“Initially, it was going to be footage of the band performing contrasted with footage of the movie. One member of the group objected to that because he wanted to feel that the group was a group on its own and not just tied to the movie, which was pretty valid motivation. I didn’t agree with it. I thought, ‘Hey, let’s capitalize on this movie.’ The same person came up with a storyboard mimicking Stallone’s rise to fortune to a young band from Chicago’s rise to fortune and notoriety. That became the video of a band woodshedding in a funky warehouse, then walking down the street in a funky part of town with determination on their face and eventually hitting the big stage and performing the song. That’s what came out. It was a popular video, but it was in the very early days of video. I look at it now and just cringe because it was so stiff and primitive.” –Jim Peterik
Oh, Peterik. You can cut yourself some slack. Pat Benatar can beat this music video in the cringe-worthy department with the one for her song You Better Run. Plus, there’s always 1986’s The Karate Rap. The only bad thing I see in this music video is the ridiculous idea of having the band members simulate getting hit in a boxing ring. Otherwise, you’ve just got Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve followed by the alley from Never Say Never by Romeo Void swapped out for a garage, and it ends on the set of Talking In Your Sleep by The Romantics. I see nothing wrong with that, and it certainly didn’t belong on WatchMojo’s list of the Top 10 Ridiculous 1980s Music Videos. Besides, what’s better? A fun blood-pumping music video for Eye Of The Tiger that people remember, or a stage-performance video for Burning Heart? I’ll go with Eye Of The Tiger any day of the week.
The information on who directed this music video is a little murky. If you go on to mvdbase, then it says Victoria Rain Kiriakis. I couldn’t find any information on who she is. I have come across some videos mis-credited to someone on there before, so I am inclined to believe Songfacts, which tells me that William Dear directed it. If that’s true, then this music video could have been a lot worse. It could have had a sasquatch in it. William Dear directed Harry and the Hendersons (1987).
I probably won’t do one of these next year, but it happens to be the 50th anniversary of Kwanzaa. That, and I got lucky to come across a legit Kwanzaa music video. I say legit in the sense that it didn’t come across as something that was meant to be shown to children to teach them about the holiday.
When I went to this song, I was treated to a link to a hilarious video where someone was trying to make fun of Kwanzaa and brought up its founder’s past. I kept thinking: “You don’t want to go down that road. Your religion won’t survive the trip.” Besides, since at least 1997, Kwanzaa is no longer intended to be an adversarial holiday to Christmas. Why should it be? There’s no reason it needs to conflict with someone’s religious beliefs as its founder himself said.
As for the music video, it’s nice and simple. It touches on themes of Kwanzaa, but isn’t just educational like I the other Kwanzaa related music videos I came across. There is also something that I highly doubt Hoffman intended when making this music video. I thought Hoffman’s dancing reminded me of a famous music video, so I did mute the song and played Never Gonna Give You Up over it. At about two minutes and thirty seconds it does start to sync up. Its not as good as that Gumby video syncing up with the one for Torn by Natalie Imbruglia. Still, I thought I would mention it. I doubt Hoffman meant that to be the case. Nevertheless, I’ll give her credit for it anyways.
The post on YouTube is ambiguous as to who directed the music video. That’s why I left it blank. However, it does tell you who shot and edited it. That would be Nick Marcoux. I couldn’t find any information on him.
It’s Last Christmas by Wham! What is there to say? Okay, I guess I can say a few things such as that the only reason I didn’t go with one of The Darkness’ Christmas music videos is because I intend to use one of their’s for Valentine’s Day.
There are two interesting details that Wikipedia pointed out to me. The girl that Michael gave the brooch to “Last Christmas” wears said brooch right side up, while Ridgeley’s character wears it is upside down. Also, apparently this music video was the last time George Michael was filmed clean-shaven.
Andy Morahan directed this music video. He’s directed somewhere around 130 music videos. He also directed Highlander: The Final Dimension (1994), which makes the first three Highlander movies done by directors who made music videos.
It was shot by Peter Mackay who has shot only a handful of music videos, but they include songs like Love Will Tear Us Apart by Joy Division, In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins, and Radio Ga Ga by Queen.
Ridgeley’s girlfriend is played by model Kathy Hill.
The video also has former backup singers Helen “Pepsi” DeMacque and Shirlie Hollimam in it along with Spandau Ballet’s bassist Martin Kemp who went on to marry Shirlie. Kemp also happened to be in an episode of the Highlander TV Show.
