I will be the first to admit that I was hoping that it would turn out that this video was directed by that Steve Martin. But no, the directors of this video were twin brothers Douglas Brian Martin and Steven M. Martin. Along with a few acting appearances (they played “angry twins” in Fast Times At Ridgemont High), Steve Martin is credited with directed the documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey in 1993.
According to the imdb, Doug Martin ” (d)irected the following music videos: “Murder, Mystery & Mayhem (1981)” for Peter Ivers “No Smoking (1982)” for John Waters “Shock Value (1982)” for John Waters “I Predict (1982)” for Sparks “Get Up And Go (1982)” for The Go-Go’s “Gone Daddy Gone (1983)” for Violent Femmes “Barefoot Rock (1983)” for The Blasters “One Red Rose (1983)” for The Blasters “The Cutting Edge (1983)” for MTV “Christian Girls Problems (1983)” for The Gleaming Spires “Head Over Heels (1983)” for The Go-Go’s “Sound Of The Rain (1984)” for Rank & File “Livin’ A Little, Laughin’ A Little (1985)” for John Hiatt/Elvis Costello “When Angels Kiss (1985)” for Gary Myrick “Stick Around (1985)” for Julian Lennon “Lips To Find You (1986)” for Teena Marie “Situation #9 (1986)” for Club Nouveau.”
This song features not one but two xylophone solos.
One thing that you could always count on with AC/DC is that their music videos would be direct and to the point. While other bands tried to come up with elaborate storylines or gimmicks for their videos, AC/DC was content to just rock.
Guns For Hire was the first single and video to be released off of their 1983 album, Flick of the Switch. While the band was touring to support the album, Guns for Hire was the song that they opened with. It’s also a song that they apparently stopped playing after the tour ended. Though Flick of the Switch has its fans (and has been the subject of much positive reappraisal in recent years), it was a commercial disappointment when it was first released. It was also during the recording of Flick of the Switch that drummer Phil Rudd left the band for the first time. Malcolm Young later described the album as being a disappointment, saying that it was “thrown together real quick.” Personally, I think Guns for Hire is a perfectly good AC/DC song but it’s understandable why the band may not have wanted to revisited the turmoil that was going on when it was recorded.
Because Phil Rudd either left the band or was fired during the recording of Flick of the Switch (it depends on who you ask), Guns For Hire was the first AC/DC music video to feature Simon Wright on drums. Wright stayed with the band until 1989, when he left to join Dio. He was replaced by Chris Slade, who was subsequently replaced in 1993 by …. Phil Rudd. Time is a flat circle.
This video was directed by Paul Becher, who directed two other videos for AC/DC and one for Prince.
When I first read the blandly generic title and I saw that it was performed by Rick Springfield (who I don’t think has ever ben anyone’s idea of a cutting edge musical artist), I assumed that Celebrate Youth was going to be another cheesy, feel good anthem from the 80s. Then I discovered that this song rocks!
As you could probably guess just by its visual style, this was one of the many music videos that David Fincher directed before moving onto feature films. The black-and-white cinematography with the only splash of color coming from that red scarf clearly identifies this as one of Fincher’s videos. The interesting thing about Fincher’s music videos is that they show that, even before he directed his first film, Fincher already had a clear and unique artistic vision. Just as you would never mistake any of Fincher’s films for the work of another director, the same is true of his music videos.
If you were a member of the band Europe in 1987, you were all about rocking the night!
And what better way to rock the night than by going to the Hard Rock Cafe and watching one of your own music videos on television?
There were actually two videos filmed for this song. The first one was a simple performance clip, featuring Europe rocking and the audience rolling. The second and more popular video features Europe going to a Hard Rock Café and discovering that the first video is playing on TV! This, of course, leads to the band rocking and rolling in the restaurant. In the 80s, a hair band rocking a chain restaurant was as common a sight as a flapper doing the Lindy Hop in the 20s.
This video was filmed at an actual Hard Rock Café in Stockholm. The first Hard Rock Café was opened in London in 1971 and the company really didn’t start to expand worldwide until 1982, five years before this video was filmed. At the time of the video, the Hard Rock Cafe brand was still very cool and a pretty big deal. (Yes, those shirts used to really stand for something.) When the Stockholm Hard Rock Café first opened in 1985, it was only the chain’s seventh location. (Today, by comparison, there are 180 operating Hard Rock Cafes.) The Stockholm restaurant is currently still open but I don’t know if Europe still hangs out there.
Leave it to Styx to take a seemingly straight-forward song about sailing away from life’s trouble and suddenly end it with an alien visitation. Actually, I’ve read multiple interpretations of the film’s final verses. Some see it as the subject of the song being abducted by aliens. Others think that it means that he’s been taken into Heaven. Because it’s a Styx song, the lyrics are open to many readings as long as you accept that it’s either angels or aliens.
Considering all of the debate that’s been inspired by this song, the music video is a pretty simple affair. Like the majority of the videos that were released in the days before MTV, it’s a simple performance clip. If you were hoping to see either aliens or angels in this video, you’ll be disappointed. It’s good song, though. It’s impossible not to get that chorus stuck in your head.
I don’t know if I can possibly express how inescapable this song was in 1994. It was on the radio constantly and the video was just as prominent on MTV. At first, people loved the song and the video was viewed as being profound. There was a lot of speculation about why the lead singer of Crash Test Dummies had such a deep voice. I won’t repeat any of it here but it got pretty out there.
