Category Archives: Music

Music Video of the Day: The Other Side by Public Service Broadcasting (2015, dir by Rafe Gibbons)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Yes, I’m a little bit late in posting today’s music video of the day. Sorry, the Texas Office of Through the Shattered Lens got hit by some bad weather last night and this morning! Plus, yesterday, I was going on about 90 minutes of sleep so just the fact that I’m semi-coherent right now is probably something of a minor miracle.

Anyway, allow me to make up to you with this video for Public Service Broadcasting’s inspiring tribute to space exploration, The Other Side! Yes, those are the voices of actual NASA engineers and astronauts, experiencing the dark side of the moon for the very first time. This is from PSB’s album, Race for Space.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Dream On by Aerosmith (1993, directed by Marty Callner)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Dream On has been one of Aerosmith’s signature tunes since the band’s early days in the 70s but it didn’t get its own music video until 1993, when it was included on the soundtrack for Last Action Hero.

You may remember Last Action Hero as being the notorious box office disappointment that forced Arnold Schwarzenegger to start thinking about what he might be interested in doing if his film career ever came to an end (like entering politics, perhaps). It was also one of the first films to show Hollywood that Aerosmith’s music can literally be plugged into almost any scene in any movie. Despite its reputation, Last Action Hero is not that bad. The F. Murray Abraham cameo alone is worth the price of admission.

This video is made up of footage that was shot for MTV’s 10-year anniversary celebration in 1991. It was directed by Marty Callner, who directed music videos for everyone in the 90s.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: I Started A Joke by Bee Gees (1968, directed by Jean-Christophe Averty)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“This is a very spiritual song. The listeners have to interpret it themselves – trying to explain it would detract from the song.”

— Robin Gibb on I Started A Joke

“When he passed away we went out, they took the equipment away and we came back in. I picked up my phone and found ‘I Started A Joke’ on YouTube and played it. I put the phone on his chest and that was the first time I broke down. I knew that song and its lyrics were perfect for that moment. That song will always have new meaning to me now.”

— Robin-Jon Gibb, son of Robin Gibb, discussing his father’s death

Of course, this song really isn’t about a joke. Instead, it’s told from the point of view of someone who has unintentionally said something so wrong and/or offensive that it has lost him all of his friends. When he tries to laugh it off, they get upset at him for not taking it seriously. When he gets upset over being abandoned, they laugh at his pain.

This music video, from 1968, features Robin Gibb singing the song while surrounded by laughter, tears, and questions marks. The video was filmed in Brussels by French television director Jean-Christophe Averty and originally aired as a part of the Idea TV Special, a Bee Gees-centered program that aired in Europe.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Apollo 9 by Adam Ant (1984, directed by Daniel Kleinman)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Apollo 9 is a part of what has been referred to as being Adam Ant’s “Rockers in Space” phase. Though the album on which it appeared was not one of Ant’s more commercially successful offerings, Apollo 9 was a hit in the UK.

This video was directed by Daniel Kleinman, a British commercial director who has also directed music videos for just about everyone. Kleinman has also designed the title sequence for every James Bond film since Goldeneye.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Workin’ For A Livin’ by Huey Lewis and the News (1982, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

If you go to YouTube, one of the comments under this video simply states, “Huey Lewis was the 80s.” It’s a simple statement but it’s also a true statement. For better or worse, Huey Lewis and the News epitomize an era. Personally, I think they may be one of the most underrated bands of the decade. They turned being a bar band into an art form, with songs that were both unpretentious and instantly catchy.

A lot of people make fun of them as a result of how Bret Easton Ellis used them in American Psycho but what they miss is that Ellis didn’t make fun of the band as much as he made fun of the depths that Patrick Bateman went to find some sort of hidden meaning in their straight-forward and always transparently sincere music.

Speaking of being straight forward, that’s a good description of both this song and this video. This is Huey Lewis showing that they didn’t need a bunch of gimmicks to rock. They just needed a stage.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Love Again by Dua Lipa (2021, dir by ????)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

I’m a Texas girl so I loved this.  Admittedly, I’ve never ridden on a mechanical bull but I have seen a few and I’ve seen more than a few people get thrown off of them.  They’re a bit scary looking and I’m already accident-prone enough without tempting fate.  Still, I admire anyone who tries.  

(And, as scary as mechanical bulls are, they are nowhere near as scary as real bulls.)

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Footsteps in The Dark, covered by Cannons (2021, dir by Ryan Rundle)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

As I write this, we’ve got a nice thunderstorm going down here in Dallas. Thunder. Lightning. Pounding rain. Lights flashing on and off. It’s very atmospheric and so is this music video! So, it only makes sense to pick it for today’s music video of the day!

This is a cover of an Isley Brothers song. It’s good night music.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Ghosts by Desire (2021, dir by Kirill Nong)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

This wonderfully atmospheric video is basically a mini-movie. I’m sure some would argue that you could say the same thing about all music videos but this video especially has the feel of being a wonderful feature length-film that happens to just have a 3-minute run time.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: A Song for Donny Hathaway by The Whispers (1979, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

With this song, The Whispers paid tribute to the legendary soul singer Donny Hathaway, who was best-known for songs like “The Ghetto”, “This Christmas”, “Someday We’ll All Be Free”, and “Little Ghetto Boy” and for his collaborations with Roberta Flack. Tragically, Hathaway, who struggled with depression and who was diagnosed as being paranoid schizophrenic in 1971, committed suicide in 1979 but his music and influence lives on. The Whispers were one of the many groups to pay tribute to Hathaway after his death.

This video is a simple performance clip, as the majority of music videos were in the days before MTV.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Night and Day by U2 (1990, directed by Wim Wenders)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Since I’ve already shared the videos that were made for Annie Lennox’s and David Byrne’s contributions to the Red, Hot + Blue compilation album, it seems appropriate to share the best known cover and video to come out of that project. With Night and Day, U2 not only provide their own spin on Cole Porter’s best-known song but they also introduced the sound that would define them throughout the 90s. This was the first song of U2’s post-Joshua Tree era.

The video was directed by the German director, Wim Wenders. U2 would subsequently provide songs for Wenders’s Until The End Of The World and Far Away So Close. Bono would also produce and provide the story for The Million Dollar Hotel, one of Wenders’s less regarded films.

Enjoy!