Category Archives: Music

Music Video of the Day: Spider-Man by the Ramones (1995, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

In 1995, producer Ralph Sall and MCA released an album called Saturday Morning: Cartoons’ Greatest Hits.  The album was made up of covers of the theme songs of various Saturday morning carton shows.  For instance, Matthew Sweet covered Scooby Doo, Where Are You?  Sponge covered Go Speed Racer Go.  Liz Phair did a version of the Banana Splits theme song.  In order to promote the album, MCA released a music video compilation on VHS tape.  It was hosted by a young Drew Barrymore.  You can still order a copy of it off of Amazon.  It’ll only cost you around twenty dollars.

The Ramones were brought in to cover the theme song for the first Spiderman-Man cartoon show.  The video, which was directed by Johnathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, features animated Ramones performing while an animated Spider-Man swings around the city.  (If Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris sound familiar, that’s because they went on to direct feature films.  They’re best-known film is probably still Little Miss Sunshine.)  The Spider-Man theme song proves to be the perfect song to be covered by the Ramones, as they give an energetic performance that feels like it could have been written for any of the current MCU productions.

Interestingly enough, both Spider-Man and the Ramones were from the Forest Hills neighborhood of Queens.  There’s no evidence that any of them met Uncle Ben before this unfortunate demise.  If they had met, Ben probably would have told them that with great audio equipment comes great responsibility.  Ben then would have kicked everyone off of his lawn and gone inside to take a boomer nap.

The theme song for Spider-Man was written, in 1967, by Paul Francis Webster and Bob Harris.  Before he wrote the Spider-Man theme, Webster won three Oscars for Best Original Song.  Over the course of his career, he would be nominated a total of 16 times.  Of his Oscar-nominated sons, I guess Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing is the best known but its popularity pales in comparison to the song he wrote for Spider-Man.  Who doesn’t know that Spider-Man can do everything that a spider can?

 

Music Video Of The Day: TV Crimes by Black Sabbath (1992, directed by Nigel Dick)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Today, this video seems dated.  That’s to be expected from any video that was released nearly 20 years ago.  Today, it’s hard to imagine anyone going through that much trouble to steal a TV as small as the one that is at the center of this video.  In 1992, the idea of a wireless TV that didn’t need an antenna seemed like science fiction.  Today, though, it’s pretty much a part of everyday life.

TV Crimes was the first single to be released off of Black Sabbath’s 1992 album, Dehumanizer.  Dehumanizer would be the last Black Sabbath album to feature Ronnie James Dio until 2006, when Dio returned for a greatest hits album, Black Sabbath: The Dio Years.  Dio subsequently appeared on a 2008 studio album, The Devil You Know (a.k.a. Heaven & Hell).  The Devil You Know would prove to be Dio’s final studio appearance before his death in 2010.

This video was directed by Nigel Dick, who is one of the strongest and most prolific music video directors around.  He started in 1983 and has directed videos for basically everyone.  If you were a successful rock band in the 80s or 90s, Nigel Dick directed at least one video for you.  He continued directing into the 21st century and he’s still going at it.  Duran Duran, Oasis, Guns ‘n’ Roses, Brooke Hogan (?), Def Leppard, Madness, they’ve all had videos directed by Nigel Dick.  Dick also directed some videos for Nickelback but we won’t hold that against him.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: View From A Bridge by Kim Wilde (1982, directed by Brian Grant)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Not to be confused with the Arthur Miller play of almost the same name, View From A Bridge was the second single to be released from Kim Wilde’s second album, Select.  The song tells the story of a girl who discovers that her boyfriend is cheating on her so she goes to a bridge and considers jumping off.  Though it’s open to interpretation, the song suggests that she ultimately does just that.  This song is a good example of a song about something that no one should do in real life.  No one is worth jumping off a bridge for so if you’re thinking about doing it, don’t.

When it was released in 1982, it became on Wilde’s biggest hits in Europe and Australia.  It was especially popular in France.  If it was released today, at a time when we are all very aware of teen mental health and the dangers of suicidal ideation, this is one of those songs that would probably be very controversial.  I know that when I was growing up, there was tendency to laugh off threats of suicide as just teenagers being dramatic or looking for attention.  Luckily, that’s no longer the case today.

The video, fortunately, does not feature Kim on a bridge.  Instead, it features her and the band performing in a pink-tinted room.  This was a popular look for music videos in the 80s and the pinkness of it all helped to keep people from noticing how depressing the lyrics were.

The video was directed by Brian Grant, who was one of the go-to video directors in the 1980s.  He did videos for everyone from The Human League to XTC to Peter Gabriel and Duran Duran.  According to Wikipedia, he directed a total of 225 music videos during the 80s.  He has also directed several shows for British television, including the episodes of the Doctor Who reboot.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Clowny Clown Clown by Crispin Hellion Glover (1989, directed by Crispin Glover)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Let’s start 2021 with Crispin Glover.

