Crystal Lujan was the casting director for the video. She’s worked on at least 100 music videos. She’s also worked in casting in related fields like feature films and television.
Can I milk Twin Peaks some more? I hope so, because I’m going to do 30 days of surreal–or at least weird–music videos. Twin Peaks being back on TV is totally the reason I’m doing this. It’s not just a flimsy excuse to do some videos I’ve wanted to do for awhile that share a similar quality.
You probably recognize the name of the director. That is thee Storm Thorgerson. If the name doesn’t sound familiar, then some of the album covers below should look familiar.
He also did the cover for the album this song is on called Bent Out Of Shape.
What you may not know is that he also directed around 50 music videos. I would love to know if mvdbase is accurate when it comes to the release date of this video. I say that because according to them, it first aired in August of 1983. If you’ve already listened to the music video, then you might of heard something that was new in 1983: dialog. According to mvdbase, Love Is A Battlefield by Pat Benatar aired in September of 1983, making this the first music video that used dialog. Then again, if the music video for Dead Ringer For Love by Meat Loaf & Cher did come out in 1981, as it appears it did, and wasn’t part of the 1981 movie Dead Ringer, then that one proceeds both of them by two years.
The last time I did a Rainbow music video, it was for Since You’ve Been Gone where I spent most of the time talking about the different covers of Roger Glover’s song that have been done over the years. I didn’t really talk too much about Rainbow.
Groups like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple are household names. The first is obvious, but if you need proof of the second one, then just watch 2016’s Hush, and you’ll notice that the female lead is wearing purple for the length of the movie. Hush being one of Deep Purple’s best songs. It was also used in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997). They may have also done something about smoke and water.
Rainbow is what I think of as a pet project for a bunch of heavy metal icons of the 70s and 80s. The group was created by Richie Blackmore after moving on from Deep Purple. He joined forces with Ronnie James Dio’s band Elf, and soon Rainbow was born with Dio fronting the group. He eventually left, and would take Ozzy Osbourne’s place fronting Black Sabbath. Then Graham Bonnet came in for a short period of time. This song was done with Joe Lynn Turner on vocals. He would front the group till their first break-up in 1984. You can think of him as the MTV-face for Rainbow. That amuses me since between Ronnie James Dio, Graham Bonnet, and Joe Lynn Turner, I would pick Bonnet in a heartbeat to usher my group into the age of music videos.
The video itself features a woman being locked in a room while her boyfriend gets hypnotized onto the sets of a music video. In the end, someone gets caught in the dreamworld. I’m not exactly sure who it is: the male lead or the psychiatrist. I wanna say it’s the second one, but the body moves so fast that I can’t tell. Also, as the boyfriend is freeing the woman, you can still hear water in the background.
My favorite part of this music video is what I have to imagine is an in-joke about music videos. One of the things the guy says is that the band he sees is always playing the same song. A surreal music video for a good song is like a repeating dream–except swap sleep for watching MTV and swap repeating for a video in heavy rotation.
There seems to be some disagreement between whether this aired on MTV in the first place. I’m inclined to believe that it did. Blackmore apparently said it was banned. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t ever aired. The reason this seems to be in dispute is that a Dr. Radecki said the following in a report on MTV for the National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV):
“Street of Dreams” by Rainbow has a psychiatrist dominating a man through hypnosis intermixed with male-female violent fantasies including a bound and gagged woman.
Then again, based on the Wikipedia article on him, he doesn’t sound like the most reliable source on anything. However, he had to have seen it somewhere back when it would have come out. It’s kind of funny that about thirty years later, he would get arrested and sentenced for one to two decades for an opiates scandal. He appears to have had a checkered past in the field of medicine in general. In other words, it sounds like he sorta became the psychologist in the very video he chastised. It’s coming across weird stuff like this that helps to keep me motivated to continue doing these posts.
Anyways, enjoy the video! It is there. It’s just one of those videos that doesn’t like to show the thumbnail when you embed it.
Happy Memorial Day. Or at least as happy as it can be with the recent passing of Gregg Allman. I would have done a video for him yesterday, but there were extenuating circumstances that made it impossible–not the least of which is that their videos aren’t exactly well-documented or officially posted on YouTube.
