Music Video of the Day: Missionary Man by Eurythmics (1986, directed by Willy Smax)


I always assumed that Missionary Man was meant to be a specific attack on people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell but, according to Annie Lennox, this song was actually inspired by her brief marriage to Radha Raman, a devout Hare Krishna.  The missionary man of the title is meant to represent anything or anyone that demands total and unquestioning belief, whether it’s the leader of a cult or a televangelist.  Still, when the song and this video originally came out, it was controversial because many interpreted it as specifically being an attack specifically on Christianity as opposed to an attack on fanaticism in general.  Regardless of how you interpret it, it’s still a rocking song.

This video came out shortly after the monster success of the video for Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer.  Stop motion animation was all the rage.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: What Have I Done To Deserve This? by Pet Shop Boys and Dusty Springfield (1987, directed by Eric Watson)


“Someone who’s in this relationship that they know they shouldn’t be in. It’s this dysfunctional relationship, and they don’t have the strength to get out. And ‘what have I, what have I, what have I done to deserve this?’ – there’s a real sense that they shouldn’t be there, but they’re basically a slave to this obsessive love. It’s one of the few songs of mine that is about that but doesn’t turn itself around and go, ‘I’m leaving here, screw you, go make someone else miserable.’ Usually I don’t just leave it at ‘what have I done to deserve this,’ but it felt right for the group, so that’s what it was.”

— Allee Willis, co-writer of What Have I Done To Deserve This?

Though this song may be out a toxic relationship, I always think of it as being about the showgirl taking off her glasses before going out to dance on stage.  That’s the power of a good music video.

This video was directed by Eric Watson, who spent most of his music video career working with Pet Shop Boys, though he also did videos for Samantha Fox, Rod Stewart, and Debbie Harry.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) by Pet Shop Boys (1985, directed by Zbigniew Rybczyński)


Yesterday, I shared the first video for Opportunities.

Today. I’m sharing the second version.  The second version was released after the song itself was remixed and re-recorded.  This is the version that subsequently became a hit for the Pet Shop Boys.  This is the version that is currently being unironically used by Allstate in their commercials.

(As much as I complain about this song being used by Allstate, it did lead to both Opportunities and West End Girls reentering the charts.)

The director of this video is the Polish artist and filmmaker, Zbigniew Rybczyński.  Before directing this video, he won the 1982 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film for Tango.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) by Pet Shop Boys (1985, directed by Andy Morahan and Eric Watson)


First off, a big thank you to Lisa for covering the past few days!

“It’s a simple message isn’t it? ‘I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks, let’s make lots of money.’ A very insensitive thing that was meant to be a satire of Thatcherism. Actually, we’d written the Thatcherite anthem. But it’s very difficult to think, now, that there was a period before money culture. That was the changing moment. It wasn’t even an original thing to say because it was at the same time as Loadsamoney, Harry Enfield. It was that period where suddenly one’s sensitive left-wing soul was shocked by everything being about money. Now, of course, generations have grown that haven’t known anything else.”

— Neil Tennant

It’s amazing how things can get misinterpreted.  I remember when I was a kid, Mercedes used Janis Joplin singing, “Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz” in their commercials.  It used to drive my father crazy because the whole point of the song was that a Mercedes wasn’t a big deal and it was foolish to act like the car you drove had anything to do with your worth as a human being.

Right now, the song in today’s music video of the day is being used in an Allstate Commercial!  Of course, in the commercial, all you hear is “Let’s make lots of money!”  The commercial doesn’t include any of the lyrics that indicate that the singer is basically looking for someone who is dumb but good-looking so that he can be exploited.

There were two music videos for this song.  This is the first one and it leaves no doubt what the point of the song actually is.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Artifacts by Karate, Guns & Tanning (2021, dir by Andrew Knives)


You run and you run and you run and where do you end up?  You just end up still running.  This video appeals to my existential side, which is probably why I like it so much.  The whole grainy retro feel, combined with the run through the universe makes this entire video feel like sort of existential daydream.  Keep running because who knows where you’ll eventually end up.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: You Get In My Way by Ali Barter (2021, dir by Bryce Padovan)


When I first saw this, I have to admit that I misread the title as being “You got in my way” and, since I suck at understanding lyrics, I assumed that this song was about a hit-and-run accident or something like that.  Like maybe Ali was explaining that it was unfortunate that she ran you over but she was driving home at four in the morning and she was a little distracted and then you just happened to step off the curb.  Seriously — what were you thinking!?

Actually, though, this is song is abut Ali singing about a boy who seems to be perfect but who still kind of cramps her style.  She’s got the stability of a relationship but sometimes, that stability gets in the way of her just doing what she wants to do.  Is she sacrificing her freedom?  It’s a legitimate question and one to which I think any former or current wild child can relate.

As for the video, I like it.  It’s simple but fun.

Enjoy and stay out the way!

Music Video of the Day: Nyx by Laurence-Anne (2021, dir by Joey Desjardins)


Hi, everyone!  I’m in charge of “music video of the day” for this week so let’s get things started with this trippy little video from Laurence-Anne.

Basically, you remember those big bulky computers that everyone used to have?  Well, judging from this video, it’s a pretty good thing that we got rid of the because they’ll cause you to sucked into a maze and then melt away.  Seriously, everyone …. melting is just not worth it.  While I personally don’t know anyone who has melted, I imagine that it would be a pretty difficult thing to come back from.  You melt and you can pretty much say goodbye to whatever future plans you may have had.

With that in mind, enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: No Money Down by Lou Reed (1988, directed by Godley and Creme)


“Lou decided to get Godley and Creme to do the video for ‘Video Violence’ with these robots. Then the label decided to change single, but Lou didn’t want to waste the robots, so you had this great clever pop song with a video of this robot tearing its own face off… MTV debuted it, and then we got a call saying people were complaining that their video was making kids cry.”

— Lou Reed’s bassist Fernando Saunders on the music video for No Money Down

That pretty much says it all.  How many young viewers were traumatized by the discovery that Lou Reed was a terminator?  I can’t imagine that the man between Metal Machine Music minded too much.

Enjoy!