Category Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Another Nail In My Heart by Squeeze (1980, directed by Derek Burbidge)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

‘And here in the bar, the piano man’s found another nail for my heart.

Like so many music videos from the early 80s, the most notable thing about the video for Squeeze’s Another Nail In My Heart is how simple it is.  The band performs and hangs out at a bar, which goes along with the theme of the song.  The most complicated thing about the video is Jools Holland, pushing his piano down the streets of London so that he can arrive in time to put another nail in Glenn Tilbrook’s heart.  In other words, this is from the era when the videos were about the music instead of the music being about the video.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Aeroplane by Red Hot Chili Peppers (1996, directed by Gavin Bowden)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

A song about drug abuse that features a children’s chorus?

Not creepy at all!

Aeroplane makes a lot more sense if you know that it’s based on a traditional blues song called Jesus is my Areoplane.  In their version of the song, the Chili Peppers are saying that music has saved them and taken them to a higher plane of existence.  Whenever Anthony Kiedis struggled with his addictions and was tempted to turn to dust in his kitchen, it was music that kept him from destroying himself.  The original song was about people flying away with Jesus.  The Chili Peppers are flying away with songs like this one.  The Chili Peppers might be going to Hell but at least they got to make some music and shoot his video with a group of smoking hot models and synchronized swimmers.

The children’s chorus, which shows up at the end and changes the entire feel of the video, were reportedly all friends of Flea’s daughter.  Flea’s daughter is among the children singing.  At the end of the song, when you hear one girl outsinging all the rest with “You’re my areoplane!,” that’s her.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Hell In A Bucket by Grateful Dead (1987, directed by Len Dell’Amico)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I may be going to Hell in a bucket but at least I’m enjoying the ride

The members of the Grateful Dead didn’t do many music videos.  I think Hell In A Bucket was their second video, following the surprise hit that they had with A Touch of Grey.  From what I’ve read, it was the band’s record label that insisted that the band make some videos to help promote their 12th studio album, In the Dark.  Some members of the band were concerned that agreeing to do music videos would mean that they were “selling out.”

The video for Hell In A Bucket feels like it could be a parody of the type of videos that were popular on MTV.  With his Miami Vice-Style outfit and the way he mugs for the camera, Bob Weir almost seems like he could be Huey Lewis’s coked-out older brother.  The video opens in a biker bar, populated with the type of rough characters who most bands would never dream of featuring in a video.  While Jerry Garcia keeps his distance, Bob Weir sings a song of rock and roll decadence that seems to be saying, “This is what it’s all really about.”

No, I don’t know why there’s a duck at the bar.  It’s just there.  Jerry daughter’s Trixie is also in the video.  She plays one of the dancing devils.

Enjoy!

 

Music Video of the Day: Embarrassment by Madness (1980, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“We were trying to do Motown with this one. Lee Thompson’s sister had a baby with a black man and it caused consternation in his family. It’s a great lyric – really sensational. You couldn’t believe such sensitivity could come from such a rough diamond, but Lee is one of the best lyricists of his time. We were having trouble with people associating us with the NF, so it was nice to establish once and for all that we weren’t.”

— Suggs on Embarrassment 

The NF that Madness’s frontman refers to was the National Front, a fascist British political party that was at the height of its prominence when Embarrassment was recorded.  Because Madness was a ska band and because many of the skinheads who supported the National Front were also into ska music, Madness had to spend a good deal of their early career just assuring people that they were not themselves supporters of the National Front.  (Today, of course, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could listen to any of Madness’s songs and mistake them for supporters of the NF.)  This song, which sympathetically tells the story of a woman who has been rejected by her racist family because she’s having a black man’s baby, is not only a repudiation of everything the NF stood for but it’s also one of Madness’s rare “serious” songs.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Wanted Dead or Alive by Bon Jovi (1987, directed by Wayne Isham)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Jon Bon Jovi has said that the inspiration for Wanted Dead or Alive came to him one morning while he struggling to sleep on a tour bus.  It occurred to him that being in a rock band was much like being an old west outlaw.  As Bon Jovi described it, a rock band was “a young band of thieves, riding into town, stealing the money, the girls, and the booze before the sun came up.”  I’m not sure that every rock band would agree with that description but, judging from the deathless success of this song, it worked for Bon Jovi.

(I’m also not sure how many old west outlaws came out of New Jersey.)

The video was directed by Wayne Isham and the black-and-white cinematography is courtesy of Derek M. Allen.  It was shot over the course of Bon Jovi’s 1987 world tour and it features scenes that were shot at venues all over the United States.  The theme of the video is that life on the road is hard and Bon Jovi works really hard.  Looking at other music videos that were released around the same time as this one, I’ve noticed that hard work is a recurring theme in many of them.  Bands, especially ones that were often dismissed as being “hair bands,” really wanted to make sure people knew that a tremendous amount of work into their performances.

You have to give Bon Jovi some credit.  Their music not only epitomized an era but, as a band and with the exception of Richie Sambora, they’re largely stuck together and continued to rock.  That’s more than you can say for Winger.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Rush Rush by Debbie Harry (1983, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Remember when we used to drive around Liberty City listening to this song?

Even though Rush Rush may be best known to some for its use in Grand Theft Auto III, it was actually first recorded for the soundtrack of Scarface.  This was Debbie Harry’s second collaboration with producer Giorgio Moroder.  Their first collaboration was Call Me, which shot to number one on the charts.  Rush Rush was slightly less popular, peaking at #105 in the U.S.

The video features people watching and reacting to footage of Debbie Harry.  Interestingly enough, this video came out around the same time as David Cronenberg’s Videodrome, which featured James Woods doing the same thing.

Enjoy!

 

 

Music Video of the Day: 3 A.M. Eternal by The KLF (1991, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

There are so many stories about the careers of British musicians Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty that it would probably take several posts to tell them all.

Drummond’s musical career began in 1977 when he formed a punk band called Big in Japan.  After Big In Japan broke up, Drummond was one of the co-founders of Zoo Records and he worked as a manger and producer for several post-punk bands, including Echo and the Bunnymen.  He also worked with a band called Brilliant, which had been formed by former Killing Joke bassist, Jimmy Cauty.

Drummond and Cauty must have hit it off because they went on to start their own musical project.  Originally known as the The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (The JAMs), the project also recorded under the name The Time Lords and, eventually, the KLF.  Among their first hits (as The Time Lords) was Doctorin’ The Tardis.  After Doctorin’ The Tardis hit number one despite being intentionally designed to have no musical value whatsoever, Drummond published a book called The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way), a semi-satirical how-to book about how to write a song vapid enough to become a hit.  Drummond promised that anyone who read the book would have a hit song or they would get their money book.  Drummond later admitted that some readers did subsequently contact him, asking for a refund.

As the KLF, their biggest hit was 3 A.M. Eternal.  3 A.M. Eternal was originally recorded in 1988 and was subsequently re-recorded in 1991, this time with the addition of rapper Ricardo Da Force and vocalist Maxine Harvey.  This video feature Da Force rapping while playing with a very big phone while Maxine Harvey sings in what appears to be a pyramid.  Meanwhile, the members of the KLF drive around at three in the morning.  The car from the driving scenes also appeared in the video for Doctorin’ The Tardis.

When the KLF performed this song at the 1992 Brit Awards, they fired machine guns at the audience.  Though the machine guns were full of blanks, no one had informed the audience of that fact and there was quite a panic as a result.  After the show, the KLF announced that they were retiring from the music business and then deleted their back catalog.  They also had a dead sheep sent to the after party.

Enjoy!