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.
Needless to say, that’s the famous Gibby Haynes providing the vocals on Ministry’s Jesus Built My Hotrod. Gibby recorded the vocals while he was in Chicago, doing the first Lollapooloza tour. Ministry’s Al Jourgensen told Songfacts, “Gibby came down completely drunk off his ass. He couldn’t even sit on a stool, let alone sing. I mean, he was wasted. He fell off the stool about 10 times during the recording of that vocal. He made no sense and it was just gibberish. So I spent two weeks editing tape of what he did, thinking it still was better than what I was thinking of doing with the song.”
Fortunately, Gibby’s vocals saved both the song and probably the future of the band. Ministry had already been given an advance of $750,000 to make an album. According to Jourgensen, the band spent all the money on drugs and ended up with only this song to show for all of their efforts. In an attempt to at least get some of their money back, Warner Bros. released the song as a single and it quickly shot up the charts. For a while, at least, it was Warner Bros’s top selling-single of all time. As a result, Ministry got another advance of $750,000 and this time, they actually used the money to make an album.
As for the video, it’s all about car culture. Paul Elledge also directed two videos for Anthrax.
My nylons are melting down my legs Your heart is pounding at my throat I can’t catch my breath I lost it when your fingertips Ran down my back and up my neck Your kiss makes me feel like this I’m so hungry for your sex I’m so hungry for your sex I got an appetite for love tonight I wanna taste your sweet thing I wanna feel the sting of your sex, of your sex My body all painted lipstick red We ripped the sheets right off the bed My fingernails left fiery trails Across your back, oh, tell me baby How’d you like that little pussycat scratch I’m so hungry for your sex I’m so hungry for your sex I got an appetite for love tonight I wanna taste your sweet thing I wanna feel the sting of your sex, of your sex I’m so hungry for your sex I’m so hungry for your sex I’m so hungry for your sex I got an appetite for love tonight I wanna taste your sweet thing I wanna feel the sting of your sex, of your sex I’m so hungry for your…
I’m not sure how you go from those lyrics to Alice in Wonderland, though Wonderland in this video is portrayed as being a very dark place. While Alice explores, Lita Ford writhes in a shallow pool of water. How it all links up is anyone’s guess.
This video was directed by Jesse Dylan, who also did videos for Lenny Kravitz and 3rd Bass.
Lord of the Flies is based on William Golding’s famous book about a group of school children who get stranded on a deserted island and turn into savages. The lyrics are a literal interpretation of the book’s plot:
I don’t care for this world anymore I just want to live my own fantasy Fate has brought us to these shores What was meant to be is now happening
I’ve found that I like this living in danger Living on edge it makes feel as one Who cares now what’s right or wrong, it’s reality Killing so we survive Wherever we may roam Wherever we may hide We’ve got to get away
I don’t want existence to end We must prepare ourselves for the elements I just want to feel like we’re strong We don’t need a code of morality
I like all the mixed emotion and anger It brings out the animal the power you can feel And feeling so high on this much adrenalin Excited but scary to believe what we’ve become
Saints and sinners Something within us We are lord of flies
Saints and sinners Something willing us To be lord of the flies
The video was shot while Iron Maiden was touring the Holy Land and it’s a typical no frills Iron Maiden production. One thing that I’ve respected about bands like Iron Maiden is that the majority of their music videos are just clips of the band performing. They don’t need to do anything fancy to hold your attention. They just get out there on stage and play the Hell out of every song.
I like to think that this song was directed at whoever it was who convinced her to appear in New Year’s Eve.
I’m happy to say that no one in my life sucks right now. In fact, I’m about to go on a two week vacation with my favorite person in the whole wide world. Fear not, though. I may be gone but I have a lot of posts written out and scheduled to publish until I get back. So, I’ll be on vacation and yet, I’ll still be posting reviews. I often think about this because it’s actually a pretty common occurrence for me to write out a review and then schedule it to publish way later in the year. So, if — God Forbid — I were to die over the next two weeks, I would still be posting reviews all the way through 2021. It would be like my ghost telling you what movies to see …. FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE! That’s kind of neat.
I watched this entire video waiting for a zombie attack or something similar but it didn’t happen. That came as a shock to me because I guess the movies have just preconditioned me to expect any happy day at the beach to end with either zombies or, if it’s a Jean Rollin film, vampires.
Anyway, even though this video doesn’t end with the carnage that I was expecting, the shots of the beach are still nicely atmospheric. The beach shots reminded me a bit of the incredibly depressing scene in Under the Skin where a couple is drowning in the ocean and the only person who around who is capable of saving them is killed by Scarlett Johansson. (Seriously, that scene gave me nightmares.) Don’t ask me where this video was filmed because I don’t know. I’m not an expert on beaches. The closest that I regularly get to the beach is when I go up to my cousin’s house at Lake Texoma. To be honest, most beaches kind of look the same to me. It’s like water, sand, and a bunch of rocks. Sometimes, you might see a jelly fish wash up on the beach. Just the thought of that freaks me out.
One thing I like about this video is that you can read the lyrics while listening to them. As someone who is notorious for mishearing lyrics, I appreciate that. Seriously, I used to try to sing along to songs and people would give me such a hard time because I always ended up getting the lyrics wrong. It was really upsetting and it made me associate many great songs with tears and injured feelings. What’s especially annoying is that my misheard lyrics were often a hundred times better than the actual lyrics.
Of course, to be honest, I’ve never been one of those, “You must listen to the lyrics and ponder what they’re saying about life!” type of music fans. When it comes to music, my main concern is whether or not you can dance to it. I used to have a friend who would force people to listen to songs from certain artists and, while you were listening, you weren’t allowed to speak or dream or anything else. Instead, you were expected to listen to the lyrics so you could discuss what they meant. After a while, it got to be pretty annoying. There’s only so many times that you can say, “This song is about the futility of war and institutionalized misogyny,” before you get bored with it. The last straw, for both me and many of the members of our social circle, came when she got involved with the Occupy Wall Street people and she expected everyone to start listening to folk music. I was like, “Unless there’s a big beat remix of If I Had A Hammer, count me out.” There’s only so many times that you can listen to that Turn, Turn, Turn song before you just want to go off and become the most committed capitalist ever.
I’m still in my disco mood from hosting last Saturday’s #ILikeToWatch live tweet so here’s Yvonne Elliman singing If I Can’t Have You. Technically, this is less a music video and more of a guest appearance on a TV show but, in the 70s, that’s as close as many songs got to getting a music video.
Yvonne Elliman also played Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.If I Can’t Have You was originally written for the Bee Gees but was given to Yvonne after the band decided that they couldn’t make the song work. She did a great job with it because this is one of those songs that you could just listen to a hundred times a day.
Through the Shattered Lens 