(Sorry, everyone. This is one of those videos where you going to have to click on “Watch on YouTube” to actually watch it. I know. That sucks. Didn’t we fight a revolution and write a constitution to prevent stuff like this from happening? Oh well. Anyway…)
Happy Valentine’s Day!
This fun little video from Haim features a lot of dancing and was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson! Someday, Anderson needs to direct a feature-length musical. Spielberg can produce that West Side Story remake if he wants but he needs to hire Anderson to direct it.
(Some may point out that it would have made more sense to have picked Anderson’s video for Haim’s Valentine for today’s music video of the day. They would be right, except for the fact that the Valentine video lasts 14 minutes while this one is a brisk 3 minutes and 39 seconds.)
But Lisa, just because the song is called Mardi Gras that doesn’t mean that it’s about our Mardi Gras…
Okay, you got a point. But here’s my point: today is Mardi Gras. And this song is called Mardi Gras. And I like it. It’s a fun song to listen to while you’re stuck in traffic.
Besides, if you’re complaining about stuff like that today that means that you’re totally missing the point of Mardi Gras.
Seeing as how tomorrow is, depending on where you live, either Fat or Shrove Tuesday, I decided why not share a music video about New Orleans?
It probably says something about the way I view the world that, whenever I see this video, I’m always expecting that it’s going to turn out that our group of friends is trying to cover up a murder or something. The whole video gives off a “We accidentally killed a guy, let’s have a good time before we have to find a place to bury him,” vibe. Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
This video was directed by Michael Fierstein. Steven Andrew Garcia was the director of photography.
It’s Mardi Gras weekend so I’m going to guess right now that people are flooding into Louisiana.
I’ve always loved Louisiana. My family lived in Shreveport for nearly two years, from December of ’96 to May of ’98. It was the last state that we lived in before returning to Texas and it’s a place that I’ve visited a few times since. (Shreveport, I might add, also celebrates Mardi Gras. It’s just that it tends to be a little bit more sedate in Shreveport than in New Orleans.) Louisiana is a state that is full of atmosphere and eccentric historical oddities. If you ever think your political leaders are crazy, do a google search on “Edwin Edwards” or “Earl Long.” If you ever think there’s never been a stranger moment in history than now, read T. Harry Williams’s biography of Huey Long.
Anyway, today’s music video of the day is all about Louisiana. Radney Foster’s Louisiana Blue has a nice mellow mood to it. Consider it to be the calm before the storm.
There’s a lot of flies and a lot of trash in this video. There’s also some fireworks down at the bottom of the screen. At first, I thought that maybe they were meant to indicate that this video was taking place during the 4th of July. But then camera panned by that open briefcase and I saw all of that money. That’s when I decided that the video was probably showing us the spot where D.B. Cooper set up camp after he jumped out of that plane.
(Don’t know the story of D.B. Cooper? It’s an interesting one, check it out here!)
Then I went back and actually listened to the lyrics and I realized that probably wasn’t the case. Here they are:
American Guilt
Tape over the camera No more utopian videos Eyes painted on eyelids Viva la Mexico
Oh no Here it comes the American Guilt
Land of the expensive Even the nazis are crying History’s private property Viva la Mexico
For today’s music video of the day, we have I Was A Fool by Sunflower Bean.
While I never attended a dance quite as bad as the one presented here, this video still brings back a lot of memories for me. I’m sure I’m not alone in that. When you’re in high school, even the smallest bit of nonconformity makes you feel as if you’re challenging and changing the world. This video celebrates the intoxication of being young and rebellious.
The song is an anthem but the music video is widely considered to be one of the worst of all time. What happened to Journey when they gathered on a wharf in New Orleans and shot the video for Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)? Let’s break it down:
0:00 — The video starts with a shot of the Louisa Street Wharf in New Orleans. Where’s Journey?
0:03 — There, they are. But where are their instruments?
0:04 — Yes, Jonathan Cain is playing air keyboards.
0:08 — Journey has their instruments now so they look a lot less ridiculous. Still, Jonathan Cain will never live down those air keyboards.
0:21 — A woman in a black leather skirt walks down the wharf. The members of Journey jump out at her. This will prove to be a reoccurring theme throughout the video. The woman was played by a local girl named Margaret Olmstead.
0:35 — Again, Journey has lost their instruments and Jonathan Cain is forced to play air keyboards.
0:41 — If Steve Perry looks more annoyed than usual here, it is probably because he wasn’t happy while shooting this video. This was the first Journey video to have a “storyline,” as opposed to just being edited footage of the band performing. Perry was opposed to the idea. According to Cain, Perry said, “We’re performers, we’re entertainers, but we’re not actors.”
