Today’s music video of the day is for INXS’s Don’t Change, from their third album, Shabooh Shoobah. Though INXS had been around for a while and had released two previous albums before releasing Shabooh Shoobah, Don’t Change is often described as the song that introduced the band to the world outside of Australia.
The song’s video was originally envisioned as featuring the band performing on airport runway. However, due a bad weather, the band was instead forced to film and perform the song in a nearby hangar. The video was directed by Scott Hicks, who would later go on to direct Geoffrey Rush to his first Oscar in 1996’s Shine.
INXS plays tribute to Bob Dylan in today’s music video of the day!
Some members of the band did a better job than other when it came to keeping up with the cards but they all still did a pretty good job considering that this is a 2 and a half minute music video with no visible edits. This video was originally included on the backend of the video for Need You Tonight. Richard Lowenstein directed both videos and it was a definitely a canny move to combine the two and basically get MTV to promote two songs for the price of one.
Need You Tonight was the first single released off of INXS’s sixth studio album, Kick. The video, which made use of several different types of animation, was extremely popular with MTV’s audience and, as a result, the song went on to become one of INXS’s biggest hits. The video went on to win 5 awards at the MTV Music Video Awards. This was back when those actually meant something.
Director Richard Lowenstein directed a total of 16 videos for INXS, including this one. He also directed a film called Dogs in Space, which was not about actual dogs in space but which was instead about the Australian post-punk scene. INXS’s lead singer Michael Hutchence played Sam, the leader of a band called Dogs in Space.
Supposedly, this song was written about a runaway that Michael Hutchence had befriended and who he wanted to protect in a platonic way. However, when the song was released in the United States, it was selected to be the theme song of an eating disorder awareness campaign and the music video, directed by Mark Pellington, reflects that.
Mark Pellington, of course, should be a familiar name. He directed music videos for just about everyone was relevant in the 90s. He also directed the film Arlington Road, which feels more prescient every day.
Despite the title, Suicide Blonde is not about suicide. (That, of course, still doesn’t make it any less difficult to watch Michael Hutchence sing a song with the word suicide in the lyrics.) Instead, it’s about a woman who colors her own hair, literally “dyeing by hand.” It was a phrase that Hutchence first heard used by his then-girlfriend, Kylie Minogue. Minogue said she was going to dye her hair “suicide blonde” and Hutchence was so taken with the phrase that he crafted a song around it.
This video was directed by Richard Lowenstein, who directed several videos for the band and often made use of the type of composited imagery, in which the band members seem to travel across the screen separated from what else is happening, that appears in Suicide Blonde.
Today is Australia Day and today’s music video of the day comes from one of the biggest Australian bands of the last century, INXS.
What You Need was the leadoff track from their 1985 album, Listen Like Thieves. It was the first single off the album in Australia and New Zealand while, in the US, it was released after This Time. It also went on to become the band’s first top ten hit in the United States. That shouldn’t be a surprise as the song was recorded after the album’s producer expressed concern that Listen Like Thieves was good but didn’t have a “hit.” The band wrote and recorded the song in one day.
The song’s popularity was undoubtedly helped by this music video, which came out at a time when rotoscope was still a fairly exotic animation technique. The video was named Best Video at the 1985 Countdown and Music Video Awards.
The 1990s was a decade when many bands, who otherwise had little in common, were bonded together by a mutual hatred for Oasis.
Originally hailed as being the second coming of the Beatles, Oasis was fronted by two brothers, Liam and Noel Gallagher. At the height of Oasis’s popularity, the Gallaghers never hesitated to let it be known how little they thought of their musical competition. At the 1996 Brit Awards, when Noel Gallagher received an award from INXS’s Michael Hutchence, he accepted by saying, “Has-beens should not be presenting awards to gonna-bes.” Backstage, Hutchence got into a scuffle with the other Gallagher brother, Liam. Apparently, Liam made some disparaging remarks about Hutchence’s then-girlfriend, Paula Yates. Hutchence reacted by throwing a fire extinguisher at Liam.
Following the altercation, Hutchence went to the recording studio and added some additional vocals to the chorus of the song that would become the title track to INXS’s upcoming album, Elegantly Wasted. The original chorus was “I am elegantly wasted.” Hutchence added, “I am better than Oasis.” You have to listen carefully for it but it’s definitely there.
(The rest of INXS reportedly didn’t find out about Hutchence’s additions until several months later, when the album was released.)
As for the song itself, depending on which source you consult, it was originally inspired by either a pub crawl with U2’s Bono or by Hutchence’s relationship with Yates. The video was filmed in Los Angeles, on a set that was made up to resemble an airport. While the song may not have been as big a hit as the some of INXS’s previous releases (it peaked at 20 in the UK and 48 in Australia), it did reach the number one spot on the Canadian charts.
Sadly, it would also be one of the last INXS single to be released in Michael Hutchence’s lifetime. Hutchence committed suicide in November of 1997. He was 37 yeas old.
Even if you did not already know it, you could probably guess who directed this video. Everything from the back lighting to the color filters to the fog machine to the leather jackets and the gang of shirtless body builders identifies this video as being the work of Joel Schumacher.
This video, which was filmed in Balboa, California, was made during Schumacher’s Lost Boys/Flatliners phase. His infamous Batman films were still several years away. INXS guitarist Kirk Pengilly has gone on record as disliking this video because he felt that, unlike the other videos that INXS was doing at the time, it was “too American.” He was probably right. The video’s mix of strippers, bikers, yuppies, and rent boys feels more appropriate for a film adaptation of a Bret Easton Ellis short story than an INXS song. Even if it isn’t an ideal INXS video, Devil Inside is still probably one of the better entries in Joel Schumacher’s filmography. If I have to choose, I will always pick this video over watching Batman and Robin.
With the video’s help, Devil Inside was one of INXS’s most popular songs in America, reaching the number two spot on the Billboard Hot 100. By comparison, it peaked at #6 in the band’s native Australia and only reached #47 in the UK.
A couple of weeks ago a relative of mine passed away. He had serious issues in his life that brought it to a close far too early. I wasn’t close with him, but nevertheless. A week later we lost Chris Cornell under similar circumstances. Now we have the concert bombing, among other things.
When I heard of Cornell’s passing, I thought of this song because lead-singer Michael Hutchence also died of an apparent suicide 20 years ago in 1997. I thought it was an appropriate music video to spotlight at this time.
It was shot in Prague. It was directed by Richard Lowenstein, who directed many videos for INXS. It was edited by Bruce Ashley.
I’ve included numbers below that you can call if you find yourself in these kinds of situations. Thank you, Patrick, for listing them on your Twitter account.
24/7 Suicide: 800-273-8255
DV: 800-799-7233
Crisis: Text START to 741-741
Trans: 877-565-8860
TTY: 800-799-4889
Through the Shattered Lens 