Category Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: The Killing Moon by Echo & The Bunnymen (1984, dir. Brian Griffin)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Today in the US, we are supposed to get an incredible Supermoon. I thought I would take the opportunity to spotlight The Killing Moon by Echo & The Bunnymen.

Depending on your age, you might remember this song from different places. Older audiences were there when it was released, but younger audiences remember it from Donnie Darko (2001). Or you could be like me, and be somewhere in the middle. I caught it on the radio at some point between its release and Donnie Darko.

There’s an article over at The Guardian where they had Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant talk about the song.

I don’t have anything really to say. It’s your typical artsy Echo & The Bunnymen music video except with what is arguably their best song. When I watch it I see fate/God personified as someone in black and red standing on what I assume is supposed to be the RMS Titanic. There are what I imagine are baptismal waters. I also see cards that tie back in with fate.

I am sure both the song and the music video have other Biblical references as well, but McCulloch himself told Uncut magazine–about the song–that you don’t need to have read the Bible to “get as much out of it.”

Brian Griffin directed this music video. He’s made a few music videos over the years. He seems to be best known as a photographer, which isn’t much of a surprise. Echo & The Bunnymen were best known for the music videos they made with Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn. This just wasn’t one of them. Corbijn would go on to direct a music video for Depeche Mode, which is funny because that’s the other group that hired Corbijn to direct most of their music videos. It all connects. By that I mean that even God in the song comes round to the director. The director’s name is the same as Brian Griffin from Family Guy, who is a dog, and dog spelled backwards is God. There’s a weird connection I didn’t expect to come across. He appears to still be working in photography today. You can find a short article about his “best shot” over at The Guardian. You can also see pictures/album covers he took with the band on his website.

One last thing to mention is that you might notice the chords are derived from the ones used in David Bowie’s Space Oddity. The lyrics for Europe’s song The Final Countdown were inspired by the same Bowie song. I didn’t think these two music videos I have featured in the past few days would connect to each other, but there you go.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Mexican Radio by Wall Of Voodoo (1983, dir. Francis Delia)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I’d like to commemorate suddenly finding my TV on a Spanish-language station a few days ago that I didn’t know existed where a guy was cutting an apple in his mouth using a chainsaw. That’s a thing that happened when I was simply trying to switch between movies on my DVR.

Ah, good old Mexican Radio by Wall of Voodoo. This is right up there with songs like Safety Dance and Come On Eileen as the stereotypical 80s one-hit wonder. It’s fun, catchy, and a genuinely good song. There’s one problem though. Just like many SNL sketches, I don’t see how this was supposed to translate into a career. Of course I thought of that, and then I had to look into what happened to them.

After this song, they basically broke up the band. I say basically because some of the members continued under that name even though lead singer Stan Ridgway had left the band and went solo. They would even go on to do at least one other music video for a song called Far Side of Crazy. It’s pretty good. I’ll have to do that one someday. I also found out that Westerns were a theme with them beyond just this one song and the video for it that they shot in Tijuana. You can find them doing a cover of Ring of Fire. However, at the end of the day, it’s not really something I see as sustainable. It’s more of a novelty than anything else. Ridgway on the other hand, is sustainable. I hope the video is still up. Here is Ridgway performing his song Camouflage in 2015.

This stuff works for a solo artist. I get why it flopped for an entire group. I could probably go into more detail about what happened to the group, but I don’t need to do that because there is an interview with Ridgway over on Songfacts where he explains it.

The music video is timeless. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s another one made by Francis Delia. I have done two other music videos of his so far. He has brought us a dead shark in Shooting Shark, a cooked pig for Somebody’s Watching Me, and now an iguana being barbecued. I can’t wait to see more of his music videos to see if this is a recurring thing like rocking chairs are in Anton Corbijn videos.

Oh, and that is Carel Struycken near the end as the director.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: In My Darkest Hour by Megadeth (1988, dir. Penelope Spheeris)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I sound like a broken record every time I say this, but there isn’t much to talk about here beyond it being a good song.

