Today would have been the 101st birthday of the pioneering indie director, Edward D. Wood, Jr!
Today’s song of the day is the theme from Tim Burton’s 1994 biopic of the director. In my opinion, this remains Burton’s first film. Burton also directed the musical video below while the great Toni Basil choreographed. And, best of all, the dancer is named Lisa Marie!
Director Julian Doyle also directed videos for Kate Bush but he may be best known for working as an editor on several Monty Python and Terry Gilliam films, including Life of Brian, Time Bandits, The Meaning of Life, Brazil, and Terry Jones’s Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
Enjoy!
Today’s song of the day is this 1984 classic from Ray Parker, Jr. Have you busted a ghost today?
Grim Reaper was so hardcore that they even had the Devil himself watching over their concerts!
See You In Hell is probably best remembered for Beavis and Butt-Head’s epic takedown of both the video and the singer.
Enjoy!
Directed by Russell Mulcahy, the video for Wild Boys cost over a million pounds, which was considered to be an astronomical sum in 1984. Both the video and the song is based on the William S. Burroughs novel, The Wild Boys. Mulcahy had long-wanted to adapt the book into a film and the song was written to serve as a part of the soundtrack of the proposed film. (The film itself was never made.)
The costumes in the video were left over from The Road Warrior. The video, featuring all of the members of Duran Duran being tortured in different ways, was controversial but ultimately very popular.
Enjoy!
Demons (1985, dir by Lamberto Bava)
For today’s horror song of the day, we have Demon, a track from the soundtrack for the 1985 film, Demons. This song was composed and performed by Claudio Simonetti, who is best known as the keyboardist of Goblin.
The music video, incidentally, was directed by Michele Soavi, who also appeared in Demons as the mysterious masked man handing out free movie tickets.
Who directed the video for Garbageman? I haven’t been able to find the information online, probably because of how old the video is. Do any of you know?
Enjoy!
There are actually two versions of this video. Both of them feature model Rana Kennedy as the mysterious woman looking over Alice Cooper. One version features shots where the woman is meant to be topless. (A body double was used in those shots). The MTV-friendly version excises the toplessness and is less focused on torture than the first version.
Director Nigel Dick was one of the big music video directors of the MTV era. He worked with everyone who was anybody. Alice Cooper definitely was and still is somebody. It’s funny how he went from being the rocker that parents feared to being a beloved cultural institution and he did it while, for the most part, still remaining true to his original act and persona. All the kids who used to get yelled at for listening to Cooper grew up and kept listening to him and Alice turned out to be a pretty smart guy.
Enjoy!
Every metal band needs at least one room with all black walls in which to perform. Fortunately, Savage Messiah found their room and the result rocks!
Enjoy!
This song is from Unprocessed’s 2019 album, Artificial Void. I respect any band that put out an official video where they just play and let the music speak for itself.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 