Of course, whenever any song is overplayed, it doesn’t take long for people to go from loving it to hating it. Though I can only offer up anecdotal evidence, the span from love to hate seemed to be especially quick for Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm. Before long, people grew sick of seeing the lead singer humming on MTV. To me, this video proves that no one should be filmed while humming with their eyes closed.
The video takes place at a school play. Each act features a different dramatization of what the the singer is humming about. The adults in the audience start out as being amused but then become disturbed. Are lessons learned? I don’t know.
This song was nominated for a Grammy so make of that what you will.
In 1983, Rodney Dangerfied released the Rappin’ Rodney album, which was basically Rodney doing his usual routine but this time, he was rapping about how he didn’t get no respect instead of just talking about it. It’s always easy to make fun of these celebrity projects but this one gets a pass because it’s Rodney Dangerfield and he obviously wasn’t trying to start a new career as a rapper. Dangerfield received a Grammy nomination for Rappin’ Rodney so there’s that.
This video was reportedly popular when it was released on MTV in 1983. Since MTV didn’t play black artists during the first few years of its existence, you have to wonder how many many early MTV viewers were first exposed to rap as a result of Rodney Dangerfield. Pat Benatar and Don Novello both make appearances in this video. Novello appears as Father Guido Sarducci, his SNL character who was never really that funny but still showed up on a frequent basis.
Every January, I list my favorite songs of the previous year and, every January, I include the same disclaimer. My favorite songs are not necessarily the favorite songs of any of the other writers here at the Shattered Lens. We are a large and diverse group of people and, as such, we all have our own individual tastes.
If you ever visited the TSL Bunker, you would be shocked by the different music coming out of each office. You would hear everything from opera to death metal to the best of Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. And then, of course, you would reach my office and you would discover that my taste in music pretty much runs the gamut from EDM to More EDM.
Now, usually, I do try to listen to a variety of music. You can go to my Song of the Day site — Lisa Marie’s Song of the Day — and see that I do occasionally listen to other types of music. But, I have to be honest. 2020 was not a year that inspired me to really leave me comfort zone. If anything, music provided me with some much needed consistency in an otherwise chaotic year. 2020 was a year that made me want to dance until it was all over and, for the most part, my favorite songs of the year reflect that fact.
Before I list my songs, I should make something else very clear. These are my favorite songs of 2020. I’m not saying that they’re necessarily the best songs of 2020. I’ll leave that debate for others. Instead, there are the songs that I found myself listening to over and over again. These are the songs made me dance. These are the songs that made me sing. A few of these songs relaxed me when I needed to be relaxed. These are songs that I liked.
You might like them.
Or you might not.
That’s the beautiful thing about art. Everyone experiences it in their own individual way. For instance, if you want to see an example of the different tastes of music that you’ll find here at TSL, be sure to check out Necromoonyeti’s top albums of 2020. And also go to Days Without Incident and check out some of the songs that Leonard has posted. To quote my friend Shirley Loh, “we all like different things.”
Here are my favorite songs of 2020:
20) No Sleep by Jessie Frye
19) Ghost In These Streets by Kate Vogel
18) Matches by Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys
17) You Do you by Dillon Francis and BabyJake
16) Into the Abyss by Zeds Dead x REZZ
15) Teacher by Chromatics
14) Stardew by Purity Ring
13) Everybody Here Hates You by Courtney Barnett
12) Swimming in the Stars by Britney Spears
11) Don’t Wanna by Haim
10) Preach by Saint Motel
9) Famous Monsters by Chromatics
8) Break my Heart by Dua Lipa
7) Feel Something by Armin van Buuren feat. Duncan Laurence
6) Dance Again by Selena Gomez
5) Phobos by Space 92
4) Pomegranate by deadmau5 & The Neptunes
3) Castles In The Sky by i_o
2) The Steps by Haim
1) A Good Song Never Dies by Saint Motel
Finally, allow me to offer up two honorable mentions to my favorite cinematic musical moments of the year. From Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga:
I only recently discovered this band. Heaven 17 is an English band, one that is still together. The band was made up of two former members of The Human League, keyboardists Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware, and singer Glenn Gregory. Gregory had been Marsh and Ware’s original choice to serve as the lead singer of the Human League but, when he proved to be unavailable, they went with Philip Oakey instead. Oakey had a different vision for the The Human League than Marsh and Ware so Marsh and Ware ended up leaving the band and forming Heaven 17. This time, they were able to get Glenn Gregory as their singer.
Heaven 17’s first album was called Penthouse and Pavement and the album’s title track was both their first single and their first video. The video features not only corporate espionage but also the three members of the band pretending to be corrupt businessmen. That Heaven 17 was a much more overly political band than The Human League is obvious from listening to the song’s lyrics.
The band, incidentally, was named after one of Alex’s favorite bands in A Clockwork Orange.
Paradise City seems to be the Guns N’ Roses song that’s liked even by people who don’t like Guns N’ Roses. (My cousin John, who was once the lead singer of a band called Carlos Is A Bastard, still refers to them as being Guns N’ Poses.)
Paradise City is a good song and a good video. The video keeps things effectively simple, with clips of the band performing the song at Giants Stadium mixed in with behind-the-scenes footage of the band. All of the members of the band look like they’re getting along and, at no point, do Slash and Axl look like they’re about to come to blows. It’s a look at Guns N’ Roses that definitely goes against their later reputation for intraband strife.
This is what I like to call a “They sure can play” video because the emphasis is on the band as professional musicians who know what they’re doing and who aren’t just spending all of their time doing drugs and entertaining groupies. I’m usually not a fan of these type of videos because they often feel phony but it works for Guns ‘N Roses because they really could play.
Through the Shattered Lens 