Huey Lewis and the News were the epitome of a mid 1980s band. They worked hard and they made videos that celebrated having a good time. They were never as obnoxious or openly hedonistic as the hair bands of era but they were also out-of-place in the angst-filled 90s. But while everyone else continues to pay thousands to see Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis and the News will always be the blue collar bar band for me.
This video was directed by Jim Yuckich, who has directed videos for everyone.
Since we’re in a Back to the Future sort of mood at the site today, today’s song of the day is an obvious one. Here is The Power of Love, by Huey Lewis and the News!
The power of love is a curious thing Make a one man weep, make another man sing Change a hawk to a little white dove More than a feeling, that’s the power of love
Tougher than diamonds, rich like cream Stronger and harder than a bad girl’s dream Make a bad one good, mm, make a wrong one right Power of love that keep you home at night
You don’t need money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden, and it’s cruel sometimes But it might just save your life That’s the power of love That’s the power of love
First time you feel it, it might make you sad Next time you feel it, it might make you mad But you’ll be glad, baby, when you’ve found That’s the power makes the world go ’round
And it don’t take money, don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train It’s strong and it’s sudden, it can be cruel sometimes But it might just save your life
They say that all in love is fair Yeah, but you don’t care (ooh) But you know what to do (what to do) When it gets hold of you And with a little help from above You feel the power of love You feel the power of love Can you feel it? Hm-hm
It don’t take money, and it don’t take fame Don’t need no credit card to ride this train Tougher than diamonds and stronger than steel But you won’t feel nothin’ ’til you feel
You feel the power, just feel the power of love That’s the power, mm, that’s the power of love You feel the power of love You feel the power of love Feel the power of love
Songwriters: Huey Lewis / John Victor Colla / Christopher John Hayes
Everyone needs a couple of days off, even Huey Lewis and the News!
This song was the final single from Huey to chart in the Billboard Top 20. For better or worse (I would say “better”), Huey Lewis and the News were the epitome of a mid 80s band. They worked hard and they made videos that celebrated having a good time. They were never as obnoxious or openly hedonistic as the hair bands of era but they were also out-of-place in the angst-filled 90s. But while everyone else continues to pay thousands to see Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis and the News will always be the blue collar bar band for me.
This video was directed by Jim Yuckich, who has directed videos for everyone.
If you go to YouTube, one of the comments under this video simply states, “Huey Lewis was the 80s.” It’s a simple statement but it’s also a true statement. For better or worse, Huey Lewis and the News epitomize an era. Personally, I think they may be one of the most underrated bands of the decade. They turned being a bar band into an art form, with songs that were both unpretentious and instantly catchy.
A lot of people make fun of them as a result of how Bret Easton Ellis used them in American Psycho but what they miss is that Ellis didn’t make fun of the band as much as he made fun of the depths that Patrick Bateman went to find some sort of hidden meaning in their straight-forward and always transparently sincere music.
Speaking of being straight forward, that’s a good description of both this song and this video. This is Huey Lewis showing that they didn’t need a bunch of gimmicks to rock. They just needed a stage.
Huey Lewis & the News were a band who epitomized the early to mid-80s and their music videos played a large part in MTV’s initial popularity. Unfortunately, by the time 1991 rolled around, the band and its style of music was being overshadowed by the growing popularity of both rap and grunge. It Hit Me Like A Hammer was the band’s final top 40 hit in the United States. One of the cool things about Huey Lewis and the News is that, in contrast to a lot of other bands trying to make the transition from the 80s to the 90s, they didn’t change their sound. Huey didn’t start trying to rap. The band didn’t start wearing flannel and covering the Pixies. Instead, they remained who they were, a rocking and unpretentious bar band who wrote songs for people looking to have a good time.
This video was directed by Nigel Dick, who is one of those music video directors who worked with everyone and who still works with everyone. At last count, he has directed over 500 videos.
Today’s music video features a linguistic lesson from Huey Lewis.
Perhaps realizing that a generation was being raised to think that “bad” was the proper way to describe something as being cool, Huey uses this song to remind his fans that sometimes, bad just means that something’s bad. Sometimes, your cousin plays the guitar and it sounds like chainsaw. Sometimes, there’s a strange pair of shows under the bed. Sometimes, bad is bad.
