Tag Archives: music video
Music Video of the Day: Burning Down The House by Talking Heads (1983, dir. David Byrne)
I am in no position to write about this now, but I refuse to let a day go by without one of these posts. Just enjoy this classic Talking Heads song that drives home well that they were former art school students who started a new wave band.
If you want to know who worked on it, then you can look at the listing on IMDb.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Allentown by Billy Joel (1982, dir. Russell Mulcahy)
I know I have already done two Billy Joel music videos this year, but I opened my big mouth and brought up this one up a couple of posts ago. I figure I’d get it over with now.
Even though I burst through a bunch of the book I Want My MTV when I first got it, I’ve slowed down significantly, and I’m still stuck at the part where people are telling stories of drugs, alcohol, blow jobs, shrooms, cocaine, and even using a penis to sing a Rolling Stones song. I’m not joking about that last one. I’ll get to that Van Halen music video eventually. The point is that I am still stuck in the period numerous people in the book refer to as the Old West with lunatics running the asylum.
I bring that up because this music video has become notorious in the past decade or so for being one of the most homoerotic music videos of the early 1980s. People interviewed in the book bring up that this was a highly experimental period for music videos. That’s how you get crazy music videos like Anger Is My Middle Name by Thor. It’s also how you got Huey Lewis & The News singing to a woman in a bed who must be an incredibly heavy sleeper (Do You Believe In Love). Lewis thought it was ridiculous, but it was hit, so he figured that if that was what people wanted, then that would be their thing. That’s how we got things like Huey becoming Frankenstein’s Monster, The News getting decapitated, Huey finding a Lumiere brothers film behind a door at a party, and a sand shark trying to eat a family, among other things.
So, you take a highly experimental time when people were trying all sorts of things with some people deliberately making nutty music videos, and you wind up not being able to real say that this music video was intentionally homoerotic. Considering all the early music videos I have seen, I think not. One of the early appeals of MTV was that then exotic acts like ABC were suddenly being broadcast in the midwest.
Back then there seemed to be two masters of music videos. You had the women who were at the high-level because the music industry was largely a man’s game, but music videos had to be made, so they pawned the job off on women. Russell Mulcahy is basically the father of the modern music video. He tried all sorts of things. A good example being Total Eclipse Of The Heart for Bonnie Tyler. I think the stuff that is homoerotic was put in because it seemed to fit, and they were trying things no matter how crazy they seemed.
The most interesting part about this music video to me is that while it does have the mostly naked guys, the construction workers, and the unnecessary dancers at the end, it still is a good representation of what Billy Joel’s song is about. Even the homoerotic parts fit just fine into Joel’s intended message until you get to the end. I think the dancers at the end were probably choreographer Kenny Ortega’s idea to go with the whole thing looking like a play rather than reality.
Why the guy in white briefs? You got me. I get why there’s the guy in black briefs throwing the guitar around him in Faster Than The Speed Of Night. Bonnie Tyler’s best music videos are filled with what people perceive as binary, and sexual orientation is just another one of those things. They could have left out the white briefs guy. That just doesn’t have any reason I can think of to be there.
In summary, I suggest you watch the music video three times. The first time watch it how it was intended. The second time watch it for the homoerotic material. The third time combine the two to find that it still comes together.
Jackie Adams was the producer on the music video. You might recall her as the producer of both Rio for Duran Duran and Pressure by Billy Joel.
Doug Dowdle was the editor on the music video. He did a mix of editing, directing, and writing for music videos. He apparently even directed a music video for his own song Burning In Me. We’ll see him again when I finally get around to doing Bonnie Tyler music videos because he directed Holding Out For A Hero.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush (1987, dir. Jim Blashfield)
Now we get to the other version of Don’t Give Up. Or as I like to call it, the literal interpretation of the song Don’t Give Up. I don’t know why this version was made, but if you have only seen the beautiful version directed by Godley & Creme, then this is worth watching. It focuses on the sad meaning of the lyrics. Gabriel and Bush barely make an appearance in the music video. We instead follow the people the song is singing about.
