In 2006, as a part of their 20th anniversary celebration, Poison recorded a cover of We’re An American Band and also released this music video, which is made up of behind-the-scenes footage of Poison recording the song and also archival footage from the band’s Glam metal heyday.
After all these years, Poison still occasionally play and tour together and they seem to have accepted their status as a nostalgia act with more grace than many of the other bands from the hair metal era. Even back in the 80s, when they were huge, Poison seemed to have a more down to Earth attitude about stardom than many of their contemporaries. You wouldn’t necessarily expect it from the music they were performing at the time but their interview was one of the highlights of Penelope Spheeris’s The Decline of Western Civilization Part II. Unlike some other performers, they stayed focused on having a good time and making the type of music that they wanted to hear and, as a result, they have the type of fan loyalty that many American bands could only hope for.
The 1977 film, Abba: The Movie, is really two movies in one.
One of the movies, and the one that will probably most appeal to fans of the group, is a cinema verité-style look at ABBA touring Australia. This part of the movie not only features the band playing their best-known songs in concert but it also features some behind-the-scenes footage of the members of ABBA trying to enjoy their time Australia. They struggle to adjust to Australian culture and the English language. Agnetha Fältskog complains about the way the tabloids focus on her body as opposed to her singing. The emphasis is on the members of ABBA being down-to-Earth and friendly professionals who love making music but who, even more importantly, love hanging out together and making their fans happy.
The second movie is about an Australian DJ named Ashley Wallace (Robert Hughes) who is ordered to get an interview with ABBA before they leave the continent. It won’t prove easy. For one thing, Ashley really isn’t sure who ABBA is, beyond knowing that they’re a famous pop band. (Ashley’s musical tastes seem to learn towards country and western.) Secondly, ABBA is always surrounded by a mob of fans and bodyguards and it’s very difficult to get close enough to even ask them for an interview. Third, ABBA distrusts reporters, especially after the tabloids print a bunch of salacious articles about Agnetha. Fourth, Ashley is an idiot.
Seriously, Ashley is his own worst enemy. If ABBA heads to the west, you can be sure that Ashley will catch the next train heading east. Even when Ashley does finally manage to talk to ABBA’s manager and schedule an interview, he ends up oversleeping and missing his appointment! Seriously, just think about this. Ashley has been told that his entire future depends on getting an interview with ABBA, a task that soon proves to be nearly impossible. Then, when Ashley finally manages to get a chance to conduct this all-important interview, it doesn’t occur to him to set his alarm to wake him up early. There’s a word for that type of behavior and that word is “stupidity.”
As he struggles to get some time with ABBA, Ashley also takes time to interview people on the street about the opinion of ABBA. Surprise! Almost everyone loves ABBA! I guess that’s to be expected, considering that the movie is named after them. It would probably be counter-productive to have Ashley interview a bunch of people who can’t stand ABBA and would rather be listening to Led Zeppelin. (There are a few people who tell Ashley that they don’t like ABBA but they’re all losers.) Ashley spends so much time talking to people who love ABBA that he soon comes to love ABBA and appreciate their music as well. He even has a series of fantasy and daydreams. He imagines that the two men in ABBA are his best friends. He dreams of being loved by the two women in ABBA. Through Ashley, the audience is provided a view of how one goes from being indifferent to being a fan.
But most viewers won’t care about Ashley. They’ll be watching for ABBA. The performances are strong. The members of the band seem to truly enjoy being on stage and interacting with their fans. Interestingly, the members of ABBA are likable but a bit bland off-stage. They’re people who truly come alive when they’re performing but who are much more subdued and down-to-Earth offstage. Indeed, it almost seems as if Ashley is wasting his time trying to get an interview. In this film, to watch ABBA perform on stage is to know all that you need to know.
This song from Madness is about walking and standing in the rain so, of course, the music video features the members of the band wrecking havoc in Suggs’s ear and Lee Thompson with a rocket strapped onto his back. The video also features several fans of the band hanging out withe Madness and a clever parody of Bob Dylan’s music video for Subterranean Homesick Blues.
The store at the start of the video was “Holts,” a shoe shop in Camden Town. The name of the store has since been changed to British Boot Company.
Who directed this video? I can not find a credited director but Dave Robinson seems like a good suspect since he directed the majority of Madness’s early videos and this video does have the same light-hearted style that he brought to his other videos for the band. But Madness also worked with other directors during this period, including Nigel Dick and Chris Gabrin so who knows for sure?
It’s Britney on the beach! This video was controversial when it was first released. It seems rather tame now.
This video was directed by photographer Herb Ritts and Britney’s boyfriend was played by French model Brice Durand. Supposedly, neither Justin Timberlake nor Lynne Spears were happy with this video. Lynne felt it was too explicit and Justin apparently had an issue with Britney kissing another guy, even though Britney was just acting, it was just for the music video, and it’s not as if Justin wasn’t messing around behind Britney’s back.
Today’s music video has a very ominous atmosphere to it. In fact, the feeling that I got, while watching it, was that it was taking place maybe a day or two before the end of the world. That’s appropriate, considering that the name of the song’s record label is Nuclear Blast Records.
Speaking of nuclear blasts, I’m thinking of following the lead of someone who I saw on TikTok and becoming a self-employed nuclear disarmament consultant. I don’t know that I would be all that good at the job but it sounds like I would have fun finding out. I imagine that I would start the day by calling up world leaders and saying, “Have you disarmed yet?” I know I’m at least half-as-smart as that woman on TikTok so …. I mean, how hard can it be?
If only there was a movie that could educate me about nuclear missiles and stuff….
AGCK! Okay, maybe I should just leave that job up to the experts….
Last night, my sisters and I watched and very much enjoyed Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning. In honor of those 3 hours of sisterly bonding, here is the great Tomoyasu Hotei performing the Mission Impossible theme song.
It’s late and I have to be up early tomorrow so I’m just going to let you know that today’s music video of the day is from The Marias, a band featuring lead singer Maria Zardoya and her partner, drummer Josh Conway. I always like the fact that the entire band is like, “We are all Maria’s,” as opposed to doing something like, “Maria and The Three Notes” or something.
Through the Shattered Lens