This is a historically-important video. It’s the final Whitesnake video to feature Tawny Kitaen. After the video, it was all downhill for Whitesnake as far as much videos were concerned. It turns out that people weren’t watching them because they wanted to see David Coverdale’s hair.
Marty Callner should be a familiar name by now. He was one of those music video directors who worked with everyone who was anyone.
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Originally, this video was going to feature Claudia Schiffer but, when Schiffer had to withdraw at the last minute, director Marty Callner suggested using David Coverdale’s then-girlfriend, Tawny Kitaean, instead. This was the first of four Whitesnake videos that would feature Kitaen. It’s also one of the reasons why my generation has a weakness for redheads.
Marty Callner was one of those directors who worked with everyone who was anyone. If you had a successful band in the 80s, there’s a good chance that Marty Callner directed at least one of your videos. Unfortunately, you weren’t dating Tawny Kitaen so your video was not a hit on MTV.
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Aerosmith and music video director Marty Callner were always a good combination, as seen in today’s music video of the day.
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This song was written about James Kimo Maano, a security guard and a good friend of Bret Michaels. Maano’s death inspired the song and, during the making of the video, footage of James Kimo Maano appeared on the screen behind Michaels in order to get a response from him. Michaels became so upset that he had to stop singing and it would be several hours before Michaels could return to the set and continue filming.
The director who so upset Bret Michaels was Marty Callner, who has directed videos for everyone from Aerosmith to Justin Timberlake. He directed several videos for Poison, both before and after the video for Something To Believe In.
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There some videos that you pick for video of the day because you really like the song or the band or even the director. There are other videos that you pick because it’s midnight and you suddenly realize that you still haven’t picked one yet. The videos that fall into the latter category usually feature competent bands in relatively simple performance clips.
(Flesh & Blood) Sacrifice was one of the singles come off of Poison’s third studio album, Flesh & Blood. This album was the first part of Poison’s attempt to move away from their hair metal image and embrace more serious themes. It turned out to be one of their best-selling albums, even though the band itself still found itself soon replaced on MTV by groups like Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
This music video was directed by Marty Callner, who was one of those directors who worked with just about everyone. If you were famous, you worked with Marty Callner.
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The anthem for dissatisfied 80s kids everywhere, We’re Not Gonna Take It has been co-opted by so many products and campaigns and political candidates that it might be easier to try to keep track of who hasn’t used it at some point. Dee Snider has always come out against anyone trying to claim the song’s message as their own.
The kid in the video is played by Dax Callner, the son of the video’s director. The kid’s father is played by Mark Metcalf, best-known for playing Douglas C. Neidermeyer in National Lampoon’s Animal House.
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Lovin’ it up when I’m goin’ down
I don’t think anyone has ever accused Aerosmith of being a particularly subtle band when it comes to the subject matter of their songs. That’s one reason why their fans love them. Love In An Elevator is one of their least subtle songs and, not coincidentally, it’s also one of their most popular.
The elevator operator is played by Brandi Brandt, who was Playboy’s playmate of the month for October of 1987. She had a brief acting career, one that largely consisted of this video and an appearance on Married With Children. Many years later, in 2014, she pleaded guilty to smuggling cocaine into Sydney and she did some time in prison in Australia. Fortunately, she received an early parole and is now safely back in California.
The video was directed by Marty Callner, who directed several videos for not only Aerosmith but almost every other popular band of the period as well.
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Dream On has been one of Aerosmith’s signature tunes since the band’s early days in the 70s but it didn’t get its own music video until 1993, when it was included on the soundtrack for Last Action Hero.
You may remember Last Action Hero as being the notorious box office disappointment that forced Arnold Schwarzenegger to start thinking about what he might be interested in doing if his film career ever came to an end (like entering politics, perhaps). It was also one of the first films to show Hollywood that Aerosmith’s music can literally be plugged into almost any scene in any movie. Despite its reputation, Last Action Hero is not that bad. The F. Murray Abraham cameo alone is worth the price of admission.
This video is made up of footage that was shot for MTV’s 10-year anniversary celebration in 1991. It was directed by Marty Callner, who directed music videos for everyone in the 90s.
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Every 80s hair band had to have at least one song that showed that, underneath all the debauchery and the partying, they were actually sensitive poets. Motley Crue had Home Sweet Home. Def Leppard had Two Steps Behind. And Poison had Every Rose Has Its Thorn.
This song was inspired by Bret Michaels’s relationship with his then girlfriend, Tracy Lewis. After playing a show in Dallas, Michaels called Lewis in Los Angeles and, in a scene reminiscent of Pink Floyd’s The Wall, he was shocked when another man answered the phone. Michaels wrote the song the next day while sitting in a laundromat.
(Presumably, the death of the landline phone has all but eliminated the risk of getting caught cheating as a result of the wrong person answering phone.)
The concert scenes in this video were filmed at a show in Green Bay, Wisconsin while the scenes of Bret Michaels and his girlfriend (his Rose?) were filmed in a warehouse. The video’s director, Marty Callner, was one of the top music video directors of the 80s and 90s. He worked with just about everyone.
Incidentally, Poison is a band that I always used to make fun of but then I saw them interviewed in Penelope Spheeris’s The Decline of Western Civilization Part II and they came across as being surprisingly well-adjusted, especially when compared to W.A.S.P’s Chris Holmes, who was famously interviewed while floating in a pool and pouring a bottle of vodka over himself.
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Written during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, Livin’ On The Edge was the first single off of Aerosmith’s 11th studio album, Get A Grip. It’s still one of their most commercially successful songs to date, spending nine weeks at the number one spot on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart.
The video features Edward Furlong, living a life almost as dangerous as the life lived by the delinquents in the video for Skid Row’s 18 and Life. Furlong, fortunately, manages to survive his time living on the edge. Furlong did this video shortly after starring in Terminator 2: Judgment Day.
The video also features Joe Perry playing a guitar solo in front of an incoming train. This scene was filmed on Lake Britton Bridge in Shasta County, California. The same bridge also appears in Stand By Me. If I remember correctly, at the same time that this video came out, there was also a PSA about the dangers of walking on railroad tracks that used to show up on television constantly. The spot featured two kids walking across a bridge, much like the one featured in this video when a train starts bearing down on them. At the end of the PSA, one of the kids manages to get off the bridge and then has to watch as the train runs over his slower friend. Whenever I see this video or hear this song, that’s what I think of.
This video was directed by Marty Callner, who directed the majority of Aerosmith’s videos.
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Through the Shattered Lens 