In this video, Megadeth performs behind a wire fence while their fans attempt to get to the band. It doesn’t have much to do about the song, which is about a man sneaking back into his house after cheating on his girlfriend. But it probably is a fair representation of what it was like to be in a popular thrash metal band in the 80s.
Directing this video was Penelope Spheeris, who has previously celebrated metal in the documentary, The Decline of Wester Civilization Part II. Spheeris would later direct the film for which she is best remembered, Wayne’s World.
Superstitious was the first single to be released from Europe’s fourth studio album, Out of this World. Out of this World was released in 1990. One album later, Europe would go on a temporary hiatus as grunge and then generic pop replaced Europe’s style of metal as MTV’s favorite style of music. The band reunited in 2003 and has since released six more albums. Europe rocks!
This video for Superstitious was filmed in Long Island, New York. The video was directed by Nick Morris, who was a very busy video director in the 80s and the 90s. He also did the video for Europe’s best-known song, The Final Countdown.
Best known for being discovered and initially promoted by Bon Jovi, Cinderella had their biggest hit with Don’t Know What You Got Till It’s Gone. This song made it up to number 12 on the charts in 1986, proving that there was a market of listeners who were eager for overly sensitive hair metal.
The video was shot at Mono Lake, a California lake that is well-known for the large amount of salt that has accumulated in the water. (It has to be known for something, I guess.) This video was directed by Nick Morris, who also directed the video for Europe’s The Final Countdown.
I met My Dolphin 15 years ago. It was Christmas Day at Kitty Hawk. I didn’t have any kids yet and the presents were done. I was not hungover; those sorts of mornings happened later. It was a nice Christmas; in contrast to my Christmases growing up- they were very scary because of my Old Man. He would try to stay out of his cups for some holidays and that was always much much worse. I remember wishing that he would just drink and get it over with. Christmas Day back in those days were like distilled fear; I’d get smacked around and go for long walks in Virginia until late afternoon broke and my Old Man’s no drinking pledge would subside.
I was older now, but I still got anxious Christmas morning and liked to go for those walks alone. I needed to feel that wind . . . that cold December wind brace against my cheeks. On Christmas, Kitty Hawk has grey skies and bitter salty winds in beautiful abundance. I liked the way the wind smacked me around safely.
I left the beach house front door, shut it smartly, and remembered to lock it and check it. You can’t trust locks and doors at the Outer Banks the rust and decay is ubiquitous and the salt blows through everything like alpha particles clumsily meandering in space toward wherever they want to go. My shoes made that scraping sound where the salt and sand and shoes come together. I turned and looked ahead to the Dunes that I’d crossed thousands of times. There’s always these openings along the beach road that takes you along the length of island, until the next bridge, and the next barrier island and the next and the next. I always entered to the left entrance where it’s filled with countless footprints no matter what time of day; the wooden entrances just don’t have the same feel. I always looked both ways first, not for cars but to see just how empty it was both along the left and right. I went up and down the Dune entrance, seeing the ocean with that green color it has.
I was about to exhale, but then I heard the screams.
I saw a man trying to pull a beached dolphin back into the ocean. It was low tide and he would be pulling and then the dolphin would roll back to shore. Then, I was upon the man and breathing deeply. I had run at a sprint without thinking. The Man was skinny and no older than 30 with a full beard with beat up jeans and a wool sweater. He grabbed me and had tears in his eyes.
“Help!” “I can’t get him in! I already called emergency marine life, but they’re not answering.”
I grabbed the rear fin – (assume that what it’s called), the man grabbed around his center, and we dragged the dolphin towards the water. We were losing our footing. I remember digging against the wet sand, pulling as hard as we all could. His skin was rubbery, but rough from the sand. He tried to help us by bucking to get back into the sea. His blood was on my hands and washed away. With a pull of all of our strength, the Man, the dolphin, and I fell into the mini-shelf where ocean, sand, and pebbles met. The waves would hit and push us all back. This pattern went on ’til our hands were numb and our clothes were heavy and soaked. Every step was like fighting through foot deep wet snow. Finally, the three of us were exhausted.
