Once upon a time, a record company exec made the mistake of asking Johnny Lydon if he could write and record a nice and commercial love song for Public Image Ltd.’s next album. This is how Lydon responded:
This Is Not A Love Song is repeated a total of 44 times in this song. The other lyrics are all meant to satirize the corporate mindset as Johnny announces that he is going to sell out:
I’m adaptable and I like my new role I’m getting better and better And I have a new goal I’m changing my ways where money applies
This video was shot in Century City, which was the center of the Los Angeles business community in the 80s.
Today’s music video of the day is my personal pick for the greatest music video of all time, Sabotage by the Beastie Boys!
This song was actually inspired by the band’s frustration with a sound engineer who the band felt was trying to rush them through their recording sessions. The feeling was that he was deliberately “sabotaging” them and the band expressed their frustrations in an instrumental track. It wasn’t until two weeks before the track was actually to be recorded that the Beastie Boys came up with the lyrics for the song.
The video, famously, features the Beastie Boys as three cops on a 70s cop show, pursuing and apparently murdering Sir Stewart Wallace. This video is usually held up as an example of director Spike Jonze’s love of kitsch but the 70s cop show theme was actually first suggested by Adam Horowitz.
Believe it or not, this video was controversial when it was first released because it was considered by some to be too violent. MTV actually demanded three cuts before they would accept it. They demanded that the knife fight be shortened and that shots of bodies being tossed out of a car and over a bridge be taken out of the video. Of course, in both shots, the body was obviously a dummy so I’m not sure what MTV was freaking out about.
Sabotage received five nominations at the MTV Music Video Awards and, amazingly, it lost every one of them. Even best direction was won by Jake Scott, who did the video for R.E.M’s Everybody Hurts. While Michael Stipe was accepting the best direction award, Adam Yauch rushed the stage (while dressed as Nathaniel Hornblower) and protested the snubbing of Sabotage.
This was actually the first time in the history of the VMAs that someone rushed the stage to protest a win. Kanye West, of course, later made this a famous move but Adam Yauch did it first. (My favorite thing about the picture above is the look on Michael Stipe’s face.)
The MTV Music Video Awards may not have appreciated Sabotage but the rest of the world certainly did. It not only remains one of the signature tunes of the 90s but, if you believe Star Trek, it’s also the song that inspired Jim Kirk to grow up, join Starfleet, and put the safety of everyone under his command at risk at least once a week.
“The song sounds a lot different than the title. The theme is that Mick is talking to a girl saying, ‘All I hear from you is doom and gloom – let’s go party, let’s go dance.’ It’s an uptempo tune.”
— Organist Chuck Leavell on Doom and Gloom
“At first I said, Hey Mick, ‘Doom and Gloom’ is a kind of weird title for a 50-year celebration, you know? But you know what the Stones are like, it’s always against the grain. But he came up with it and it’s a great track and a really quite ‘funny’ song, actually – there are some great lyrics.”
— Keith Richards on Doom and Gloom
Also according to Keith, Doom and Gloom was one of the quickest recordings that the Rolling Stones ever did. It only took three takes to lay down the track. Richards credits that to the chemistry that the Stones have when they’re playing together. As Keith puts it, the only problem when it comes to recording a new Rolling Stones song is finding a time when everyone can actually get together.
As for the video, it was filmed in a warehouse in Paris and it was directed by Jonas Akerlund, a prolific video director who is best-known for his work with Madonna. The video stars Noomi Rapace, the Swedish actress who starred in the original Girl With The Dragon Tattoo trilogy and who later appeared in Prometheus.
One thing about the Stones: they don’t quit. The band has existed for nearly six decades and they’re still making music that demands to be played loud.
“In the pool, I had these lead weights on. I thought I was gonna die. The hire guitar got bent so we got a hairdryer and sent it back. They said, ‘The neck’s like a banana.’ So we had to buy it.”
— Guitarist Chris Gabrin on performing under water in the video for Madness’s It Must Be Love
In America, this song and video was released as Madness’s follow-up to their first (and, to date, only) hit in the United States, Our House. Unfortunately, for the band’s U.S. popularity, the video was heavily influenced by the very British Ealing comedies and it was not immediately appreciated by audiences across the Atlantic. I think if the video were released today, at a time when more people are aware of international cinema and appreciation of British comedy is now a mainstream phenomena as opposed to just the kids in the computer lab talking about Monty Python, it would be better received in the States.