Even if somebody didn’t know anything about Megadeth or director Penelope Spheeris, it would make perfect sense for someone to look at this music video and think it was extracted from a documentary. I haven’t seen The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years (1988) yet. According to Songfacts, the music video was either shot before the documentary, then integrated into it, or it was part of the documentary, then extracted to be released as a music video. Either way, you’d be right to look at this and think it was from a documentary.

I like what Spheeris did here. She made a stripped down concert video that lets the band shine on their own merits rather than her work as a director. It isn’t devoid of her touch though. She clearly tried to capture them as people performing for other people rather than creating a stylish representation of the material like you would see in their music videos for Peace Sells and Sweating Bullets. The thing that subtly jumps out at me when I watch this over and over is that Mustaine is largely invisible due to the limited amount of time he is shown on stage, the sunglasses, and his face being partially darkened during parts of it. I would imagine this was done not only to visually show the darkness of the lyrics, but to keep your focus on the lyrics and how they are resonating with the crowd.

Speaking of the lyrics, this is one of those music videos that was banned from MTV. According to Wikipedia, it was due to alleged references to suicide.

According to mvdbase, the husband and wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris produced this music video. They would go on to do a lot of other famous music videos together as well as the movie Little Miss Sunshine (2006). They were also producers on The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Poison Arrow by ABC (1982, dir. Julien Temple)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I normally don’t talk about the thumbnail used on a video. However, It would be perfectly natural for someone to look at that thumbnail and think they are about to watch a music video remake of Casablanca (1942) with Martin Fry playing Bogart. It’s not too far off. I would add that it also seems to take place in a lost Rainer Werner Fassbinder film.

When I watch this music video I get the distinct feeling that I am missing previous chapters in this story of three different guys that become enraptured with the same woman. This also isn’t too far off. I haven’t listened to the whole album, called The Lexicon of Love, but I know enough to say that I am kind of missing other installments in this tale. Wikipedia tells me that while it is not a concept album, it does have repeated themes that revolve around heartache. This also makes sense seeing as several of the songs off of the album have names like The Look of Love, All of My Heart, and Valentine’s Day. A longform music video was even made called Mantrap. Still, you don’t have to have heard the whole album, or have seen the other music videos that were made for songs on the album in order to enjoy this one.

I mentioned before that there are three different characters who try to get the same woman, but I have to admit that I thought they were the same person till I read the Wikipedia article on the song. It comes across as a guy spotting a woman that he knew while watching a play, disguising himself as a singing telegram to confront her backstage, and then she comes to his nightclub where he confronts her again, only to be literally reduced to a little nothing in her life. I have no doubt that these are supposed to be three different people. I also believe that they had Martin Fry play all of them for a reason. It seems to me that the music video visually hints to the audience that the three different characters come from the same place while the song itself has all three men singing the same song that asks her to shoot the “poison arrow” to their heart. The combination of the two binds them visually and audibly. I’m not sure about the beginning and the end. I could guess, but I’ll just leave that to you. I could be completely wrong about the whole thing.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that much. It is one of the best music videos of the era whether you get exactly what they were going for or not. Director Julien Temple did an excellent job here. It’s no wonder he has done more than a hundred of them. It’s also not a surprise that when ABC decided to make a return recently, they brought Julien Temple back to direct their new music video.

As is often the case, I come to the end of one of these posts, and just as I am ready to leave, I decide to do one more Google search only to find something else worth mentioning. Since I am stubborn, I often stick it at the end where/when I found out about it anyways. Does the woman look familiar? She didn’t to me, but it’s Lisa Vanderpump who would be in several other music videos–including one for Lady Gaga–and the TV Show, The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Message of Love by The Pretenders (1981, dir. Mark Robinson)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

In the late-90s I was very dissatisfied with the state of music. As a result, I turned to older bands whose music I hadn’t explored. Numerous VH1 top-artists’ lists helped me to discover all kinds of bands I had never heard of before. One of those bands was The Pretenders. It was mainly Chrissie Hynde’s voice that I fell in love with, but the songs were excellent as well. I figured it was time to feature one of their music videos. There was no particular reason I chose this one. I am pretty sure that the music video for Brass In Pocket is their most well-known.