While I don’t know for sure why this music video was made, I have a theory. I think it’s a pretty good one too. So far I have only written about three music videos directed by Godley & Creme: Don’t Give Up, Rockit, and Two Tribes. They also directed Every Breath You Take by The Police. That’s the gorgeous music video that has an interesting behind-the-scenes story. Every Breath You Take is also one of the most notoriously misinterpreted songs. So misinterpreted that people have gotten married to it and even couples sent Sting letters saying it was their song. The music video only reinforces that by not looking like anything that resembles the meaning of the song. Something tells me that while I’m sure that Gabriel thought Godley & Creme made a wonderful video, he was probably well aware of what happened to Every Breath You Take. It is very easy to watch the music video and misread what the song is about because you are overcome by the single take, the eclipse, and the deeply touching constant embrace between Gabriel and Bush. I did. I didn’t know the meaning of the song till I sat down to write these two posts.
That’s my best guess as to why this music video was commissioned. It is nowhere near as good as the original. However, it does get the meaning of the song across better. You can read more about the origin of the song over on Songfacts.
Jim Blashfield seems to have directed about 10 music videos and produced a couple of them for Sesame Street. He is still around today. You can find more information on him at his website.
Missy Stewart was the production designer on this music video. In particular, some of her last ones were for director Gus Van Sant. It should come as no surprise that she would go on to work as a production designer on a couple of Gus Van Sant films such as Good Will Hunting (1997). She is still around too, having worked on Mother’s Day this year. You can also find more information on her website.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush (1986, dir. Godley & Creme)
I don’t care that the YouTube video says “ft. Kate Bush”. It’s a duet–plain and simple.
Peter Gabriel sings the depressing parts and Kate Bush sings the uplifting parts. The music video reflects that beautifully. When it’s his turn, then they spin to reveal Gabriel. When it’s her turn, then they spin to reveal Bush. This goes on while the moon crosses the sun to reach eclipse at the mid-point of the song. It was done in a single take. Nice and simple for what is a no-frills song.
That’s it! I am not sure why they felt the need to film another music video for this song, but they did. Maybe they felt people wouldn’t listen to the lyrics and just focus on Gabriel and Bush in a six-and-a-half minute embrace.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: The Message by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five (1982, dir. Alvin Hartley)
I don’t want to talk about the messy history and battles over this song.
I am taking mvdbase’s word and saying this was released the same year as the single.
The music video makes a great double feature with Herbie Hancock’s Rockit. That one put turntablism at the forefront of the song. This one does the exact opposite by making Melle Mel’s vocals the focus of the song. The visuals are also at opposite ends of the spectrum. Rockit is very experimental and surreal. The Message is very down-to-earth and realistic. It does have some video effects, but it is all focused on the environment in which the character in the song lives. They filmed it in Harlem, New York.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Cult Of Personality by Living Colour (1989, dir. Drew Carolan)
I was going to save this for Inauguration Day, but I decided to go with it now for two reasons. One is that it is one of my favorite songs and music videos, so I couldn’t wait any longer. The second reason is that I came across a music video where Ric Ocasek of The Cars walks on water while Uncle Sam and others grab at him and he sings the line “Got A Hold On You”. The water being in a pool at Paris Hilton’s family’s estate. That’ll do unless I find something else better.
I don’t have much to say except to watch it. I’ll share a little backstory on it though, courtesy of the book I Want My MTV.
Steve Backer:
“When Living Colour came around, it was a head-scratcher. ‘Cult of Personality’ seems like an obvious hit now, but let’s face it, four black guys doing rock n’ roll wasn’t your everyday thing. The reaction from MTV wasn’t so much resistance as confusion: ‘What do we do with it?”
Vernon Reid, Living Colour:
“When I saw the playback of ‘Cult of Personality,’ I was like, America isn’t ready for this. There’s footage of SS troops, shots of Mussolini. It’s very confrontational.”