In the U.S., It Must Be Love peaked at #33. As with most of Madness’s song, It Must Be Love was far more successful in the UK, where it has twice reached the UK Top 10, once when it was originally released and then when it was re-released in 1992.
Obviously, the British have always been better about appreciating a bit of madness than the Americans.
“My car had been towed away and I had to remind myself to go and pay the fine. I just wrote “Fine Time” on this piece of paper to remind myself to go get it and thought, that’s a good title.”
— New Order’s Steve Morris on Fine Time
That’s a good story but what does Steve’s car getting towed have to do with a kid having a weird Christmas dream? Probably nothing. It is a New Order song, after all. One of the great things about New Order is that everything about them, from their name to their songs to the videos, is open to several hundred interpretations. It’s hard to know what the future may hold but one thing can be said for certain. People will still be arguing about what Blue Monday is about. And when they get tired to arguing about Blue Monday, they can talk about this video.
I guess the kid is dreaming. But what’s going on with the dog? Is the dog barking at his master’s dream? Is it actually safe to allow that dog to sleep in a bed with a child? Is it a good idea to tie a dog to a bed? I don’t know.
Richard Heslop also directed videos for Ace of Base but we won’t hold it against him.
In today’s music video of the day, the Albanian rapper Mozzik goes to prison and it turns out that prison in Albania is just as tedious and soul-destroying as prison in America. Fortunately, he can always escape to his dreams.
Or, at least, that’s what I assume is happening in this video. I don’t speak a word of Albanian. But one of the great things about both music and the visual arts is that sometimes, you don’t have to speak the language. You just have to open up your mind to the emotions and the images.
This video was directed by Mozzik himself and he did quite a good job! I especially like the surreal scenes of Mozzik thinking about being free.
“Just let me be cynical for a moment. First of all, it’s really NOT about waiting on a woman friend. It’s just about a FRIEND; it doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman. I can see people saying, Oh, we’re all much older now, Mick’s writing this much more compassionate stuff, must be about a real person. But that’s only in their perception of it.”
— Mick Jagger on Waiting For A Friend
Is our man Mick waiting for a friend or is he waiting for his drug connection? Since the video features Mick hanging out in front of a building in New York and waiting for Keith Richards to come walking up, I guess both could be true. Interestingly enough, Keith has often said that he and Mick have a strained relationship in real life, though Keith also wrote in his autobiography, “”I still love him dearly … your friends don’t have to be perfect.”
This video was popular in the early days of MTV. At a time when many of the big rock bands were still skeptical about the music video format and many were also predicting that MTV would never last, the network was happy to have a video from a group as legendary as the Stones. The video was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who was doing videos even before MTV was a thing. Waiting with Jagger in front of the building is Peter Tosh.
I remember, when I was like 14, I got up early in the morning and I woke up my sisters by shouting, “It’s Ash Wednesday, bitches!” My mom was not amused. That said, Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days. I just love the ritual of it all. Of course, I also usually wash my forehead fairly early in the day. That’s allowed, by the way.
Now, before anyone leaves any snarky comments, I fully understand that David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes is not actually about Ash Wednesday nor are the ashes mentioned in the song literal ashes. I understand that but hey, this is a good song and David Bowie certainly does look happy in this clip. Around the two minute mark, he takes the time to praise the backup singers, which is a pretty classy move.
Yes, that is Keanu Reeves walking down a highway medium while Anthrax performs the song in this video. What is Keanu doing there? He was a long-time fan of Anthrax and he just happened to be available when this video was being shot. This video came out while Reeves was still riding high from The Matrix films and it is easy to imagine Neo wandering about aimlessly. It’s much more difficult to imagine the same thing happening to John Wick, who always has a destination in mind.
Other than the movie star cameo, this is a no frills video from Anthrax, one that lets the music do the talking. I’m not a huge Anthrax fan but I always appreciate relatively direct videos like this.
Through the Shattered Lens 