There isn’t that much to the music video. There are two interesting parts I noticed. The first is the opening when they all step forward from the darkness to reveal themselves. The other part is when they face each other at the microphone to hum towards each other. It reminded me of that part of the music video for ABBA’s Waterloo when Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid Lyngstad turn to sing towards each other rather than facing the audience. You see this again in ABBA’s Knowing Me, Knowing You music video. Other than those things, it is shot like you are sitting-in on a studio recording of the song. It does make things more intimate, but it also makes it difficult to say much about it other than that it is great song.

According to VH1, this was the 19th music video to air on MTV.

The director of the music video was Mark Robinson. I can find that he at least directed around 20 music videos, including several more for The Pretenders. However, his IMDb page leads me to believe that there are more, and that he may still be working in music videos today.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Warrior by Scandal (1984, dir. David Hahn)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Happy Birthday, Lisa!

I first saw this back in the early-2000s when it was played on VH1 Classic. I was hooked instantly. It seemed to take forever to end up on YouTube. It is near the top as one of my favorite bizarre 80s music videos. Patty Smyth on the other hand was not happy with it, saying in the book I Want My MTV:

“When I saw the video, I was crestfallen…I had no idea it would look like an off-Broadway production of Cats.”

I am glad she didn’t realize it would look the way it does. I don’t want to live in a world where I can’t see Patty Smyth in ridiculous hair and make-up, move in to do battle with a guy who has just fought off dancers in post-apocalyptic costumes, including appearing to have snapped a woman’s back in half. Seriously, is that what happened to the lady in pink? The music video sure makes it look like it. Even Smyth reacts like it happened. It wouldn’t be the strangest thing I have noticed while re-watching an 80s music video. If you pay close attention to the one for Karma Chameleon by Culture Club, then you’ll notice there is a split second where two guys appear to be stuffing a corpse into a wicker basket.

There are even crazier music videos featuring dance–*cough* Bonnie Tyler *cough*–but I hope this will do. It was also shot by Daniel Pearl, who others might not know by now, seems to have shot every music video under the sun, as well as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).

It was directed by David Hahn who appears to have directed this music video, and nothing else. Did Patty Smyth blackball him? I highly doubt it, but I wouldn’t have put it past her. You might not know this, but before Van Halen went to Sammy Hagar, they asked her to front the band. You can read about that here. I get why she didn’t take the job. Among other things, she said, “If I had done that, I never would have written ‘Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough.'” Still, I can hear her in my head belting out songs like Why Can’t This Be Love? and Humans Being.

Ken Walz produced it, who you might recall producing I Know What Boys Like by The Waitresses.

That’s it! I hope you have a great birthday, Lisa.

Music Video of the Day: The Final Countdown by Europe (1986, dir. Nick Morris)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

It’s Election Day! If this song can work for waiting on a burrito, then it can work today.

As for the music video, it’s your standard mid-80s concert video. They do a good job of capturing “the final countdown” itself visually, as well as that come-to-our-concert thing that was prevalent in 80s hair-metal band music videos. The concert footage was shot at two concerts at Solnahallen in Solna, Sweden on the 26th and 27th of May, 1986. They also shot some additional footage during sound checks for those concerts.

Director Nick Morris has done around 40 music videos.

Fiona O’Mahoney produced at least 19 music videos. Sadly, according to a memorial site, she passed away in 2010. It also looks like she and Nick Morris got married.

I hope you enjoy this music video on what is otherwise a very serious day.