Let’s look at this from the perspective of director Jeff Stein. You made a name for yourself with The Who documentary The Kids Are Alright (1979), which ensured that they wouldn’t be forgotten anytime soon by preserving their history. You directed one of the greatest live videos–Rebel Yell–for Billy Idol who was a 70s artist that you helped to make explode as an 80s MTV superstar. You took the not so photogenic The Cars, and turned in You Might Think, which was very ambitious and successful. You made Out Of Touch for Hall & Oates that Daryl Hall in I Want My MTV said, “was maybe our most significant video.” You survived the production of Torture by The Jacksons–even if that meant having to bring in a wax dummy of Michael and telling Paula Abdul she had to go when Jackie said she wanted to choreograph the video. You handled another 70s artist in Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers by making the wonderfully surreal Don’t Come Around Here No More. You also brought people the videos for My New Boyfriend by Carly Simon and These Dreams by Heart–both 70s artists.
Now you are approached to do a video for The Gregg Allman Band, probably based on your record of being able to bring 70s artists into the MTV-era. I know that the first thing that would have crossed my mind is ZZ Top. They were also a band that had been around since the early 70s, and Gregg would have been about 40 by the time you had to make a video for him. Too bad this video didn’t do for The Gregg Allman Band what the ZZ Top videos did. Then again, that was a minor miracle which even received its own chapter in I Want My MTV, so it’s unrealistic to expect lightning to strike twice. It’s a simple little video that could have just as easily been done as a stage performance. I’m guessing he wasn’t given much of a budget to make this video. I bring up Stein’s record and ZZ Top because ZZ Top was who I thought of when the ladies showed up, and I would imagine that Stein was approached because of his success with 70s musicians. Let’s walk through this video.
The band pulls up at a rundown saloon.
We see Gregg kick the tire and tell the attendant to fix the car.
The band goes inside to find that under white sheets are instruments and other equipment that is already set up for them. They waste no time, and start playing.
We now find out one thing The Gregg Allman Band has in common with ZZ Top. They’re both a little magic. Gregg may not appear to deliver keys to a hot car, but his music does have the power push certain parts of a location into the past.
Apparently, this bar used to be frequented by gunslinging women.
Unruly gunslinging women at that at. Bonk! She’s out.
Now we get something I never would have imagined I’d see in a video for The Gregg Allman Band.
Hungry Like The Wolf by Duran Duran (1982)
A Duran Duran reference. Hungry Like The Wolf. I’m No Angel. I see the similarities.
The ladies soon take notice of Gregg, and appear to start to stick him up with their guns.
That’s when we find out that the ladies are indeed in the past as the video acquires a flashback tone. Gregg is taken outside.
They string him up. Gregg gets in a quick kiss before being hanged. Just before it happens, we see that he was the deputy sheriff in the past–or possibly in another life.
The trap door opens and he’s hanged. Then just after we see his feet dangling, it cuts to Gregg putting down the cover over the keys. It sounds like the lid of a coffin closing.
It’s a nice bit of matching on action that brings the music, the story in the song, and the story in the video to a close. Gregg and the band leave the bar to see if their car is fixed. Turns out the badge is still around and was stuck in their tire–somehow.
The attendant offers it to Gregg. I love his reaction: No way! I saw the previous scene. I’ll just be on my way now.
It lends credence to the belief that the song is partially autobiographical. Perhaps his rejection of the badge is Gregg making a break with his past in order to move on with his life.
I can’t imagine this particular video did a whole lot for Gregg Allman. However, I could be wrong. This came out a couple years after MTV founded VH1 in order to drive Ted Turner’s competing network, CMC, out of business, which it promptly did. VH1 did play stuff that wouldn’t have been shown on MTV. Allman did go on to do some other videos, including another one with Jeff Stein and even one with Michael Bay for the song I’ll Be Holding On that was on the Black Rain (1989) soundtrack.
The song was a number-one hit. How much of an affect the video had on its success, I don’t know. It was more of a universally playable song because it fit the AOR (Album-Oriented Rock) format. I’m sure that contributed to it doing so well. From what I’ve read, it seems to be credited with essentially bringing Gregg’s career back to life.
I find it humorous that Wikipedia says the song featured “Allman’s gruff vocals in a Bruce Springsteen sound-alike way.” I say that because director Jeff Stein is the one who was originally meant to direct Dancing In The Dark when Springsteen walked off the set because he didn’t like the direction the video was going, leading to Brian De Palma making the version we are familiar with today.
The video was produced by Mike Riffle. He produced around 10 music videos.
Seeing as I did In Dreams yesterday, I felt it was necessary to follow it with She’s A Mystery To Me, since they are connected. I’m going quote Wikipedia below about how the song came to be, and it’s ties back to both In Dreams and Blue Velvet (1986) because me paraphrasing it doesn’t make any sense.
