Music Video of the Day: Madness by Muse (2012, directed by Anthony Mandler)

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

I, I can’t get these memories out of my mind
And some kind of madness has started to evolve
I, I tried so hard to let you go
But some kind of madness is swallowing me whole, yeah

I don’t smoke because 1) I have asthma, 2) I have a predisposition to addiction, and 3) I’m so obsessive compulsive that if I did start smoking, I would become the biggest chain smoker in the world and I’d end up being one of those women you see in anti-smoking commercials, popping out her fake teeth and pointing at the hole in her throat. That’s not for me.

That said, if I ever do start smoking, it’ll probably because of this song and this video. Seriously, just the opening bass line makes me want to light up. And then the video itself proves that smoking is pretty photogenic when the cigarettes are being held by beautiful people.

The song, itself, was written by Matt Bellamy after he had a fight with his then-girlfriend, Kate Hudson. According to Bellamy, he was reflecting on the fight and thought to himself, “Yeah, she was right, wasn’t she?”

As for the video, it features two lovers on a train, dealing with their own issues while a riot rages around them. The two lovers are played by Erin Wasson and Max Silberman, both of whom are achingly pretty. (For some reason, the usually reliable imvdb insists that the man on the train was played by Emile Hirsch. Sorry, that’s definitely Max Silberman.)

Of course, the idea of two lovers in the middle of a protest immediately makes me think of this famous picture, which was taken in Vancouver during a riot:

And, of course, there’s this Ray-Ban advertisement:

(If the majority of protesters looked as good as the people in the video and these two pictures, I might even be inspired to go to a march or two.)

(Also, be happy that I resisted the temptation to include a picture from that Kendall Jenner Pepsi commercial. I came really close to doing it but, in the end, I couldn’t do it. I was born a Coke drinker and I’ll die a Coke drinker. Pepsi tastes too much like Vermont for me.)

This video was directed by Anthony Mandler, who has directed several videos for everyone from Jay-Z to Taylor Swift to Justin Bieber. (The imvdb credits him with 74 videos.) The gorgeous cinematography is credited to David Devlin.

Mario Contini, who is credited as being 1st Assistant Cameraman on Madness, was later the director of photography for Saint Motel’s My Type.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: A Whiter Shade of Pale by Procol Harum (1967, dir by ?????)

Posted on May 12, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

What to say about A Whiter Shade of Pale? This is one of the essential songs. I grew to love it as a result of it showing up on the soundtrack of some of my favorite movies. If you’re watching a film that’s set in the 60s, chances are that you’re going to hear A Whiter Shade of Pale at some point. (The song is also used to haunting effect in Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves.) To be honest, even before I knew the song’s title or that it was originally recorded in 1967 by a group called Procol Harum, I knew that organ melody.

A Whiter Shade of Pale was one of the biggest hits of 1967. John Lennon reportedly loved it so much that he would often play it over and over again in his limousine. I don’t blame him. It’s good driving music. There’s a lot of debate as to what exactly the song is actually about. Who or what are the Vestal Virgins meant to represent? Who is skipping the light fandango? What’s up with feeling seasick?

Here’s what lyricist Ken Reid told Songfacts about the song’s meaning:

“It’s sort of a film, really, trying to conjure up mood and tell a story. It’s about a relationship. There’s characters and there’s a location, and there’s a journey. You get the sound of the room and the feel of the room and the smell of the room. But certainly there’s a journey going on, it’s not a collection of lines just stuck together. It’s got a thread running through it….I feel with songs that you’re given a piece of the puzzle, the inspiration or whatever. In this case, I had that title, ‘Whiter Shade of Pale,’ and I thought, There’s a song here. And it’s making up the puzzle that fits the piece you’ve got. You fill out the picture, you find the rest of the picture that that piece fits into.”

As for the video itself, this is actually the second video that was made for A Whiter Shade of Pale. (Of course, in 1967, they were called promotional films and they often played on a type of jukebox known as a scopitone.) The first video featured footage of the band walking through the ruins of a castle and playing the song. It also featured a few quick cuts of Vietnam War footage. This was considered so controversial that Top of the Pops banned the video from airing. Hence, a second, far less political video was filmed.

