Today’s music video of the day is for Chelsea Girl by Simple Minds. This video makes good use of animation and split screens. Though the video actually pre-dates MTV by a year, it’s a good example of the type of videos that would eventually transform MTV into every teenager’s must-watch cable station in the 80s.
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With today’s music video of the day, the Dutch band Earth and Fire kept things simple as they performed a catchy song about Love of Life.
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Pink Floyd released their first single and their first video in 1967. This video for Arnold Layne was filmed in February of 1967 on a beach in West Sussex. I can only guess how cold it must have been while they were filming.
The video, which features the band and a bunch of mannequins, shows that Pink Floyd had a surreal spirit from the beginning. This video is also unique because all of the members of the band seem to be happy to be with each other for once. This was filmed before Syd Barrett’s breakdown and long before Roger Waters and David Gilmour started suing each other.
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In a video that switches from black-and-white to color, the members of The Alarm are chased through London by the police. Not surprisingly, both this song and the video were inspired by a book that the lead singer of the Alarm read about street gangs in Glasgow.
68 Guns would go on to become The Alarm’s highest-charting song in the UK, reaching the 17th position. In the U.S., the song reached number #39 on the Hot Mainstream Rocks chart. This was the band’s first song to appear on the charts in either nation.
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There have actually been several different versions of the Canadian dance band Lime. This song was by the original and best-known version of the band, featuring Denis and Denyse LePage. This song reached number 6 on the Billboard Dance Chart and the video was briefly in heavy rotation on MTV.
The video may seem primitive by today’s standards but this was the cutting edge in 1982.
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Today’s music video of the day is the video for A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me) by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Tom Petty and the band spend much of the song performing in the shadows of his heartbreak but otherwise, this is a simple video. Sometimes, a video doesn’t need a lot of gimmicks to be effective.
This song was one of Tom Petty’s most underrated, only reaching 79 on the Billboard Hot 100 Chart. It deserved to go higher.
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In today’s music video of the day, Genesis takes ua on a tour of Los Angeles in 1980. Technically, the video is actually about Phil Collins driving around the city and searching for his girlfriend but mostly, that was just an excuse to show off Los Angeles and to perhaps announce that the new, post-Peter Gabriel Genesis was ready to conquer Hollywood.
According to Tony Banks, this song was meant to serve as an homage to the Beach Boys. That probably explains Phil’s Hawaiian shirt.
This video was directed by Stuart Orme, who directed several videos for both Genesis as a group and Phil Collins as a solo act.
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Who is waiting for the ghost train?
As with many of Madness’s songs, this one is open to multiple interpretations. The song is about a group of people waiting for a train that seems to be destined never to actually come, which is a metaphor for life that would do Samuel Beckett proud. Though the band was not often thought of as being a political band, Madness’s lead singer, Suggs, has said that the song was also meant to be a commentary on South African apartheid. The reference to the station master writing out cancellations in orange chalk is also a reference to the colors of what was then South Africa’s flag.
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In this song, The Human League takes on themes of human infidelity and forgiveness. The video was filmed in London and it was stylized to present the band with a constant blue hue, as if they were being viewed through water.
Andy Morohan has been a busy commercial and music video director from the 80s onward. He’s directed videos for everyone from Kim Wilde, Orchestral Maneuvers in the Dark, Pet Shop Boys, to Guns N’ Roses, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, and Meat Loaf. Looking over his list of credits, it is hard not to wonder what it was like going from the The Human League and George Michael to Axl Rose and Slash.
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How is Steve Perry going to get over his heartbreak with so many people in his apartment? There weren’t many singers in the late 70s and early 80s who did as good a job singing about emotional angst as Steve Perry and in this video, he’s at his angstiest. Not even the sight of the other members of Journey falling outside of his window can bring him out of his funk. Eventually, even the other members of the band get sick of hearing about his problems and walk out on him. What is left for Steve to do than to break out some awkward dance moves?
After the Fall was included on Journey’s 1983 album Frontiers and it was the band’s 11th top 40 and their ninth top 25 single. It was also included on the soundtrack of Risky Business.
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Through the Shattered Lens 