During a restless night of sleep in June 1987 in London during U2’s Joshua Tree Tour, Bono slept with the soundtrack to the film Blue Velvet CD on repeat. The CD had been given to him by the Edge’s wife. When he woke the following morning, he had a tune in his head which he assumed was from the soundtrack. He soon realized it wasn’t so he wrote down the basic structure of the song. Later that day he sang the unfinished song to the band at their pre-concert soundcheck at Wembley Arena. After the concert, Orbison paid the band an unannounced visit backstage, where a perplexed Bono played the song for him. Bono and Orbison worked again on the song in mid-November in Los Angeles. The album Mystery Girl was named after the song.
I haven’t seen all of David Fincher’s music videos, and I might be a little biased since I like Orbison so much, but I think this is the best one I’ve seen. I love that he did it with almost no one in the video. It’s all done as if we are a detective arriving on a series of scenes, and trying to piece together what happened.
According to Wikipedia, there are two versions of this video. This is the popular one where it is a grown woman that is planning on leaving, who we assume is Orbison because of the boots. In the other version, it’s a mother who is pursuing her young daughter who is about to board the plane. The woman is played by the same person in both videos. The big difference is that the second version has the one leaving return to the person showing up at the end rather than being left standing alone.
The only other video that I can think of that is quite as beautiful, or is at least very similar, is Butterfly, where Mariah Carey got veteran cinematographer, Daniel Pearl, to co-direct it with her.
The video was shot by Marc Reshovsky. He worked mainly as a cinematographer. However, he did get behind the camera for a few music videos like Nothin’ But A Good Time by Poison and I Remember You by Skid Row.
I’ve included the trailer below for the documentary made about the album, Mystery Girl, that was directed by Orbison’s son, Alex Orbison:
Also, assuming it is still up, here is Bono singing the song:
It’s amazing how much it sounds like something Bono would write, but it’s still inextricably linked to Orbison’s voice.
Since I missed the day of the premiere of the Twin Peaks reboot, I’m doing my Twin Peaks tie-in video today. If Wikipedia and Songfacts are to be taken at face value, then there’s an interesting story behind this music video.
As hard as it is for someone like me who grew up on Orbison to hear, his career apparently stalled in the 1970s. Maybe people really didn’t like The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967), and held it against him.
The Fastest Guitar Alive (1967, dir. Michael D. Moore)
I wonder how he ended up agreeing to be in that. Maybe he saw that Marty Robbins was starting to appear in movies such as that years Hell On Wheels, and decided he’d take a crack at it the same way Elvis did. His career probably stalled because it was eclipsed by the revolutions in music during the 60s and 70s.
Then Blue Velvet (1986) came along. Orbison didn’t authorize the use of the song in the movie or know how it was going to be used. Lynch went ahead and used it anyways. Since it was used so effectively and is one of the most important parts of the film, it stirred up renewed interest in Orbison. At the time, Orbison didn’t have access to the master recordings of many of his hit songs because of legal issues. Orbison changed his tune about its use in the movie at this point, and asked Lynch if he could use some footage from the movie in the music video for the song. To solve the legal problem, Orbison went back into the studio to re-record his hits for the 1987 album In Dreams: The Greatest Hits. Lynch not only was fine with him using scenes from the movie, but offered to help with the re-recording of the song for the greatest hits album, which he did.
The video is nice and simple. It captures the surreal feeling of the song, the film, and combines the two into a single music video. I love that it starts with Dean Stockwell lip-syncing the song before slowly fading to Orbison actually singing it. It uses Stockwell several more times during the video, but that initial part is like peeling back the curtain to see what is really behind it–a theme of Blue Velvet.
I am going to believe mvdbase when it says Leslie Libman directed this. It, and IMDb both say that she directed some videos for him. The only thing that throws me a bit is that Wikipedia says 1987, but mvdbase says 1989. I think that’s probably an error. Still, they did make videos after Orbison’s death in 1989. That’s why I’m making special mention of it.
You may or may not recognize one of the backup singers in the video. It’s Denise Vlasis, who is best-known as being a prominent Madonna lookalike.
Let’s put this all together here. You have David Lynch who used In Dreams by Roy Orbison in Blue Velvet. The video was directed by Leslie Libman. Leslie Libman would go on to direct Britney Ever After (2017). Britney Spears famously kissed Madonna onstage, and collaborated with her. Denise Vlasis is such a famous Madonna lookalike that she has worked with Madonna. Denise Vlasis is in the music video In Dreams, which brings us back to David Lynch.
You know, as bad as Britney Ever After was, this has me thinking it would have been appropriate for Libman to use She’s A Mystery To Me after the film’s attempt to explain away it not really having the rights to tell the story by saying that people only knew her through video clips–usually from TMZ.