(Apparently, a third video was filmed in the 80s. It featured Harry Dean Stanton and, since it’s on YouTube, maybe we’ll feature it at some point in the future.)

Anyway, I really like the video above. It’s a real time capsule, even if it is bereft of references to Vietnam. I like the fact that the members of the band appear to be struggling to keep a straight face throughout most of the video.

Plus, it’s just a kickass song!

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: My Type by Saint Motel (2014, directed by A/J Jackson)

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Today’s music video of the day is Saint Motel’s My Type. I don’t have too much to say about this one, beyond the fact that I like the retro feel of both the song and the video. This is a fun song to dance to and that’s certainly something that this video captures.

This video was directed by A/J Jackson, Saint Motel’s lead vocalist. Jackson has said that he was going for a cross of “early 70s cigarette ads and New York street photography.” Myself, I like to think of the video as being an outtake from a lost Joe Sarno movie.

This video’s cinematographer was Mario Contini while Cody Fusina is credited with production design.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Upfront With You By Universal Honey (1996, dir by ?????)

Posted on May 10, 2017 by Lisa Marie Bowman

As we all know, music video of the day has always been and always will be Val’s baby. Starting with If You Don’t Know Me By Now in June of 2016, Val has shared and analyzed over 300 music videos! It’s become one of my favorite of our regular features here on the Shattered Lens.

As most of you know, for health reasons, Val is taking a temporary break from this feature. Until Val comes back, I figured that I might occasionally share a video or two. Admittedly, I do not have Val’s encyclopedic knowledge of music (and I should admit that my musical taste pretty much begins and ends with EDM) but what Val and I do share is a deep appreciation for a little Canadian show called Degrassi.

See, it was that love of Degrassi that led me to the video below. Earlier tonight, I was rewatching Death of a Disco Dancer, the third episode of Degrassi’s fifth season. In this episode, Paige is upset that her friend, co-worker, and classmate, Alex, doesn’t seem to care about going to college. When Degrassi hosts a college fair, Paige attempts to entice Alex to attend by offering her a joint.

“Will you go if you’re high?” Paige asks.

“I’ll go if you’re high,” Alex answers.

The two of them duck into an alley and light up the joint. What follows is perhaps the best three minute montage in the history of Degrassi as a very stoned Paige and Alex walk through the fair, giggling at all the Canadian college recruiters. It’s all good fun until Paige discovers that a friend of her mother’s is at the fair. Uh-oh!

Anyway, I’ve always loved the song that plays during the montage. It’s called Upfront With You and it’s performed by a Canadian band called Universal Honey. After watching the episode tonight, I looked the song up on YouTube and that’s when I came across the video that was made for it in 1996.

Now, despite doing a handful of Google searches, I can’t tell you who directed or worked on this video. I can tell you that Universal Honey has been around since 1992 and the band is made up of Leslie Stanwyck and Johnny Sinclair. (Before Universal Honey, they were both in a band called The Pursuit of Happiness.) Up Front With You is off of their first album, Magic Basement.

Not surprisingly, this is a Canadian band. One of the great things about Degrassi is that it exposed me to a lot of Canadian bands that I, as an American, might otherwise have never heard of.

Anyway, enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Goodbye To You by Scandal (1982, dir. ???)

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I’m not really saying goodbye to you. However, these posts are going to become sporadic for at least the next couple of weeks. I’ve had a chronic cough since I was a little kid. The pulmonologist I am seeing has started me on large doses of prednisone that even he said my system might not be able to handle. But it’s been at least 25+ years of this cough, so I’ll try it. It just means I won’t be able to keep up these posts consistently for a bit.

Anyways, remember that video for The Warrior that Patty Smyth didn’t like, and called an off-Broadway production of Cats? I don’t blame you if you don’t. It’s that video where Smyth was in crazy makeup, there was a dance battle, and some guy breaks a girl’s back, but the video barely calls attention to it. I’ve loved that crazy music video since I saw it a while back. This one I didn’t see until a few years ago.