“There are so many Christmas songs out there. I wanted to give the Jewish kids something to be proud of. We’ve got Adam Sandler’s song, which is hilarious, but I wanted to try to get across some of the depth and spirituality inherent in the holiday in a fun, celebratory song. My boy Kojak was in town so at the last minute we went into the studio in the spirit of miracles and underdogs and this is what we came up with. Happy Hannukah!” — Matisyahu
It also happens to be one of the craziest holiday music videos I’ve come across–Hanukkah or otherwise. Sure, there is that ridiculous Hall & Oates one and the one done by The Ramones, but this one has a Jew getting knocked over by a guy wearing a Santa hat who then wakes up in a bed with a Roman being fed grapes by a lady standing next to said bed. That’s pretty weird, and only the beginning of it.
I know there is sort of a controversy surrounding Matisyahu. It isn’t even listed under a “controversy” section on Wikipedia. He shaved his beard, dyed his hair, got divorced, and moved on from being so religious. That appears to be all there is to it. I just want people to enjoy this fun music video for the holidays.
There are at least two cast members worth mentioning.
Antiochus is played by Tony Cavalero who has gone on to be in quite a few things including Becoming Santa (2015), which Lisa reviewed last year.
Oh, and the lady standing next to the bed is none other than Jacqui Holland of late night cable fame in an early role. Yes, I know she has done other things, but that’s where I know her from and I’ve reviewed all but one of them on the site. I love spotting her in earlier roles. It’s like spotting Marilyn Monroe in movies before she became famous. I didn’t even recognize her till I saw her name in the credits.
According to my calendar, it is The Emperor of Japan’s birthday today. I’ve always wondered why that’s on United States calendars. Regardless, this gives me an opportunity to feature a music video by the Japanese heavy metal band Loudness.
I am not going to go into the history of the band. If you are interested in their career, then I recommend the Wikipedia article on them. I will mention two things though. They were the first Japanese metal act to be signed to a major label in the US. According to Wikipedia, they have released twenty-six studio albums (five in America) and nine live albums as of 2014, having started in 1981.
As for the music video, you aren’t hallucinating about the title of this post. This music video was directed by the same person who directed …Baby One More Time by Britney Spears. I’ve only done two music videos by Nigel Dick so far. The other one being Wonderwall by Oasis. I might have mentioned it before, but he seems to be the Michael Curtiz of music videos. He doesn’t have any distinct signature like Michel Gondry. He seems to be a director you go to with whatever you need made, and he turns in a quality music video.
At first I thought I had no idea why this music video looks the way it does. It makes some sense to me now.
It’s shot in what looks like the Mad Max universe, so you have the post-apocalyptic look to it. That probably represents the death of Imperial Japan via the atomic bomb. You have the American car, plane, and TV sticking out of the desert since Japan would rise again technologically. It also probably represents the quick turnover of American culture.
The flag behind them is The Flag of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force that has been in use since 1954. From what I can gather, it is the same as the Flag of the Imperial Japanese Navy that was in use prior to the American Occupation, but isn’t the same flag as the War flag of the Imperial Japanese Army.
The band is playing a genre of music that originated in Britain, then invaded the United States in the 80s with it in the same way that the British invaded the states in the 60s after taking up blues and early rock. Both countries having attacked the United States in the past before having close ties down the road.
We see a samurai sword plunged into the ground at about the midpoint of the song, which also seems to represent death of old Japan without having to abandon pride in their country as shown by the flag.
In the end, the flag is in shown in shadow and a guitar in flames. I see that as rock being a universal language that transcends borders and burns brighter than any flag.
There seems to be two forces tearing at the Japanese since the war. Symbols representing pride in their nation without actually celebrating the awful things done during WWII under those same symbols. That seems to tie-in with the lyrics of the song. I know it all ties together somehow.
That’s my best attempt at an interpretation without really reading up on a bunch of history of the country, the flag, and the band.
One more thing. I don’t know if it was a continuity error or not, but the flag appears to change positions are certain times in the video. It even looks like it has disappeared at about three minutes and forty-nine seconds. If the video weren’t filled with so much symbolism, then I wouldn’t have mentioned it.
This was shot by cinematographer Dariusz Wolski whose work you have most likely seen. He shot four of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, The Crow (1994), Dark City (1998), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Prometheus (2012), and The Martian (2015), among others.
I love that this is a Japanese metal band whose music video is made by a British director and shot by a Polish cinematographer for an American audience that covers similar issues that were faced by post-war Germany and Italy using the genre of rock that was seen as a savior for people living under Communist rule during the 80s that also happened to be a high point of the Cold War.