Music Video of the Day: Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood (1984, dir. Godley & Creme)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Well, you probably all knew this was coming. It was a no-brainer. I had this picked out many months ago. It has nothing to do with Twitter going down last night amidst that Wikileaks dump or anything like that. I’m young enough to have only taken part in five US presidential elections, but have been around for numerous other ones. I can’t remember a more vicious one than the one currently coming to what may or may not be its’ end.

What can I say about this music video that it doesn’t already do an excellent job of getting across to the viewer? The version below is even more graphic than the one above. From what I understand, it is closer to the way the song was originally released. Neither of them pull any punches, so be forewarned.

The directors of the music video are Godley & Creme AKA Kevin Godley and Lol Creme. I knew of them as musicians, but didn’t know they directed music videos. They are probably best known for their song Cry, and the great music video that goes with it. What you might not know is that because of them, this music video has ties to Guardians of the Galaxy (2014). Godley & Creme were once part of a group called 10cc. One of their big hit songs was I’m Not In Love. That’s the song Peter Quill is listening to in the hospital at the beginning of the film. That also means Disney is just a couple of degrees of separation from a music video where Ronald Reagan bites Konstantin Chernenko’s ear in a wrestling match. I love connections. I also love that after tomorrow’s really obvious song for Election Day, I can return to writing about some lighter music videos for awhile.

There’s nothing more I want to say. Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: 99 Luftballons by Nena (2009, dir. Philippe Rouget)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Let’s bring Nena forward to 2009 from where we last left her off in 2002. With the release of Nena feat. Nena, she came back in the spotlight as a solo artist. The story is simple. She did well during the period of time between 2002 and 2009. She even started her own record label called The Laugh & Peas Company in 2009. I assume in order to commemorate that, she decided to make yet another version of 99 Luftballons–complete with a whole new music video. I guess every time there’s a milestone in Nena’s career, we are going to get a new version of 99 Luftballons. I have no problem with this.

Now that a little backstory is out of the way, let me say that I love this version. The original was good. The English version was quite terrible. The 2002 version was a nice retrospective, but it never felt like Nena. Just because the times change, it doesn’t automatically mean you have to radically change your sound to fit-in. This version is the original, but updated without changing her sound. I’m assuming that the reason she sings a few parts in French is because of the War in Iraq. It also ties the shoe-throwing incident with George W. Bush to the shoe-banging incident with Nikita Khrushchev by having them shown back-to-back.

One subtle thing that I want to point out, now that we’ve reached the fourth and final version of this song by Nena, is one word that is easily missed. According to Wikipedia, critic and musician Scott Miller said in his book, Music: What Happened?, something that I would have missed otherwise. It’s that the song has always used the word “kriegsminister.” It’s a German word that translates to “War Minister.” He said it suffers from the inclusion of that word. I’m not sure why. I’m sure there’s some context for that statement that isn’t on Wikipedia, but I just see it as an Easter Egg to pick up on. The last War Minister in the U.S. was Kenneth Claiborne Royall. He is famous for having been appointed to defend some Nazis that had come ashore on Long Island. He did his job essentially, but Roosevelt wanted them to be executed–the sooner the better. It still happened, but he did his best to defend against them being quickly tried and executed behind closed doors by taking it all the way to the Supreme Court. It’s kind of similar to the events Bridge of Spies (2015) is based on. He was later appointed to be War Minister by Harry S. Truman. Truman being the one who dropped the bombs that helped end WWII. The office of Minister of War ended in 1947. That’s the year when people tend to agree the Cold War started because it is when the Truman Doctrine was introduced. I don’t see the issue there since it ties in heavily with the meaning of the song, but I am probably missing something. Maybe it’s because he would go on to forced retirement in 1949 because he refused to desegregate the Army.

