“You’re getting paid to wash dishes … not listen to that … rock and roll music!”
This video could properly be called Washing Dishes With Poison. When you wash dishes with KISS, the dishes don’t get done and your boss yells at you. When you wash dishes with Poison, the dishes not only get one but the boss doesn’t even know what to say when he sees how quickly you did them. What’s going on in this video? Did Poison wash the dishes for him? Is that Poison’s idea of a good time?
This video was directed by Marc Reshovsky, who is also credited as being the director of photography on videos by Seal, kd lang, Billy Joel, and Ice Cube. Those are all talented artist but none of them will wash your dishes.
Seeing as I did In Dreams yesterday, I felt it was necessary to follow it with She’s A Mystery To Me, since they are connected. I’m going quote Wikipedia below about how the song came to be, and it’s ties back to both In Dreams and Blue Velvet (1986) because me paraphrasing it doesn’t make any sense.
During a restless night of sleep in June 1987 in London during U2’s Joshua Tree Tour, Bono slept with the soundtrack to the film Blue Velvet CD on repeat. The CD had been given to him by the Edge’s wife. When he woke the following morning, he had a tune in his head which he assumed was from the soundtrack. He soon realized it wasn’t so he wrote down the basic structure of the song. Later that day he sang the unfinished song to the band at their pre-concert soundcheck at Wembley Arena. After the concert, Orbison paid the band an unannounced visit backstage, where a perplexed Bono played the song for him. Bono and Orbison worked again on the song in mid-November in Los Angeles. The album Mystery Girl was named after the song.
I haven’t seen all of David Fincher’s music videos, and I might be a little biased since I like Orbison so much, but I think this is the best one I’ve seen. I love that he did it with almost no one in the video. It’s all done as if we are a detective arriving on a series of scenes, and trying to piece together what happened.
According to Wikipedia, there are two versions of this video. This is the popular one where it is a grown woman that is planning on leaving, who we assume is Orbison because of the boots. In the other version, it’s a mother who is pursuing her young daughter who is about to board the plane. The woman is played by the same person in both videos. The big difference is that the second version has the one leaving return to the person showing up at the end rather than being left standing alone.
The only other video that I can think of that is quite as beautiful, or is at least very similar, is Butterfly, where Mariah Carey got veteran cinematographer, Daniel Pearl, to co-direct it with her.
The video was shot by Marc Reshovsky. He worked mainly as a cinematographer. However, he did get behind the camera for a few music videos like Nothin’ But A Good Time by Poison and I Remember You by Skid Row.
I’ve included the trailer below for the documentary made about the album, Mystery Girl, that was directed by Orbison’s son, Alex Orbison:
Also, assuming it is still up, here is Bono singing the song:
It’s amazing how much it sounds like something Bono would write, but it’s still inextricably linked to Orbison’s voice.
Sorry about the past couple of days. Things are messy here right now, so it will be spotty for awhile as to what music videos I can get around to writing about instead of simply spotlighting them. However, I am really determined to keep this going everyday regardless of whether I have time to write anything. Today is one of those days that I can write something.
The Internet tells me today is International Day of People with Disability. Or to put it another way, it is time I did a post on a Def Leppard music video. Specifically a Def Leppard song off of the Hysteria album. This really isn’t a spotlight on the music video, but I will briefly talk about it.
The music video is by director Wayne Isham and cinematographer Marc Reshovsky (he shot Teen Witch, Red Rock West, and Trevor) remaking Bon Jovi’s Livin’ On A Prayer for Def Leppard. After Def Leppard didn’t like the original music video Russell Mulcahy made for them, they made this music video. I guess Def Leppard didn’t like redoing Madhouse by Antrax with the wrecking ball on loan from the set of Balls To The Wall by Accept. Darn it! Now I am going to have to feature that version tomorrow. Sorry The Bangles, you’ll have to wait one more day. Oh, and yes, I really am pretty sure they remade Livin’ On A Prayer here. That music video was also directed by Wayne Isham and shot by Marc Reshovsky. They shot it at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, CO in February 1988.
The real reason I am spotlighting this music video today is for drummer Rick Allen. He was in a car accident on December 31st of 1984 that caused him to lose his left arm. After some initial doubts, they did a little engineering and figured out a way he could continue drumming for the band. The name of the album Hysteria was thought up by Allen as a reference to the car accident. Rick Allen continues to get around today doing work with groups like the Raven Drum Foundation and One Hand Drum Company. He has been quoted as saying:
“What I’ve experienced through losing my arm, I wouldn’t change. The human spirit is so strong”
I love that she basically stepped into the background about the whole thing to let Def Leppard shine. It’s not as awesome as when Madonna refused to perform for her Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction, but had The Stooges do it for her. Still, I like it. If you really want a good shot of the work they did to allow Allen to continuing drumming, then I highly recommend watching it. It also did her a service seeing as she is a good musician, but without the kind of voice needed to pull off the original. If she wanted to do a straight cover, then she would need to rework it a bit to make it fit. I hope she doesn’t though. I prefer her to use her star-power to introduce younger fans to older bands that they should be aware of, such as Def Leppard.
Through the Shattered Lens 