Back when I went through all the David Lynch music videos, I specifically mentioned this one because it is frequently credited to David Lynch. If you do a Google search, then you’ll turn up lots of reviews and lists of Lynch music videos that include it. Even Wikipedia disagrees about it. If you go to the list of David Lynch music videos, then it’ll say he directed it. However, if you go to the article written about the song and video, then you’ll find out that it wasn’t. That article cites a book called Talent Is An Asset: The Story Of Sparks by Daryl Ealesa. It says the video was directed by Doug Martin and Steve Martin in the style of Lynch. I haven’t read it yet. Regardless, I just bought it so I can provide you with an excerpt covering it:
‘I Predict’ came with a striking video that fell foul of the conservatism of MTV. Directed in the style of David Lynch by group friends, identical twins and occasional actors Doug and Steve Martin, it is crammed full of strangeness. Shot in a dimly lit bar outside LA, Ron, in drag, develops the bride theme from the album’s cover with Russell still wearing the cover’s wedding suit. And Ron is stripping. And Russell is watching. Something is clearly not right. With the attendant promotion and the video’s notoriety, ‘I Predict’ reached number 60 on the Billboard Hot 100. Sparks had finally achieved a US Top 100 single after a decade of trying.
Below is the album cover the excerpt speaks of:
The funny thing is that despite being mis-credited to David Lynch, it does have a connection to him beyond being done in his style. David Lynch made a music video for the song Thank You, Judge by his group called BlueBOB that was made up of him and Jeff Neff. At the end of that music video, you have Eli Roth and Naomi Watts laughing at Jeff Neff about to receive an anal probe. Anyone who has watched Cabin Fever (2002) and David Lynch’s work, knows that from the opening to the very end, you’d be thinking of Lynch regardless of whether you knew there was any connection between them. From the Blue Velvet (1986) style opening credits to Party Cop to the person in the rabbit suit. There’s even a thanks to him in the credits. 7 years later, director Ti West made a sequel that is basically a lover-letter to 70s and 80s exploitation films. I watched all the Cabin Fever movies recently, and something caught my eye in the credits on Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever (2009). They used the Sparks song Eaten By The Monster Of Love, which is from the album, Angst In My Pants, that includes the song I Predict. Even without having directed this video, Lynch is still connected to it beyond the use of his style in the video.
David Lynch being credited for this in so many places doesn’t surprise me. I have a copy of Madonna: The Immaculate Collection. It’s a compilation of her early music videos. It lists Mary Lambert as the producer of Borderline–not the director.
You’d think that would be pretty definitive. In fact, there’s a reference to Star Wars in Pet Sematary II (1992)–Bruce Logan having done visual effects on Star Wars.
However, if you read the book I Want My MTV, then you get information straight from Lambert and others that she did indeed direct Borderline.
The point is that it’s easy for this stuff to get confusing, and as a result, you can end up with these kinds of situations.
A couple of weeks ago a relative of mine passed away. He had serious issues in his life that brought it to a close far too early. I wasn’t close with him, but nevertheless. A week later we lost Chris Cornell under similar circumstances. Now we have the concert bombing, among other things.
When I heard of Cornell’s passing, I thought of this song because lead-singer Michael Hutchence also died of an apparent suicide 20 years ago in 1997. I thought it was an appropriate music video to spotlight at this time.
It was shot in Prague. It was directed by Richard Lowenstein, who directed many videos for INXS. It was edited by Bruce Ashley.
I’ve included numbers below that you can call if you find yourself in these kinds of situations. Thank you, Patrick, for listing them on your Twitter account.
24/7 Suicide: 800-273-8255
DV: 800-799-7233
Crisis: Text START to 741-741
Trans: 877-565-8860
TTY: 800-799-4889
That turned out to be longer and more of a rollercoaster for my mind and body than I expected. After all the side effects of the meds and the subsequent withdrawals, it didn’t help the chronic cough. On the plus side, I now own a second dog named Elke. Whether she’s named after Elke Sommer or not, we don’t know. Regardless, since Lisa was kind enough to cover for me, it means I need to watch Lisa And The Devil (1973) with Elke Sommer. On the downside, I watched 70 films since my last post, which means I will have more stuff to sift through at the end of the year. Oh, well.
Rest in peace, Roger Moore.
To my knowledge this is the only music video that has Roger Moore in it–even if it is only in footage from the film. Speaking of which, you will notice two things immediately when you start up this music video:
It is silent for a little over a minute.
The video quality isn’t very good.