From what I can tell, this was Scandal’s first music video, which explains the PBS text at the start, and it being a performance video. According to Songfacts, Smyth credits MTV with this song’s success since it didn’t get much radio airplay, but did get played on MTV a lot. Assuming that’s accurate, and MTV could see the results in the marketplace, I bet they played this frequently since they needed to prove that their network could affect record sales.

While saying that it is a “performance video” might make you think of something bland, I don’t think so. I like the set, lighting, and costumes. As far as that area is concerned, I think this looks better than Jump by Van Halen. No, I’m not just saying that since Smyth was the one who was initially approached to replace David Lee Roth. Jump is great, but I still like the look of this better. I also like the rest of the band members trying to do the most eye-catching things in response to whatever Smyth is doing at given moment.

Speaking of Smyth, she is all over the place here. I would love to know what direction she was given.

Patty. You’re hot, spunky, have a great voice, and are a good performer. As long as you play to those strengths, then do whatever feels right in the moment. I’ll get it on camera.

Right up in Ivan’s face! I love it!

You and Zack, that’s great! Keep it up!

Spin, Patty! Spin!

Yeah, drape yourself on the keyboard too.

A little leg can’t hurt.

Get in on this Benjy!

A heel shuffle across the floor. Perfect!

You wrote the song Zack, so always feel free to jump in with one of those looks.

Jump around and point at things.

That’s a rap!

From all the really early 80s music videos I have looked at, the two types that were typically successful were either all over the place like Harden My Heart by Quarterflash, or were stage performances with a charismatic lead-singer like Patty Smyth or David Lee Roth. The video for The Warrior was the first, and this earlier video is an example of the second.

One thing specifically about the song is that while not shown in the video, Paul Shaffer plays a solo on the keyboard based on Runaway by Del Shannon. I only really bring it up because Bon Jovi also did a song by the same title, and apparently Jon Bon Jovi was briefly the guitarist for Scandal in 1983. You can see him below in the early low-budget version of Love’s Got A Line On You.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Gimmie! Gimmie! Gimmie! (A Man After Midnight) by ABBA (1979, dir. Lasse Hallström)

Posted on May 1, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

https://vimeo.com/32376545

I had to go and check ABBA: The Movie (1977) because there is a part within that movie that is almost identical to this. However, that part was for the song Thank You For The Music. Otherwise, it’s the same. I’m guessing that Hallström and the band thought it was worth reusing for this song. It works. It just leaves me with little to say unless I want to make an overused reference to Rock: It’s Your Decision (1982).

The one thing I can mention is that this song has been covered and sampled many many times. One of the more notable cases being the sampling of it in Hung Up by Madonna. According to Songfacts, she sent an “emissary” to Stockholm to get permission from Benny and Björn. According to Wikipedia, that was only the second time that an ABBA song had been given official permission to be sampled. The other being Rumble In The Jungle by Fugees, which used The Name Of The Game.

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: Honey Honey by ABBA (1974, dir. ???)

Posted on April 30, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I messed up again, because cut back to 1974, and there appears to be a music video for their song Honey Honey.

Nothing especially notable about it other than that Frida appears to have been shot with a tranquilizer before filming. They also appear to be shooting on a set designed to see if the cinematographer can keep camera reflections from showing up.

Oh, and there’s this.

Why? Was it completely necessary to show the world Agnetha and Frida’s orgasm face just because there’s some heavy breathing in the song?

So yeah, a decade before Cyndi Lauper would do this same thing in a car for She Bop, Agnetha and Frida of ABBA did it too.

She Bop by Cyndi Lauper (1984)

At least the costumes are fine. Better than the unfortunate outfits Bucks Fizz had to wear in 1981. I also call Bucks Fizz, ABBA 2.0, which is why I am mentioning them here.

The Land Of Make Believe by Bucks Fizz (1981)

Enjoy!

