Today’s music video of the day is the latest video from the veteran rockers Gun N’ Roses.
This video is the first to have been filmed since the return of Slash to the band. Watching this video, it’s interesting to see the members of the Guns N’ Roses, all older and more weary but still as proficient at rocking out as they were in their youth.
Enjoy!
I was going to feature Neil Young’s controversial video for This Note’s For You today but it turns out that the video can’t be embedded anywhere outside of YouTube. That is probably because of a scene in the video in which a Michael Jackson impersonator sets his hair on fire while filming a commercial. This was based on a real-life incident and when it was recreated for the music video, it led to Michael Jackson threatening legal action and MTV briefly banning the video.
So, I decided to go with a different Neil Young video. Wonderin‘ comes from Young’s 13 studio album, 1983’s Everybody’s Rockin’. The album was a “rockabilly” album and featured Young performing with a band called The Shocking Pinks, who were put together specifically for the album.
Enjoy!
If you have ever wondered what it’s like to live next door to an indie rock artist, this video will supply the answer.
When I first watched this video, I wondered if the director could have been a very young Paul Thomas Anderson (who did directed the video for Michael Penn’s Try in 1997) but actually, the video was directed by Mark Lindquist. Lindquist has also done videos for Eels, The Church, Cowboy Junkies, Alan Jackson, Charles & Eddie, Richard Marx, Belly, The Posies, and Kelly Willis.
Enjoy!
I don’t have much to say about this video, which is essentially a performance clip. Like most performance clip, the idea is to showcase not just Winwood as a musician but also Winwood as a musician who is beloved by his audience. It’s pretty simple. I’m sharing this video because I just like the song. Steve Winwood seems to have felt the same as he later used the title for the name of his 1996 compilation album box set.
Enjoy!
This is a song that I bet we can all relate to. The animation in the video was done by Daniel Clowes of Ghost World fame.
Enjoy!
Yesterdays appeared on Use Your Illusion II and the video mixes pictures that were taken during the Use Your Illusion tour with black and white footage of the band performing in a warehouse. Looking at the photographs, you can see both Izzy Stradlin and Steve Adler, who had left the band by the time the video was filmed.
Director Andy Morahan is one of those directors who worked with everyone in the 80s and 90s. As I have mentioned elsewhere on this site, he directed Highlander III but he didn’t write it so don’t hold that against him.
Enjoy!
One of the first rap/metal songs, I’m The Man was originally meant to be a collaboration between Beastie Boys and Anthrax. However, because the two bands could never work out their schedules, Anthrax ended up just doing the song on their own, with Frank Bello, Charlie Benante, and Scott Ian tying to do their best Beastie Boy impersonation. Even though the band viewed the song as just being a joke between friends, it went on to become one of Anthrax’s most unexpected hits.
Most listeners will recognize a sample of Sam Kinison as the source of the song’s primal screams.
Enjoy!
Today’s music video of the day is one of the highlights of the Sammy Hagar era of Van Halen. This song peaked at #2 on the Billboard rock chart and it was also used as the theme song for a Sidney, a short-lived sitcom starring Eddie Van Halen’s then-wife Valerie Bertinelli.
This video was directed by Andy Morahan, who was nominated for a Video Music Award for his work here. Morahan also did videos for Wham, Kim Wilde, Simple Minds, Pet Shop Boys, and Guns ‘N Roses. He also directed the third Highlander film but he didn’t write the script so don’t be too hard on him.
Enjoy!
Today’s music video of the day comes from the seminal Los Angeles punk band, X. This video and song was a part of an effort to make X into a more “commercial” band. Burning House of Love did receive some airplay on “mainstream” radio stations and the video was nominated for a Video Music Award but it still failed to bring X their commercial breakthrough. It’s not a bad song, though.
The video was directed by Daniel Kleinman, a British music video director who also did videos for Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, and Adam Ant. (Kleinman was also a member of the punk-era band, Bazooka Joe.) In the 90s, Kleinman would be appointed title designer for the James Bond films, a position that he had filled for every film sine Goldeneye.
Enjoy!
Slang was the title track from Def Leppard’s sixth studio album. The album had the misfortune to come out in 1996, when Grunge was still in full swing and Def Leppard’s style of arena rock had gone out of style. It was Def Leppard’s first album to fail to achieve platinum status in the United States, though it was more successful in Europe. Of the album’s tracks, the title track is the only one that is still regularly played in concert by the band.
The video for the song was filmed in Los Angeles, at Occidental Studios. The video feels like a slicker version of the video for Rocket. Jimmy Swaggart makes a cameo appearance, crying as he announces that he’s sinned. This video was filmed 8 years after Swaggart’s infamous “I have sinned” speech and its inclusion here really does make Def Leppard seem like a band stuck in time. It’s still a rocking song, though.
This video was directed by Nigel Dick, who directed videos for everyone.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens