Though the song’s title was taken from a 1964 B-science fiction film, the song itself was about the very real fear of nuclear war. To understand this song, it is important to remember that, in the 1980s, nuclear war was viewed as something that was destined to happen eventually. Teachers and school counselors were even specifically trained on how to talk to children who woke up one morning, saw the wrong story on the morning news, and came to school terrified that the bombs were going to drop at any moment. I guess the nearest equivalent of that today would be the fear that we only have ten years left due to climate change.
Luckily, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it looked like nuclear war had been avoided. Over the past few years, though, I’ve seen a return of those earlier fears as more and more nations brag about developing their nuclear capabilities. As a results, songs like this will always feel more relevant than we may want them to.
In a song that was a definite change of pace from his usual work, Cliff Richard sings about how he became cursed after seeing a black cat with yellow eyes. Cliff went to a fortune teller, asking her to lift the curse but it turned out that the fortune teller was the one who cursed him in the first place!
This song was Cliff Richard’s biggest hit in the U.S. It undoubtedly helped that the song came out while America was still in the grips of Exorcist fever.
The ultimate message is that if it can happen to Cliff Richard, it can happen to anyone.
Today’s music video of the day comes from the Spanish punk rock group, The Killer Barbies. Silvia Superstar buys a comic book featuring an animated version of Dracula who starts to speak directly to her. Not coincidentally, this video was released at the same time that the band was preparing to star in a film called Killer Barbys vs. Dracula, which was directed by Jesus Franco.
(For the film, the band changed their name from the Killer Barbies to the Killer Barbys to avoid being sued by Mattel.)
This video was directed by Oliver Sommer, who is one of the busiest and most prolific music video directors out there. At this point, it would probably be easier to keep track of who, in Europe, Sommer has not worked with than with who he has.
Happy Horrothon! “I know you’re gonna say, this isn’t horror! This is Thor singing the blues!” I hear your critique and I reject it! The greatest horror stories especially in science fiction have trauma, fear, and hope. Alien, for example, terrible things happen to this crew of…. I guess…. miners, but at the end – there’s hope because Ripley overcomes. I always have a bit of anxiety at the end of the New “Outer Limits” or films like “Life” because it’s a good twist, but everyone is now dead and the heroes failed- that’s too much like life!
In “Rain”, a woman is alone and there appears to be a guy in the friendzone who REALLY wants to be with her and can sing and looks like Thor. For the interest of Horrorthon, we’re going to presume that- I don’t know this lady’s name but I’ll call her Susan- that Susan’s previous guy was eaten by a …got it…. a werewolf! Take that doubters told you I could contrive this into a horror review- BWAHAHAHA!
Side note: Susan, you’re being too picky. I’m sure that youhad a rough time, but this guy even wrote a song for you, looks like Thor, and sounds like Otis Redding reincarnated. Maybe your standards are just WAY too high?
Susan’s boyfriend was werewolf puppy chow and Thor is trying to tell her that it will be okay. He has felt her pain because there is probably at least another werewolf in town that probably ate his girlfriend too. Can you imagine that support group? They must hate Iams and Doggy costumes! The line “Is that rain or are you crying again?” gets to me because when you’re broken-hearted – it’s like the tears can’t stop. “A soul with no face is a lonely embrace” this line is all about not seeing your soulmate again- Fucking Werewolves, we gotta do something about them, but then this song wouldn’t exist; so, I’m torn!
As they try console each other, “now’s there clouds between us all”; so, they likely hooked up, but they also have to worry about the full moon coming- probably. I like that at the end of the song – he says – “You ain’t gonna be ain’t gonna be alone” and notice, he doesn’t say- With me – Wonderful me. He’s left her better off and maybe he will be alone and live out his days as a werewolf hunter?
Push It was the lead single off of Garbage’s second studio album, Version 2.0. The video was directed by an Italian photographer named Andrea Giacobbe, who was selected after the band saw and was impressed by his video for Death in Vegas’s Dirt. Though Shirley Manson said that the songs lyrics were intentionally meant to be surreal and that the song was about, “the schizophrenia that exists when you try to reconcile your desires and demons with the need to fit in,” even the band was surprised by the bizarre storyboards that Giacobbe prepared for the video.
What’s happening in the video is definitely open to interpretation, as the action goes from three nuns assassinating Shirley Manson’s rotoscoped “partner” to Manson living in the suburbs with a man who has a light bulb for a head. Demonic children and aliens also make an appearance. In the end, the video feels like a throwback to the early days of MTV, when it was more important to be weird and challenging than to craft your image for the adolescent Total Request Live crowd. It certainly feels as if it’s taking place in a separate universe than the one where MTV is now the exclusive property of Rob Dyrdeck.
Technically, it is debatable whether or not this is really a horror video but it does have all the hallmarks of the genre, from a gratuitous shower scene to a decadent dinner being held in what is either a gothic castle or the most ornate sewer known to man. It’s close enough for me.
Director Gerard de Thame is best-known for his work on commercials but he has also directed music videos for Erasure, Bruce Hornsby and the Range, and Sting.
For a period of time in the 90s, you couldn’t go anywhere without hearing that. It was one of the original memes, thanks to both the song and the video that was made to promote it. The video, which was inspired by photographs of a Brazilian gold mine, was filmed in a quarry near Simi Valley. While the extras dressed like miners and were meant to represent the Biblical lepers who asked Jesus to heal them, the band goes for a glam rock look. It pays to be in the band.
This video was directed by Samuel Bayer, who has done music videos for everyone who is anyone.
Jewel was not only an inspiring singer who went from being homeless to being a superstar but she was also an everyday hero, as seen in this video. In this video, Jewel comes across a collapsed building and saves a life. This video was directed at an abandoned apartment complex in West Covina, California.
Jewel has said that she wrote this song, during her pre-stardom, after she was tempted to steal a sundress from a store in Pasadena. She felt so bad about even considering being a thief that she wrote a song asking when she had lost faith in herself.
This video was directed by photographer Nick Brandt, who has also done videos for Michael Jackson, XTC, and Moby.
This 90s anthem was filmed at the DNA Lounge in San Francisco. Though it might be hard to believe today, a music video that featured people openly celebrating smoking weed was something that still took a lot of people by surprise in 1994.
Director Josh Taft worked with just about everyone in the 90s. Taft has directed videos for Alice In Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam, Mad Season, and Fuel. Taft has also worked as a commercial director, doing ads for Adidas, Reebok, Nike, Energizer, Sprite and Nissan Xterra. In 2013, he directed a documentary called Alive & Well, which profiled 7 individuals living with Huntington’s Disease.
Through the Shattered Lens