At first I thought my iPhone was glitching on me. It’s not like the iOS YouTube app is perfect or anything. I scrubbed forward, and the song kicked in. I didn’t notice the video quality was low until now. I have a theory about why it is silent during the opening film footage and is of low quality throughout.
This isn’t like Romancing The Stone by Eddy Grant. Yes, they tried to integrate him into the footage from the movie, but it’s easy to edit that out, and they did just that for a separate version of it. This video heavily integrates the film footage into the music video. You really can’t separate them, and expect to be able to put this up. My best guess, is that behind-the-scenes, a deal was struck that so long as they muted the opening part and reduced the quality, then whoever currently holds the license to the film would let them post it. Also, seeing as directors Godley & Creme integrated Duran Duran into the movie footage, you also couldn’t treat them differently. Thus, the whole thing is the way it is. That’s my theory.
If you pay attention to the music video, then you might notice a little Easter Egg in it. That of course being the female model having pictures taken of her. You guessed it. Godley & Creme directed the music video for Girls On Film.
In addition, you can say that the use of iris shots is a nod to Rio, and visually makes Duran Duran perfect to have made a Bond theme song. Finally, the name Simon Le Bon not only lends itself to being a stand-in for the famous “Bond, James Bond” line, but Roger Moore played Simon Templar on The Saint before becoming James Bond.
Wikipedia has an interesting backstory on how the band and John Barry worked together to write the song. I suggest going over there and reading it.
Lexi Godfrey produced the video.
I’m sorry it took till your death, Roger. But I need to go see how you managed to be in a movie called Gold (1974), the same year as you were in The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)–if for no other reason, than it being my favorite Bond film
…
Wait a second, you also played both Sherlock Holmes in 1976 and Inspector Clouseau in 1983. You sneaky devil. I’ll miss you.
I’m not really saying goodbye to you. However, these posts are going to become sporadic for at least the next couple of weeks. I’ve had a chronic cough since I was a little kid. The pulmonologist I am seeing has started me on large doses of prednisone that even he said my system might not be able to handle. But it’s been at least 25+ years of this cough, so I’ll try it. It just means I won’t be able to keep up these posts consistently for a bit.
Anyways, remember that video for The Warrior that Patty Smyth didn’t like, and called an off-Broadway production of Cats? I don’t blame you if you don’t. It’s that video where Smyth was in crazy makeup, there was a dance battle, and some guy breaks a girl’s back, but the video barely calls attention to it. I’ve loved that crazy music video since I saw it a while back. This one I didn’t see until a few years ago.
From what I can tell, this was Scandal’s first music video, which explains the PBS text at the start, and it being a performance video. According to Songfacts, Smyth credits MTV with this song’s success since it didn’t get much radio airplay, but did get played on MTV a lot. Assuming that’s accurate, and MTV could see the results in the marketplace, I bet they played this frequently since they needed to prove that their network could affect record sales.
While saying that it is a “performance video” might make you think of something bland, I don’t think so. I like the set, lighting, and costumes. As far as that area is concerned, I think this looks better than Jump by Van Halen. No, I’m not just saying that since Smyth was the one who was initially approached to replace David Lee Roth. Jump is great, but I still like the look of this better. I also like the rest of the band members trying to do the most eye-catching things in response to whatever Smyth is doing at given moment.
Speaking of Smyth, she is all over the place here. I would love to know what direction she was given.
Patty. You’re hot, spunky, have a great voice, and are a good performer. As long as you play to those strengths, then do whatever feels right in the moment. I’ll get it on camera.
Right up in Ivan’s face! I love it!
You and Zack, that’s great! Keep it up!
Spin, Patty! Spin!
Yeah, drape yourself on the keyboard too.
A little leg can’t hurt.
Get in on this Benjy!
A heel shuffle across the floor. Perfect!
You wrote the song Zack, so always feel free to jump in with one of those looks.
Jump around and point at things.
That’s a rap!
From all the really early 80s music videos I have looked at, the two types that were typically successful were either all over the place like Harden My Heart by Quarterflash, or were stage performances with a charismatic lead-singer like Patty Smyth or David Lee Roth. The video for The Warrior was the first, and this earlier video is an example of the second.
One thing specifically about the song is that while not shown in the video, Paul Shaffer plays a solo on the keyboard based on Runaway by Del Shannon. I only really bring it up because Bon Jovi also did a song by the same title, and apparently Jon Bon Jovi was briefly the guitarist for Scandal in 1983. You can see him below in the early low-budget version of Love’s Got A Line On You.
Through the Shattered Lens 