Steve Backer:
“The fact is, I got Living Colour on MTV by threatening to withhold a new Michael Jackson video. I called Frank DiLeo, who’d worked at Epic Records and was managing Michael. The ‘Smooth Criminal’ video was about to come out, and we had to decide who’d get the world premiere. I told Frank, ‘I’m having trouble getting Living Colour on MTV. Can I tell them they’re not going to get Michael unless they deal with Living Colour?’ Frank was our former head of promotion. He understood. He said, ‘Do what you gotta do. I’ll back you up.’
So I went to see Abbey, whom I didn’t know well. I was ridiculously nervous. I had Living Colour in one hand and Michael Jackson in the other. Abbey said, ‘Backer, this is not how we do business.’ And I said, ‘It’s exactly how you do business.’ They put ‘Cult of Personality’ into rotation.”
Corey Glover, Living Colour:
“We owe most of our career to Michael Jackson.”
Here is a live performance they gave in the past 10 years or so:
I love the song. I love the music video. I love that they didn’t let them being black keep them from doing rock. We need more artists that don’t let skin color, gender, where they grew up, or any other thing like that keep them from the kind of music they like or might be good at.
If Living Colour is up your alley, then I recommend the album …For the Whole World to See by Death. They’re the all-black proto-punk group that didn’t have their record released in the pre-Ramones 70s simply because they wouldn’t change their name. There’s a documentary about them that I also recommend called A Band Called Death (2012).
Here is their song Politicians In My Eyes that goes along with Cult of Personality:
You can find out about the director of the music video at his website.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: She’s A Beauty by The Tubes (1983, dir. Kenny Ortega)
Happy Birthday, Erin! If it weren’t for your Artwork of the Day posts, then these posts probably wouldn’t exist. I can’t thank you enough.
Okay, so why did I pick out this particular music video?
- The title fits with Erin’s handle on here.
- It starts off with a big picture of something you would find on a pulp novel that she would post. The mermaid later on also looks like something I would expect to see on an Artwork of the Day post.
- Just like The Warrior by Scandal that I featured for Lisa’s birthday, this was also shot by Texas Chainsaw Massacre cinematographer Daniel Pearl.
- Also, it connects exploitive artwork together with dancing thanks to director Kenny Ortega.
Speaking of Kenny Ortega, he has racked up an impressive list of accomplishments over the decades.
- Recently he brought us what I have been told is an abomination of a remake of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
- He also brought us the nightmare fuel that is the High School Musical films.
- He choreographed Material Girl for Madonna.
- A year before this music video he choreographed what has been deemed in recent years to be one of the most homoerotic music videos of the early-80s. That being the one for Billy Joel’s Allentown. Billy Joel himself is quoted in the book I Want My MTV about the video. He said that when it blew up on the Internet, he went back and took a look at it. He sees it too, but said that he honestly didn’t notice at the time. I believe him. It does look like a David DeCoteau 1313 movie at times except with dance and set to music. However, it still looks like a good representation of what Joel is singing about. I can see the homoeroticism going over Joel’s head.
- Oh, and he is credited with single-handedly destroying Billy Squier’s career with his music video for Squier’s song Rock Me Tonite that he made a year after this one. If you read this Lisa, anytime you want, just tell me, and you can take one of the days to do a post on that music video. I would love to see you tear it apart by talking about everything wrong with the horrifying dancing in it.
There was some justice on that fifth one. Based on his music video credits on mvdbase, it appears that after Rock Me Tonite, almost nobody wanted to work with him. That wouldn’t matter too much though since he was also working on films like St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), Pretty In Pink (1986), and Dirty Dancing (1987), to name a few, before also going on to direct Newsies (1992) for Disney.
As for The Tubes, they are a San Francisco band that has important connections to the formation of MTV.
In the early days of MTV, one of the things they were in desperate need of was cable subscribers. One of the most successful ways they spread cable was through the infamous “I Want My MTV” slogan. That goes back to the funny $1 story with Mick Jagger. Another way they got cable subscribers was by proving the network was having an effect on the record industry rather than just being a curiosity. This is where The Tubes play a big part.