The song Clowny Clown Clown comes from Glover’s first album, The Big Problem ≠ The Solution. The Solution = Let It Be.  The album, which also featured Glover covering songs like These Boots Are Made For Walking and The Daring Young an On The Flying Trapeze, was released in 1989 and the liner notes invited anyone who could figure out what the “Big Problem” was to give Glover a call.  The liner notes included a phone number that you could call, which was apparently Crispin’s phone number at the time.  The number has since been disconnected so don’t waste your time trying to give Crispin a call.

Before making this video, Glover was best-known for playing George McFly in Back to the Future and for nearly kicking David Letterman in the head during an interview in 1987.  Much like Joaquin Phoenix’s infamous later appearance on Letterman, it is believed that Glover was attempting an Andy Kaufmanesque stunt during his first appearance, as well as trying to promote an upcoming film.  (The film was Rubin and Ed, which was filmed in ’87 but wouldn’t be released until 1991.)  On March 28th, 1990, Glover returned to Letterman’s show, where he discussed his music and where a clip from the Clowny Clown Clown video was shown.

Below is Glover’s first appearance on Letterman:

Here is Glover’s subsequent performance, in which he attempts to explain himself and shows a clip of this video:

While I think it’s clear the Glover was playing a role in both of his appearances, I’m not sure if Letterman was in on the joke as he seems to be genuinely annoyed during both interviews.  Of course, back then, genuinely annoyed was Letterman’s default interview style.

Back to Glover’s album, if anyone knows the Big Problem or its solution, let us know in the comments and we’ll try to get word to Crispin.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: You Can’t Change That by Raydio (1979, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Happy New Year’s Eve!

Today’s music video of the day is for Raydio’s You Can’t Change That.  Raydio is an American funk band that was founded by Ray Parker. Jr.  Though they had a handful of hits, including You Can’t Change That, Parker is still probably best known for performing the Ghostbusters theme song.

Like many of the music videos that were made in the days before MTV, this is a performance clip and it keeps thing simple.  This was before videos’ came to be seen a mini-movies and before every music video director was looking to move up to feature films. You Can’t Change That keeps things simple and it’s just right for the song.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Am I Demon by Danzig (1988, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Whenever I watched any video from Danzig, I’m reminded of what Butthead (of Beavis and Butthead fame) had to say about Danzig’s video for Mother.  “That little dance isn’t very cool.”  I thought about that line as I watched the video for Am I Demon.  Glenn Danzig looks intimidating and scary as hell and it’s easy to imagine that Tipper Gore and all the other Karens of the 80s were freaked out by not only his lyrics but also his sideburns.  The music always rocks but once Danzig starts doing his little hip-shaking dance, it’s sometimes hard to take him seriously.

I would never say that Danzig’s face, though.  Danzig looks like he could easily break anyone in half if they said the wrong thing.  You do not want to get on Danzig’s bad side.

Back in the day, Glenn Danzig was one of the candidates to play Wolverine in one of the early and ultimately unsuccessful attempts to make an X-Men movie.  It wouldn’t have been bad casting.  Danzig had the right look and, even more importantly, Wolverine didn’t dance.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Martin Scorsese by King Missile (1993, directed by George Seminara)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Before there was Film Twitter, there was this song by King Missile.

Are the song and the music video celebrating Scorsese or are they parodying his out-of-control fans?  It’s probably doing both.  This video was made in 1993, back when Scorsese was still best-known as a director of violent, profane gangster films.  While Scorsese is still known for those films, he has also directed movies like Kundun, The Aviator, Hugo, and Silence.  Of course, all of those movies came out after this song.  Instead, this video ends with a flash of The Age of Innocence, a hint that Scorsese was interested in more than just being defined as a director of kinetic mafia movies.

If this song was written today, its subject would probably be Tarantino instead of Scorsese.  Even though lead singer John S. Hall is supposed to be dressed up like a Scorsese gangster, he actually looks more like someone paying homage to the reservoir dogs.

When watching this video, be sure to keep an eye on the band in the background.

If I was Martin Scorsese, I probably would have gotten a restraining order after this song came out.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Dead Arms & Dead Legs by Eliot Sumner (2015, directed by ????)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Eliot Sumner is the child of Gordon Sumner, better known as Sting.  Dead Arms & Dead Legs was the first single off of Sumner’s 2nd album, Information.  According to Sumner, the song was inspired by walking around Stonehenge and thinking about what it all meant.  I have been to Stonehenge and I can verify that, if you can actually get away from all the tourists, walking around the centuries-old monument will make you question your place in the universe.  It will also remind you to buy a new calendar.

Of course, if you know your British sci-fi, it might also make you think of the fate of Prof. Quatermass.

Enjoy!