ABBA retrospective:

Music Video of the Day: I Eat Cannibals by Toto Coelo/Total Coelo (1982, dir. Mike Brady)

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

I don’t have a lot of guilty pleasures in the realm of music. I will usually defend just about anything that I enjoy. A good example of that is Debbie Gibson. Still, if I had to list one band that could qualify, then it would be Toto Coelo (or Total Coelo as they were renamed to in the US). I’m guessing they renamed the band in America so as not to confuse people into thinking they had something to do with the band Toto.

This seems to have been their only hit song. But they did a couple of music videos for other fun songs like Milk From The Coconut, which was supposed to be in the unfinished sequel to Grizzly that had them in it. They also did one called Dracula’s Tango (Sucker For Your Love). They’re all stupid, but fun. Just like this music video. I’m pretty sure Milk From The Coconut was supposed to be taken seriously. However, it’s tough to do so after you’ve seen them sing it on the stage in Grizzly II.

I’m guessing leather-clad Toto Coelo are the evil ones.

Whereas the multi-colored ones are meant to lure you in. I’m not sure why she pokes a balloon and it turns into an apple.

I wonder whether she was reading her lines off-camera or if there was something going on during shooting.

My favorite part of the video has to be the cannibal dance.

Mike Brady directed the video. He seems to have made about 80 videos from the beginning of the 80s through the 90s.

Jon Roseman produced the video. He worked as a producer, writer, and director on numerous music videos. From what I can find on sites other than mvdbase, he was a pioneer in music videos during the 1970s and 1980s. He even wrote an autobiography called From Here to … Obscurity. You can read some things he had to say about well-known music videos he was involved with over at Financial Times. You can find articles with him and other music video notables in Billboard magazine from the early 80s. There’s a quote from producer Paul Flattery in the book I Want My MTV that isn’t exactly kind about Roseman. I won’t repeat it.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Trees by Rush (1978, dir. ???)

Posted on April 28, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Happy Arbor Day!

It was the first thing that popped into my head when I saw Arbor Day was coming up.

Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart said this about an alleged message of the song to the magazine Modern Drummer:

“No. It was just a flash. I was working on an entirely different thing when I saw a cartoon picture of these trees carrying on like fools. I thought, ‘What if trees acted like people?’ So I saw it as a cartoon really, and wrote it that way. I think that’s the image that it conjures up to a listener or a reader. A very simple statement.”

If you want to discuss the politics, or lack there of in this song, then don’t worry. You can hop on over to YouTube, and people in the comments section will be glad to interpret it as a libertarian masterpiece, just a fun a song about two factions of trees fighting each other, and anything else you think it means.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: The Perfect Kiss by New Order (1985, dir. Jonathan Demme)

Posted on April 27, 2017 by Valerie Troutman

Rest in peace, Jonathan Demme.

New Order is a band that was formed by the remaining members of Joy Division after the death of lead singer Ian Curtis. To most people, they are probably best-known for their song Blue Monday. That’s how I know of them. I think this is the first time I have heard another song by them.

Obviously the video is notable for the fact that it runs just short of 11 minutes with credits. Visually, there is a disconnection between the members of the band, and themselves with their instruments. There isn’t even a shot of the whole band together till halfway through the video. There’s a solemn mood about the whole thing–from the walls, to the looks on their faces. It was apparently shot in the band’s practice room. You can see a Joy Division poster in the background, which adds even more sadness to the whole thing.

From what I have read, this was a live video. That would explain why their isn’t a lot of glamour here. Maybe if this were on a stage, and in front of an audience, then it would. But this is just in their practice room. There is a nice article over on Billboard magazine’s website that goes into more detail than I can, but it boils down to the same thing. It is a noteworthy live video that captures New Order–warts and all–performing an exhausting composition live, alone, and far from any kind of glamour or artiness of a Blue Monday ’88 or Regret. If I had to guess, the disconnection was intentional in order to visually convey the separation of the different artists’ parts in the song, the concentration that purges the individual to a well-oiled machine, and the fact that some of the song was performed on the fly, while other parts were pre-programmed.

Enjoy!