0:51 — Who has stolen Journey’s instruments?
0:54 — At this point, Jonathan Cain’s air keyboards are truly out of control. Is he playing an imaginary synthesizer or is he pretending to be a tiger stalking his prey? Your guess is as good as mine.
0:58 — Not only has Journey lost their instruments but Steve Perry has lost his sleeves.
1:13 — Eagle-eyed viewers will notice that Journey is performing in front of a mattress warehouse. This detail will pay off at the end of the video.
1:27 — At least Jonathan finally found his keyboards.
1:32 — The salesman who sold me my very first used car looked just like Ross Valory.
1:47 — The video was shot on a very cold morning. In between takes, Perry would rush into his camper to try to get warm.
1:57 — The shoot was also tense because of the presence of Perry’s then-girlfriend, Sherri Swafford. Swafford took an intense dislike to Margaret Olmstead and demanded that she be removed from the video.
2:22 — I worked in a warehouse one summer and I can tell you that one thing you never want to do is walk backwards through a maze of palettes.
2:29 — Do you think Steve Smith likes foosball?
2:34 — The members of Journey jumping back and forth and singing while Margaret ignores them is my favorite part of the video.
3:04 — What did they do to Steve’s drums?
3:37 — As if the video hadn’t already flown off the rails, here’s a few minutes of gratuitous slow motion.
4:15 — Say what you will about the video, no one could belt it out like Steve Perry.
4:18 — It was all a dream! That explains so much.
In 1999, MTV named this video as the 13 worst video of all time.
00:12 — Newlyweds speeding on a curvy mountain road? What could go wrong?
00:23 — There go the brakes!
00:31 — That sharp turn will look familiar to anyone who has ever seen the Duke boys outrun old Roscoe.
00:36 — It’s true what they say. Right before you die, you hear the opening of a bad 80s song.
00:50 — I’ve gotten worst cuts from bumping my head on a low doorway.
00:57 — Dude, did you just leave your wife behind in the car?
00:59– This is Winger. Kip Winger got his start as a backup musician and was a member of Alice Cooper for two years. Until Nirvana changed the face of music, Winger was responsible for some of the most generic hits of the 1980s.
01:21 — How long until we get a shot of the man sitting alone on that same swing?
01:32 — “Look, I’m spinning around with my guitar! Just like we did in practice!”
01:50 — “I remember how much we loved this wall.”
01:59 — It took 37 seconds to go from swinging together to swinging alone.
02:08 — Nobody came to the wedding but she’s going to go ahead and throw the bouquet anyway.
02:20 — It might be easier for the first responders to do their job if Winger would get out of the way.
02:46 — GUITAR!
03:07 — “My wife’s dead. Time to learn how to play an instrument!”
03:15 — Watch out, he’s driving again.
03:22 — Did he ever figure out why his brakes out went out in the first place? This might be a case for Jim Rockford.
03:36 — They still haven’t put out the fire? Is this what my tax dollars are paying for?
03:38 — I would be pissed off too. Put out the damn fire!
03:58 — That dude cannot drive.
04:12 — How does he keep doing this shit without getting a scratch on him?
04:27 — “How am I going to get home?”
To call Winger a “hair metal” band is probably an insult to hair metal bands but they did have a few hits. They also got on the nerves of Metallica’s Lars Ulrich and Mike Judge, the creator of Beavis and Butthead.
Whale was a Swedish alternative band, made up for Gordon Cyrus, Henrik Schyffert, and Cia Berg. During the mid-90s, they were big in Europe while, in America, they were best known for this video.
00:00 — When we first see Whale, they’re performing in the type of gravel pit that should be familiar to anyone who has ever watched any Tom Baker-era episodes of Doctor Who.
00:31 — What’s Cia Berg doing right here?
00:55 — Check out Henrik Schyffert walking like an Egyptian.
01:14 — YASSSSSS! ROCK!
01:17 — This moment here is the reason why Beavis and Butt-Head loved this video.
02:03 — WON’T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN!?
02:17 — ROCK!
2:35 — Cia looks dangerous.
3:00 — Henrik’s trying to save the children.
3:26 — YEAH!
When this video was first released, there was a lot of confusion as to what was meant by Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe. Everyone knew what a hobo and a babe were. Everyone understood humpin’. But what did slobo mean? According to the band, they misheard the British term “sloane.” A sloane is a type of fashionable, upper class person. I guess that means this song is about a rich girl who likes to hump hobos.
Mark Pellington won the inaugural MTV Europe Music Video Award for best video for Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe. Whale broke up in 1999, though all three members remain active on the Swedish entertainment scene.
Through the Shattered Lens 