John Sykes and Tom Freston were sent by Bob Pittman to Tulsa, Oklahoma because that was where they had the highest concentration of subscribers according to Freston. One night Pittman got a call from them with some news. They noticed that a record store in the area was sold out of The Tubes. Since they were the only one playing The Tubes, according to Pittman, they knew it had to be them. Pittman said that was the first evidence they had that they were causing records to be sold.
The music video for their song Prime Time was played on the first day of MTV. They also had a few more made in 1981 before having a big hit with She’s A Beauty. It was in heavy rotation on the network. It’s a prime example of the kind of music The Tubes made. They were known for things like What Do You Want From Life? (consumerism/media), Talk To Ya Later (sex/politics/media), and the song White Punks On Dope, which is about their own fans.
That’s the one where their lead singer would come out as the character named Quay-Lewd wearing ridiculously high platform heels while being dressed like some combination between a classical musician and a punk. In the performances I have seen on YouTube, they would have him get pinned down by a falling stack of amps during the instrumental portion. You can see a reference to that when “Beauty” and the kid plow through a stack of amps.
Chuck, my new concert correspondent, has this to say about seeing them live (you can also read it in the comments below):
There are very few bands I haven’t seen in concert at least once. The Tubes in concert were right at the top of my “best” list. They were absolutely incredible. If you didn’t love them when it started, you certainly did when it ended. They weren’t really concerts, but life changing, spectacular events.
At one of their concerts in Santa Monica, the ensemble on stage during their last song of the night included a full choir, three or four high school cheerleader squads, the UCLA drum corps and marching band, around 70 jugglers, dancers, acrobats, various musicians, circus animals, (including an elephant) The Tubes themselves, and gawd knows what else. Everyone in the audience was jumping on their seats, which isn’t easy in folding theater seats. We were all hoarse from singing along (screaming along?) during “WPOD”
… and all this was AFTER most of the audience had the crap scared out of them during a way too real “terrorist takeover” lead-in to “Funky Revolution.” Something no band would dare attempt nowadays.
The kid was played by the late Alexis Arquette. It was her first acting job at the age of 13.
Enjoy! Also, Happy Thanksgiving!
Music Video of the Day: Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant (1983, dir. Steve Barron)
I finally broke down, and went ahead and bought the book I Want My MTV. It’s a fascinating read so far. I am still in the founding years, but whether there was systemic racism or even next to none, they were destined to run into a color barrier issue. There was enough bad ingredients and thinking to make sure it happened. Perhaps that’s the reason why it only took two years for it to fall while being riddled with inconsistencies in between.
I bring that up because while I saw this music video many times as a kid, it wasn’t till now that I noticed it is a music video I would have thought verboten by MTV. Instead it was Super Freak by Rick James. That actually has an interesting story. It wasn’t rejected because James was black. It was rejected by a black woman at MTV who thought it was “crap” and wasn’t going to let that be the representation of her people on the network. I can totally get that. That video essentially took the set of an early-70s ABBA music video, threw a couple of props in, added some women fawning over James, and called it good. The song is great, but the video is underwhelming to say the least.
As for Electric Avenue, it is one of those music videos they showed from time-to-time as an example of an 80s one-hit-wonder. That was his biggest hit. It isn’t fair to call him a one-hit-wonder him though. Even to this year he is still in the news. According to Wikipedia, he is slated to receive a lifetime achievement award from Guyana–his country of birth. He’d been around since the mid-60s with the group The Equals. You might not recognize the name The Equals. You have probably heard one of their songs. They did Police On My Back, which was later covered by The Clash.
The music video also shouldn’t be cited as simply an example of a one-hit-wonder. One of the things that is clear in the pre-MTV setup chapters of I Want My MTV is that artists were already chomping at the bit to have films that didn’t just overlay their music over scenes. They wanted film that knew how to use their songs, their meaning, and would be a representation of the song. It was not as revolutionary as Herbie Hancock’s Rockit. Still, it does get the gist of the song across to the audience.
