Category Archives: Music

Music Video of the Day: It’s Me by Alice Cooper (1994, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Is Alice Cooper haunting her dreams or has she been hypnotized?  According to this song’s Wikipedia page, this video received “virtually no airplay” on MTV.  1994 was at the height of MTV’s embrace of grunge and also the beginning of Britpop so I guess Alice Cooper was not high on the channel’s radar.

This song appeared on Alice Cooper’s 13th solo album, The Last Temptation.  All of the songs on the album dealt with a mysterious showman and his attempts to get a boy named Steven to join his traveling show.  At least some parts of the video feature Alice in character as the showman.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Garden by Guns N’ Roses (1993, directed by Del James)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This was one of the few Guns N’ Roses’s videos to not get heavy play on MTV, perhaps because all of the members of the band appear to be either depressed or under the influence.  Black-and-white shots of the sleaziest parts of New York are mixed with color footage of strippers.  The video makes 1993 New York look so dangerous that it could almost be a Rudy Guiliani campaign commercial.

(Of course, we all know that it wasn’t New Yorkers fear of crime that elected Guiliani.  It was their anger over Yogurt that falsely claimed to be low fat.)

Alice Cooper and the late Shannon Hoon can be heard providing background vocals on this song.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: West End Girls by Pet Shop Boys (1984, directed by Eric Watson and Andy Morohan)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Is Chris Lowe a ghost in this video?

He better be, just so I can justify picking this video during our annual Shattered Lens Horrorthon. 

Neil Tennant and his ghost friend go for walk through London.  Among the sights that we see: Waterloo Station, Tower Bridge, West Minster, the South Bank, Leicester Square, and a protest outside the South African Embassy.  (This video was filmed at a time when South Africa was still ruled by Apartheid.)  Both Fletch and Desperately Seeking Susan are playing at a cinema.

This was the video that first introduced the US to the Pet Shop Boys.  Watching it makes me nostalgic for London.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: CantSpeak by Danzig (1994, directed by Fred Stuhr)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This song is from Danzig 4.  

The guitar tracks in CantSpeak are actually the guitar tracks for another song, Let It Be Captured, played backwards.  This was inspired by the frequent accusations that Danzig hid Satanic messages in their songs that could only be heard if you played the song backwards.  I don’t hear any secret messages in CantSpeak but the guitar tracks sound good.

In this video, Glenn and the band appear to be trapped in a cast-iron stomach.  It’s just another day for Danzig.  Real-life monsters, like Charles Manson and Saddam Hussein, also makes cameo appearances as Danzig performs.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Writing On The Wall by Iron Maiden (2021, directed by Nicos Livesey)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

According to Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson, this song and video are “all wrapped up in a lot of messages about greed and the destruction of the planet, with the top one-percenters sitting in their shiny castles, leaving everyone else outside to rot on a dying planet. It’s meant to be pretty on the nose about the current planetary situation”.

Taking place in a dystopian future in which the British slavishly follow behind the Americans while other world leaders ride atop nuclear missiles that are pulled by their slaves, it is fair to say that this video is “on the nose.”  Fortunately, Eddie and the Four Bikers of the Apocalypse aren’t going to step to the side, especially not when there are people in ragged Iron Maiden shirts dying in the desert.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Hey Stoopid by Alice Cooper (1991, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Hey Stoopid is the title track off of Alice Cooper’s 12th solo studio album.  The song is about drug abuse and suicide, with Alice telling his listeners to stay off drugs, to “put the gun down,” and that rock and roll isn’t about being self-destructive.  Alice Cooper even sings, “You ain’t living in a video.”  (Thought he did struggle with alcohol and it would probably shock many of the people who criticized him during his 70s heyday, Alice Cooper has always been anti-drug.)  Slash plays guitar on the track while Ozzy Osbourne provided backing vocals.

The music videos is a mix of live action, animations, and Alice Cooper performing with a skull.  I wouldn’t mind spending a day in Alice Cooper Land.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: You Could Be Mine by Guns N’ Roses (1991, directed by Andy Morahan, Stan Winston and Jeffrey Abelson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In this video, Arnold Schwarzenegger is sent to the past to eliminate Guns N’ Roses but ultimately decides that it would be a waste of ammo.  Obviously, he knew that fulfilling his mission would change history and the world would never get to hear Chinese Democracy.

This song (and this video) were used to promote Terminator 2: Judgement Day.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Numb by Pet Shop Boys (2006, directed by Julian Gibbs and Chris Sayer)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

According to the band, the music video for Numb was meant to be an homage to Russian constructivist cinema and the video does have the look of the old propaganda films that were put into production during the early days of the Soviet Union.  The video also begins with what appears to be the sinking of the Titanic before moving onto all of the other tragedies that occurred around the same time.  It may not be a “Halloween song” but the video does have a horror aesthetic.

Numb, itself, is a song that was often played whenever the UK was dealing with a tragedy, like being eliminated from the World Cup.

Enjoy!