Sorry for keeping this short. Just before I sat down to write this yesterday, I became so dizzy that I collapsed. I am going to try and stay in bed all day. Luckily, there isn’t much to say that I haven’t already in my posts for Dog Police by Dog Police and Old Timer by That Dog.
You have a music video that uses similar dog makeup and themes from Dog Police, but without the humor. It is played straight. You have Spike Jonze collaborator and drummer for That Dog–Tony Maxwell–playing Charles. Charles comes to the big city obviously different from everyone else because he is a dog person–much like someone moving from the country or suburbs to the big city. That makes him in the process of trying to adapt to a new place. He also has the physical handicap of a broken leg that that doesn’t really come into play except to complement the mental handicap that the radio represents. We see that not only does it have a sentimental tie to his youth as shown by the picture with his dad, but we also see that he literally can’t turn it off because of the missing buttons. He does run into an old friend and would be able to follow her on the bus were it not for the radio he can’t turn off yet and the bus doesn’t allow radios. It also means he will have a tough time getting people to accept him in much the same way that the band did to get to this music video that included a review of a pre-Daft-Punk album by Melody Maker that called the music they made as “a dafty punk thrash.” There’s more you can read in the “history” section on Wikipedia that ties into this video as well.
It all sounds quite depressing. However, we know throughout, and at the ending, that the short time we have spent with him is only a rough patch–he’ll make it through. I guess you could look at the ending as him going out into the street as a suicide attempt. I don’t see it that way. I see tough times ahead for Charles. Tough times that Charles will be able to overcome as we can see that he has a strong spirit despite the barriers to entry that the big city throws at him.
A stylistic choice that is interesting here is that it is shot on the streets rather than the studio music videos people are typically familiar with even from Spike Jonze.
My calendar says it’s the first day of Winter today, so I figured I would spotlight this Tori Amos song. I have only talked about one other music video of hers so far. That being Silent All These Years. Basically everything I said about that music video applies to this one too. The only difference is that this time director Cindy Palmano populated the music video with coming-of-age imagery. It is even as misleading in that it also primarily sells Amos as a the girl with a piano, which is how they marketed her at the beginning. It looks like it took till Cornflake Girl and/or God, depending on whether you look at mvdbase or IMVDb, before they hit on the kind of music videos that get across what you are in for with Tori Amos.
To my knowledge, they continued doing work together photo-wise into the mid-to-late-90s even though they stopped doing videos after 1994, according to mvdbase. It makes sense since while Palmano’s videos are certainly beautiful to look at, they really showcase her talents as a photographer rather than capturing Tori using the medium of a music video. To be fair, her first album is different from her subsequent stuff, so it is kind of like complaining that a writer isn’t describing Francois Truffaut correctly when the only movie of his they have seen is The 400 Blows (1959).
For whatever reason, IMVDb has quite different information about her early videos. IMVDb says 1991 for Silent All These Years while mvdbase says 1993. I am trusting IMVDb since Silent All These Years was released as a single in 1991. It makes more sense to me.
I don’t have much to say about this Spike Jonze music video. This was the same year Jonze did Buddy Holly, Sure Shot, and Sabotage. It’s a simple little indie music video. They probably had an afternoon to shoot in a little hotdog stand, so they made this video.
The reason I am spotlighting it is because I felt it was necessary to do this in between Dog Police and Da Funk. I am not sure whether Spike Jonze and drummer Tony Maxwell were already friends at this time. Maxwell would go on to do other things including playing Charles from Da Funk by Daft Punk that was directed by Spike Jonze two years after this video.
Let’s do the Erics in one batch. Eric Zumbrunnen edited the music video. He also edited Buddy Holly by Weezer, It’s Oh So Quiet by Björk, Where It’s At by Beck, and Weapon Of Choice by Fatboy Slim, among a couple of other music videos. He would go on to edit some feature films like Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), Where The Wild Things Are (2009), and Her (2013). Eric Matthies was the producer of the music video. He shot two music videos for Nine Inch Nails that were both directed by Eric Zimmerman. Matthies also has a bunch of producing and directing credits on IMDb. Yep, there’s three Erics tied to this music video for some reason.
Speaking of “for some reason”, Tony Maxwell is credited at the start of this music video as “Yoga”. You got me. However, that means Weapon of Choice had a “Philosophical Consultant” in K.K. Barrett, and this one had someone credited as “Yoga”. Maybe Jonze just likes to oddly credit people. Again, you got me.
That Dog would last till 1997 before reuniting in 2011. There are at least two more music videos for them where the band turns more and more into late-90s groups like Garbage and No Doubt in terms of looking polished and colorful. I feel like if I did Never Say Never and He’s Kissing Christian, then I’d need to do the two versions of Ready To Go by Republica and Don’t Speak by No Doubt respectively to go along with them.
