Category Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Low by Cracker (1993, directed by Carlos Grasso)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

For the record, Cracker lead singer David Lowery says that, despite the numerous drug references (junky cosmonaut, comes to mind), this song is not about drugs. He also says that the chorus is “like being stone” and not “like being stoned.” To be honest, the chorus makes more sense if Lowery was saying “like being stoned” but, in 1993, many radio stations wouldn’t play songs with blatant drug references so if Lowery says that he’s saying “like being stone,” I’ll take his word for it.

The video features Lowery getting outboxed by Sandra Bernhard. Director Carlos Grasso, at the time, said that the video was supposed to represent the battle between Lowery’s masculine and feminine sides. Grasso was also breaking up with his longtime girlfriend while directing the video so that undoubtedly played a role as well.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Goin’ By The Book by Johnny Cash (1990, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

One thing that I discovered this weekend is that there aren’t many good Easter songs out there. There’s even less good Easter music videos. I searched far and wide and most of the ones I found were either off the soundtrack of God’s Not Dead and from a Kirk Cameron film. I don’t think even the most religious of our readers want that.

So, I went with this song and video from Johnny Cash. Goin’ By The Book starts with a litany of bad things: pollution, riots, war, civil unrest. Cash goes on to sing that it’s all going to lead to the events discussed in the book of Revelations. Interestingly enough, it sounds like Cash could be describing all of the problems of the world today but this song was actually recorded 32 years ago, showing I guess that there have always been problems and people have always seen them as being evidence of the end times.

I’m not really a fan of most Christian music but Johnny Cash is the exception.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Bikini Girls With Machine Guns by The Cramps (1990, directed by Rocky Schenck)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This song, which appeared on Stay Sick!, would become The Cramps’s only top 40 hit in the UK. The video starts with a stand-in for Criswell and then goes on to celebrate the band’s classic psychobilly sound. I remember that this video was viewed on an episode of Beavis and Butthead and the boys really liked it, for obvious reasons.

Director Rocky Schenck has over 100 music videos to his name. He’s worked from everyone from Adele to Alice in Chains to Joni Mitchell. The Texas-born Schenck is also an acclaimed photographer. This is from his biography on the imdb (written by John Adams): “He has collaborated with personalities ranging from Adele, Francis Bean Cobain, Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, Ray Bradbury, Ellen DeGeneres, Baz Luhrmann, Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave, P.J. Harvey, Willie Nelson, B.B. King, Annie Lennox, T-Bone Burnett, Joni Mitchell, The Cramps , Tom Cruise, Johnny Mathis, Linda Ronstadt, Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, Josh Duhamel, Diana Krall, Brian Wilson, Donna Summer, Nicole Kidman, Gary Coleman, k.d. lang, Jerry Lee Lewis, Natalie Cole, Gloria Estefan, Neil Diamond, Larry Fishburn, Rod Stewart, Gladys Knight, Alice in Chains, etc.” That’s quite a list!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Cheri, Cheri Lady by Modern Talking (1985, directed by Volker Hannwacker)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today’s music video of the day is the atmospheric video for Cheri, Cheri Lady by Modern Talking.  This song was the only single to come off of Modern Talking’s second album and it was also their third straight single to reach number one in Germany.

This video was directed by Volker Hannwacker, who has also been credited with directing videos from Haddaway, Culture Beat, and Paradise Lost.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Toy Soldiers by Markita (1989, directed by Jim Shea)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I learned something today.

Today, I learned that this song was inspired by a friend of Markita’s who was struggling with an addiction to cocaine. I’m not sure why I didn’t know that but the important thing is that, after the song was released, Markita’s friend eventually conquered their addiction.

Another thing that I learned is that Fergie sings in the chorus for this song. She and Markita knew each other from appearing on Kids Incorporated. Another thing that I learned today is that Fergie and Markita were both on Kids Incorporated. The final thing I learned is that there was a show called Kids Incorporated.

This video was directed by Jim Shea, who went on to direct several country music videos.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: But Not Tonight by Depeche Mode (1986, directed by Tamra Davis)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

But Not Tonight is a good example of the type of music video that used to dominate MTV, the movie soundtrack video. Depeche Mode recorded But Not Tonight for the film Modern Girls. The video cuts between scenes of the band performing and scenes taken from the movie, which is why Virginia Madsen, Daphne Zuniga, and Clayton Rohner are so prominently featured. The video did well on MTV, which didn’t translate into the movie becoming a hit.

While the movie was directed by Jerry Kramer, the video was directed by Tamra Davis. Davis was a prolific video director before moving into feature film and television directing.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Guerilla Radio by Rage Against The Machine (1999, directed by Honey)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

No one will ever accuse Rage Against The Machine of being subtle but that’s the point. Rage rarely is.

This video for this song, with its white background and exploited workers, is a parody of the peppy GAP commercials that were popular in the late 90s. “Everybody in Denial” was a play on GAP’s slogan at the time, “Everybody in Khaki.” The sweatshop workers seen in this video were all members of the UNITE! union.

The video was directed by Honey, the husband-and-wife team of Nicholas Brooks and Laura Kelly.

Like many anti-capitalist, protest songs, Guerilla Radio later turned up on the soundtrack of several video games, including Madden and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, where it was probably enjoyed by people who had absolutely no idea what the song was actually about. (I remember being amused when American Idiot used to play during one of the Maddens. It was the radio friendly version, of course.)

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: You’re My Heart, You’re My Soul by Modern Talking (1985, directed by Mike Leckebusch)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Before I came across this video on YouTube, I had never heard this song before. I don’t know much about Modern Talking, either. I’ve noticed that, on YouTube, their videos appear to be popular with Russian viewers. Almost all of the comments are written in Cyrillic.

Even though I don’t know much about the band or the song, I still decided to go with this video because it really does epitomize an era. From the pixelated beginning to the keytar and the pink bowtie, this is a video that could only come from the 80s. Even though this song is not on the GTA: Vice City soundtrack, it feels like it should be.

Enjoy!