Category Archives: Music

Music Video Of the Day: Missing You by John Waite (1984, directed by Kort Falkenberg III)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“The biggest thing I remember about ‘Missing You’ is that the night before I went down to Let It Rock, which was a clothes store on Melrose Avenue.  I bought a Johnson suit, this black two-piece suit from London that was a beautiful suit. Tiny. I was very thin at the time. And then I went and had all my hair shaved off. I thought, ‘If I’m going to do this, I’m going to go in whole hog, you know. I’m just going to do it flat out European.’

I showed up with a black suit and a crew cut, and it worked. I do everything on instinct, basically, and half of the time it’s a bullseye.”

— John Waite on the music video for Missing You

This video was shot in downtown Los Angeles, near Pershing Square and its popularity on MTV helped to push the song to the top of the US charts.  The song was inspired by Waite’s feelings while he was working and away from his wife.  Myself, I’ll always think about it as being the song playing on the radio while I was driving a white Cadillac across the beach in Vice City.  Unfortunately, I got so into the song that I drove the car straight into the ocean.  That was when I discovered that Tommy Vercetti couldn’t swim.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Burning Heart by Survivor (1985, directed by Jerry Kramer)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This song was written for Rocky IV.  Survivor also did Eye of the Tiger, which was the anthem for Rocky III so it only made sense to approach them to contribute a training song for Rocky IV.  Burning Heart may not be as classic of a song as Eye of the Tiger but there’s no way Rocky could have defeated Ivan Drago without it.  And if Rocky hadn’t defeated Drago, the Berlin Wall would never have fallen, America would never have won the Cold War, and Adonis Creed would have had to find a different mentor.  Without this song, the world would be a very different place.

The video is a performance clip.  There’s another version out there that features clips from Rocky IV.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Kokomo by The Beach Boys (1988, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Having watched Cocktail earlier tonight with Lisa and the FridayNightFlix crew, Kokomo seemed like an obvious choice for today’s music video of the day.  Kokomo started out as an unreleased song by John Phillips.  When The Beach Boys were commissioned to provide a theme song for Cocktail, Phillips sent the song over.  The Beach Boys, of course, put their own spin on the material and the end result was a surprise hit for the band.

The video was shot at the Grand Floridian Resort at Walt Disney World in Florida, with the band performing in front of an audience that included several cheerleaders from the University of Nevada.  This is the only Beach Boys video to not feature Brian Wilson.  It does, however, feature actor John Stamos playing the conga.  (Stamos, apparently, is a long time friend of the band.)

While I couldn’t find a credited director for this video, it does contain several scenes from Cocktail, which was directed by Roger Donaldson.

Incidentally, at the time this song was recorded, there were no resorts called Kokomo.  After the song became a hit, however, several island resorts borrowed the name.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Night You Murdered Love by ABC (1987, directed by Les Bull Terriers)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

I had never heard this song or seen this video until I happened to do a search through all of the music videos that were released in 1987.  Unfortunately, there’s not much behind-the-scenes information about this one.  I can’t even tell you who played the video’s skateboard assassin.

I can tell that The Night You Murdered Love peaked at #31 on the UK singles charts.  It was the 2nd single to be released off of ABC’s fourth studio album, Alphabet City.  The song was produced by Bernard Edwards, who is best remembered for his work as a member of Chic (of La Freak fame).  ABC, which was first founded in 1980, continues to tour that Martin Fry is the only permanent member.

According the imdb, this video is the sole directing credit for Les Bull Terriers.

Enjoy!

Music Video Of The Day: Mr. Kirk’s Nightmare by 4hero (1990, directed by Garth Jennings)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

At the risk of sound like a grumpy old man who is about to tell all the kids to get off his lawn, this is the type of shit that you used to be able to find on MTV.  The channel sucks now but, back in the previous century, they actually played music videos and sometimes even introduced people to new groups and new sounds.

Because of this video’s science fiction feel, a lot of people probably thought the Kirk of the title was meant to be Star Trek‘s Captain Kirk.  (On YouTube, a lot of the comments run along the lines of “Beam me up, Scotty!”)  Instead, the Kirk of the title is a reference to an old song called Once You Understand, which is sampled in Mr. Kirk’s Nightmare.  Once You Understand was an anti-drug song from the late 60s that ended with a voice saying, “Mr. Kirk, your son is dead. He died of an overdose.”  Throughout the whole son, Mr. Kirk has been complaining about his son having long hair and not having any direction in his life.  All Mr. Kirk’s son wanted to do was start a band and, when Mr. Kirk didn’t care about that, his son turned to drugs.  Things get a little easier once you understand.

4hero were pioneers in the UK’s electronic music scene.  They’re still together to this day.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Sunday Bloody Sunday by U2 (1983, directed by Gavin Taylor)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

This video was shot at Red Rocks in Denver, Colorado during U2’s tour supporting War.  (The album, not the concept.)  U2’s reputation has never really recovered from the Songs of Innocence fiasco but when they were a young group and before Bono’s messianic tendencies got the better of him, they were a rocking band who were responsible for some of the best songs of the 80s.  Sunday Bloody Sunday was one of their signature songs and this video captures them at their best.  And, even if modern-day Bono does sometimes seem to be too impressed with himself, no one can deny that he’s done a lot of good in the world.

The song is meant to be a condemnation of the atrocities committed by both sides during The Troubles.

Enjoy!

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

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

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)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

“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)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

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)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

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!