It has Eddy watching TV at the beginning. He finally turns it off, walks towards the TV, and creates one of the most iconic bits in music video history. He drops into a pool of water trying to reach his television. He then appears to wash up on the beach in the real world where what appears to be two white cops/vigilantes are on the prowl. He seems to be stalked by these two people who I am pretty sure are white. In the end, it is a shot of has face.
According to Wikipedia:
“The song’s title refers to an area historically known as Electric Avenue; a reference to the first place electricity lighted the streets in the market area of Brixton, South of London. This is an area known in the modern times for its high population of Caribbean immigrants and high unemployment. Tensions grew until violence hit the street now known as the 1981 Brixton riot. A year later, this song played over the airwaves.”
I’m really curious about when and how much this music video aired on MTV considering the content. I know his music fit with the kind they wanted to play. Wikipedia says it was thrown in for racial diversity. That doesn’t change the fact that it screams unplayable by MTV during this time.
Director Steve Barron made it. He is one of the most influential music video directors of his time. I’ve already covered three of them, and I wasn’t even trying. He seems to have directed all but a couple of Eddy Grant’s music videos.
I want to make special note that I put 1983 as the release date for the music video even though IMVDb says 1982. Mvdbase even says the music video came out in January of 1983. That’s because while it was a big hit in the UK in 1982, based on the Wikipedia article, it didn’t make its way to the United States until 1983.
Enjoy!
Music Video of the Day: Rockit by Herbie Hancock (1983, dir. Godley & Creme)
I don’t have much to say about this music video that I assume everyone has seen at this point. MTV & VH1 used to bring it up all the time whenever they would look at their early history and for good reason. Not only is it amazing, but it also won five VMAs at the first Video Music Awards in 1984. That’s particularly notable since it was the year people generally agree is when the color barrier at MTV basically disappeared.
In the time since I wrote about Rapture by Blondie, I went and read the article on Wikipedia about the color barrier at MTV. There seems to be only three things that people agree on.
- MTV started off deciding to go with the radio format known as Album-oriented Rock, or AOR for short, before moving to a Top 40 model in 1984.
- They had really bad research about their audience that they ran with to one degree or another.
- Billie Jean broke the color barrier.
Even that third one is in dispute and isn’t entirely accurate. Some people believe that Pass The Dutchie by Musical Youth broke the color barrier. Also, while Billie Jean certainly put a big crack in the barrier, it really didn’t fully come down till the summer of 1983 with other music videos by black artists, which I imagine included this one.
The fact that there was even a barrier in the sense that people think of when they hear the word “barrier” is disputable. Rapture by Blondie aired as the 48th music video on the very first day of MTV, and it is basically Debbie Harry advertising rap music along with numerous black artists featured in the music video and some names included in the song. It seems like there was an almost day to day set of decisions about which videos would fly with their audience. I really would love to know the details about when Eddy Grant’s music video Electric Avenue aired. It must have been a confusing time for all the parties involved at MTV, the record companies, and the artists because they all had to know they were leaving a bunch of money on the table.
I put up that this music video came out in 1983 because while IMVDb says 1984, both mvdbase and the music video itself say 1983. I would love to know for sure if we got such an experimental music video with minimal insertions of Hancock because of the color barrier. An article on How We Get To Next seems to indicate so with a link to the book I Want My MTV (the pages were locked so I couldn’t view them). The other thing that hints that he was relegated to the TV is because it is smashed at the end. Regardless, I love that Hancock only shows up on short shots of the TV. It’s as if he isn’t just performing the song, but is a person behind the scenes controlling both the robots and the video itself through his song. In the process, it also places a heavy emphasis on the music and its visual representation.
It is a great example of an early MTV music video that really showcased the potential for the medium. The song itself helped to popularize scratching and turntablism, which was done by Grand Mixer DXT.
Roo Aiken was the Editor.
Jim Whiting and Roger Deacon were art directors.
Lexi Godfrey and John Gayden/Gaydon were producers.
Hancock still gets around today. He is slated to appear in an upcoming Luc Besson sci-fi movie and even made a cameo appearance on Girl Meets World.
Enjoy!
Through the Shattered Lens 