I like the music video quite a bit. Go ahead and put aside it showing what the lyrics mean for a minute. A good portion of what you are seeing is heavily focused on the catchy riff of the original, and not being ashamed of what Scott Miller called an “embarrassingly out-of-place disco funk interlude.” The power of the song has always been that it is a lot of fun, you can belt out the lyrics, and dance to it to your heart’s content. Yet, if you actually listen to the lyrics, they are in direct contradiction to the way the song sounds and makes you feel. For me, that is one of the reasons the song has long-lasting appeal rather than having just been a catchy hit-song from 1984. I only bring up Scott Miller because the Wikipedia article on the song does, and I happen to disagree with those particular opinions.

There are other versions of this song by other artists, including a music video for Goldfinger’s cover. However, I am done with 99 Luftballons for now. I have another music video picked out as a capstone before Election Day in the United States. Enjoy!

99 Luftballons versions:

1. 99 Luftballons by Nena (1984, dir. Bert van der Veer)
2. 99 Red Balloons by Nena (1984, dir. Bert van der Veer)
3. 99 Luftballons by Nena (2002, dir. Marcus Sternberg)

Music Video of the Day: 99 Luftballons by Nena (2002, dir. Marcus Sternberg)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I guess I should bring Nena forward from 1984 to 2002 first.

While often considered to be a one-hit wonder, they did have some success with a few other songs in German. However, you know how these things always go. One minute you are on top of the world, then your lead singer is caught with their underarms unshaven, the follow-up songs/albums don’t do well, and ultimately internal differences cause the band to come to an end.

I’m not kidding about the shaving bit. Apparently it was big news when Nena toured the UK in 1984 that her armpits weren’t shaved. A woman from continental Europe without shaved armpits is totally unheard of said no one except of course by British red-top press at the time. In response, she shaved them, and has kept them shaved ever since. She even brought it up in her mémoires when she said, “Can a girl from Hagen, who dreams of the big wide world and is in love with Mick Jagger, have no idea that girls can’t under any circumstances have hair under the arm? Yes she can. I simply had no idea!” I can’t wait to see the nonsense people wrote after watching Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus. Taking one look at that, and thinking that it generated so much buzz makes me see an animated GIF in my head of Cyndi Lauper face-palming with a poster of Wendy O. Williams of The Plasmatics behind her and holding a picture of Dale Bozzio of Missing Persons. The music video even references this armpit thing around three minutes and twenty-three seconds by giving us a clear shot of her shaved armpits.

Nena is one of those bands like Alice Cooper where people tend to think that they are seeing a solo artist when in fact the lead singer just happens to share the same name as the band. Nena the band disbanded in 1987. Nena herself went on to a solo career, but it didn’t quite come together till 2002 when an album was released to celebrate a 20th anniversary (I’m not sure what the starting date is here). That explains the existence of this music video. The album that was released was comprised of newly arranged versions of her hits from the 1980s. That brings us to 2002.

The first thing you’ll notice about this song is that it is the German version, not the English one. You’ll also notice that it is more like something you would expect from Sheryl Crow, Shania Twain, or another female pop-singer of the era. I certainly get making it sound nostalgic, but updating the sound kind of bothers me. It just doesn’t sound right to my ears.

I get pairing it with images that start empty and melancholy, then progressively get more empowering from the middle finger bit onwards. I am not sure what the deal is with the colors other than that they act as a reference to the multi-colored balloons and smoke from the original music video. If you are familiar with her songs, then you’ll notice she is walking by their titles that are on the boardwalk railing. You’ll also notice that the last song is 99 Luftballons followed by the name Nena. It’s a nice touch that I certainly missed the first time around. I was too distracted by the merry-go-round at the beginning that made me think of the cover of Dave Matthews Band’s album Under The Table And Dreaming and the black guy who is doing the Limp Bizkit Rollin’ thing with his arms. I guess since Nena is still around today it is appropriate since she has kept Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’ Rollin’.

Director Marcus Sternberg appears to have been doing music videos since the mid-90s. They seem to be mostly with European bands–probably German ones.

Enjoy!

99 Luftballons versions:

1. 99 Luftballons by Nena (1984, dir. Bert van der Veer)
2. 99 Red Balloons by Nena (1984, dir. Bert van der Veer)