I pulled the dolphin to the beach by myself; the Man told me that he was going for help, but we knew he wasn’t coming back because he couldn’t meet our eyes. I hugged My Dolphin and looked into his eyes- they had clear awareness and thought; that’s when I knew that for the first time in my life that I was going to have to help a person die.
My Dolphin was so scared. He wasn’t bucking or squirming anymore; we were too tired for that. He was in my arms and looked at me pleadingly. I shook my head, held my tears in, and told My Dolphin- “You’re gonna be okay. You’re gonna be okay.”
He sighed, looked away for a moment at the sea, and looked back at me- calmly. His eyes were telling me that it was going to be okay. My Dolphin died in my arms. Then, I let myself weep.
I’m sure that he had a name among his family, but I’ve always called him My Dolphin that is who he is and will remain to me. We all die, but My Dolphin passed in the arms of another person who loved him. We were gonna be okay…. we were gonna be okay.
Before Tawny Kitaen became famous for appearing in Whitesnake videos, she dated Robbin Crosby, the lead guitarist of Ratt. Those are Kitaen’s legs on the cover of Ratt’s first self-titled album. Decorating those amazing legs with high heels and rats results in a classic 80s music image.
The video below is for one of the songs from that album, You Think You’re Tough. You Think You’re Tough was Ratt’s first single and was released with a cover version of Rufus Thomas’s Walking The Dog. The video keeps things simple, highlighting the band’s musicianship and saying, “These guys can really play!”
In Atlas, Rise!, Metallica sings about having the weight of the world on your shoulders and refusing to let it hold you down. No matter how much Atlas has to carry, he will always rise and so will Metallica.
The video keeps things simple, focusing on the band’s skill. The video was directed by Clark Eddy, who has also directed videos for Sublime, Crash Test Dummies, and Kid Rock. Most of Eddy’s credits, though, are as an editor. As an editor, he has worked on videos for Dua Lipa, Rihanna, Destiny’s Child, Iggy Pop, and Pitbull. That is quite a collection.
In the year 2000, Iron Maiden proved that they still had it with a song based on the movie The Wicker Man. The song became one of their late career hits, earning the band another Grammy nomination. This was the first song that the band rehearsed after the return of Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith. Dickinson later said the song was an attempt to capture the feeling of being on stage and watching the audience chant along to what you’re singing.
This video features the band performing the song live in 2012, in Santiago, Chile. An earlier video, which was released at the same time as the song and which was directed by Dean Karr, featured the band performing the song on a stage while a fire raged behind them.
Yes, that is Slayer rocking out at the base of the Sphinx.
For their very first music video, Slayer traveled to Egypt. At the time the video was shot, Iraq had just invaded Kuwait and the world was on the verge of war. Despite all of the tension in the region, the members of Slayer said that they were warmly received by both the citizens of Egypt and the American soldiers who were preparing for Operation Desert Storm. The Egyptian government was so eager to show that it wasn’t anti-American that it allowed Slayer access that the band might not have otherwise been given. At the same time, back in the United States, the Satanic moral panic was still in force and Slayer was being accused of leading its fans into lives of sin and decadence. Slayer was promoting diplomacy while Tipper Gore was still playing records backwards.
The video for this fan favorite was shot around what was then West Berlin. (This was before the wall came down.) Clive Richardson had also directed the video for Just Can’t Get Enough and the band turned to him, after previously working with Julian Temple, because they felt that Richardson could visually toughen up their image and help the band move away from the more self-consciously artsy style that Julian Temple had attempted to go with. The end result was a video that quickly went into regular rotation on MTV and a song that proved to be one of Depeche Mode’s most enduring hits.
Through the Shattered Lens 