To make their point, the band performs the song while walking around the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. What better way was there to do that? It’s not every day that you see Huey Lewis and the News walking behind a garbage truck.
“Everyone thinks I’m the boy next door because I look like the boy next door. But look at my parents, and look where I come from. I’m a beatnik kid.”
— Huey Lewis
For the record, Huey Lewis has always insisted that the lyrics of Hip To Be Square are meant to be ironic. They were originally written in the third person and were meant to satirize the band’s clean-cut image. Because Huey Lewis and the News were older than the average rock band when they hit it big, they were often considered to be safe or conservative. In real life, Huey Lewis was the stepson of beat poet Lew Welch, whom Lewis has described as being a major influence on his life and music. (Huey, who was born Hugh Cregg III, even paid tribute to Lew Welch with his stage name.) After high school, Lewis hitchhiked through Europe and he spent several years as a part of San Francisco’s decidedly unsquare music scene.
Despite what Patrick Bateman might try to tell you, Hip To Be Square was never meant to be an anthem for square people. In concert, Lewis usually makes this point square by signing the song as Too Hip to Be Square.
The video was directed by the team of Kevin Godley and Lol Creme, who directed several memorable music videos in the 80s. Godley and Creme directed this video using the type of medical cameras that are typically inserted into a human body to allow doctor to get a closer look at what might be ailing you. The video was nominated for Best Experimental Video at the 1987 MTV Music Video Awards.
Despite what Patrick Bateman might try to tell you, Huey Lewis and the News has never been a band that most people would associate with drugs. Instead, Huey Lewis and the News wrote and performed the type of songs that you might expect to hear in a sports bar (albeit a sports bar with an 80s theme). If you need proof, just take a look at the cover of their third album, 1983’s Sports:
That cover sums up who Huey Lewis And The News were as a band. While only the members of the band can say for sure what they did behind closed doors, most people would look at this cover and say that these weren’t the guys you’d find smoking weed and debating philosophy or doing coke and going crazy on Wall Street. These were the guys who were waiting for you to come down to the local bar and shoot some pool, with the winner buying the next round.
Ironically, one of their biggest hits was so widely misinterpreted as being a pro-drug song that they actually made a music video with the expressed intent to show everyone that it wasn’t. I Want A New Drug wasn’t about wanting a new drug. It was about being so in love with a woman that the feeling was better than anything that any drug could provide.
The video features Huey waking up late and remembering that he has a show that night. He races across San Francisco and, noticeably, he doesn’t do a single drug during the journey. He does spot a woman played by Signy Coleman, whose mom was friends with Huey’s mom.
This video was directed by David Rathod, who also directed the videos for two other songs from Huey Lewis and the News, Heart and Soul and He Don’t Know.
Last week I put up as one of the entries for the 27 Days of Old School the classic song by Huey Lewis and the News. That song is “Hip to be Square” and I wrote how that song has become famous as not just being part of a great album of the 80’s, but due to the fact that it became the soundtrack to one of the best scenes from Marry Harron’s American Psycho.
Patrick Bateman’s personal take on “Hip to be Square” resonates not just as a description of the song but of the 1980’s as well.
“Do you like Huey Lewis & The News? Their early work was a little too ‘new-wave’ for my taste, but when Sports came out in ’83, I think they really came into their own – both commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He’s been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far more bitter, cynical sense of humour. In ’87, Huey released this, Fore, their most accomplished album. I think their undisputed masterpiece is ‘Hip To Be Square’, a song so catchy most people probably don’t listen to the lyrics – but they should! Because it’s not just about the pleasures of conformity, and the importance of trends, it’s also a personal statement about the band itself! Hey Paul!”
For most people their experience with Huey Lewis and the News’ hit track “Hip to be Square” was due to it being used in American Psycho. It was already a great song before that film came out and continues to remain so, but now it’s taken on an even dark comedic tone.
I used to listen to this song non-stop when it first came out. Now, whenever I listen to it I start seeing Christian Bale as Patrick Bateman dancing to the song while dressed in a plastic raincoat. But before that it was always a catchy song and, dare I say it, a very hip one.
I actually prefer the band’s “Power of Love” track, but this song has to be next in line when it came to my favorite track from the band.
I’ve wondered what my younger self would think about this song now being associated with American Psycho. The answer I always get is that my younger self would think it was cool and hip (ok, ok stopping it there).
Through the Shattered Lens 