Seeing as Lisa requested I do Da Funk by Daft Punk, I thought it was appropriate to do a couple of other music videos leading up to it, including this infamous one.
Back in the 80s, there was a show on MTV called Basement Tapes. I can’t really find much information on it. As far as I can tell, they would air DIY music videos that were in a competition on the show. This music video was on it. Of course, decades later, YouTube got ahold of it, and now its truly the stuff of legends. This even spawned a failed pilot for a TV Show with Adam Sandler & Jeremy Piven called The Dog Police. Hopefully the video is still below.
It might seem crazy now, but remember that this was during the period when the cop-dog thing was at the height of its popularity courtesy of movies like Turner & Hooch (1989) and K-9 (1989). Other famous failed cop-dog TV Shows are the horrifying Poochinski and the short-lived Tequila and Bonetti.
Dog Police were a Devo-inspired band out of Memphis. To my knowledge, some, or all of the members now help teach music. At least that’s what one commenter on a 2008 article over on Stereogum said:
“Hahaha I just found out about this video, from the lead singer actually. I attend Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis, TN. As it turns out, the fellow who has been my mentor for a year on bass, guitar, and vocals is the bass player in pink, and the very knowledgeable drum/music theory professor is the lead singer. Trust me, this isn’t exactly something they’ve been bragging about, but Tom Lonardo (lead singer) showed it to a couple of students for some giggles this morning. The bassist is Sam Shoup. Both of these guys are very sought-after Memphis musicians in their respective talents. Sam arranges for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, the Orpheum theatre, and plays for the Memphis Opera when he’s not sessioning at Ardent Studios. Also, he is currently the director of the Jazz Ensemble at Southwest. I’m not sure what all of Tom’s endeavors include, but he is always playing around Memphis somewhere or lecturing at Southwest. Both of these guys have very generously set aside time to teach the eager young musical minds of tomorrow when they’re not doing their thing out in the world.”
There’s also a quote from the director there:
“I directed this video in Memphis in, I think, 1984. It was produced by Wayne Crook, the dog masks were created by an amazing guy named Bill Kopfler, and the cinematographer (16mm) was Larry McConkey, who overcame this experience to become one of the most revered Steadicam ops in the world — 100+ features and still going strong. Proof of his skill: the chorus shot at 1:32 is NOT fast-forward, it’s real time. Larry ran backwards with the Steadicam, turned a corner, then down 4 steps at the end of the shot, all the while keeping perfect framing. As I recall, he nailed in either 2 or 3 takes! Maybe not as unbelievable as Larry’s legendary two and a half minute Copacabana shot in Goodfellas, but amazing nonetheless!”
He isn’t kidding about Larry McConkey. Some of his credits include World War Z (2013), Django Unchained (2012), Hugo (2011), Shutter Island (2010), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 & 2, Vanilla Sky (2001), Bringing Out The Dead (1999), Showgirls (1995), Free Willy (1993), Silence of the Lambs (1991), and a movie I still keep meaning to get around to seeing, Seven Minutes in Heaven (1985). At the time of writing this post, he has 129 credits in the Camera and Electrical Department section on IMDb.
Seeing as he was the steadicam operator on numerous Martin Scorsese films, that means Scorsese might have seen this music video. I love the image of Scorsese watching Dog Police. It’s not unrealistic. The third credit listed on IMDb in the Camera and Electrical Department is for After Hours (1985).
In addition, Larry McConkey worked on Three Kings (1999), which had Spike Jonze in it. Larry McConkey worked on The Good Shepherd (2006) that was produced by Francis Ford Coppola. This one is weaker, but since he worked on Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), it means he also has ties to Sofia Coppola since she got a “special thanks” credit. He worked on The Freshman (1994) with Marlon Brando. He also worked with Sofia’s cousin Nicolas Cage on four movies, including one of his earliest credits for the movie Birdy (1984). Since he worked with Nicolas Cage, that means that Dog Police has a connection to both the group That Dog and the music video for Da Funk through That Dog drummer Tony Maxwell and the character of Charles (Dog Boy) from Da Funk that he played seeing as he was also Cage’s body double in Adaptation (2002). Spike Jonze directed a music video for That Dog. McConkey worked on Little Nicky (2000) with Adam Sandler, which in turn means he connects the failed The Dog Police show into all of this. It all connects. He also won a lifetime achievement award from the Society of Camera Operators. You can go on and on with more McConkey connections, but I stop at the realization that The Godfather (1972) is connected to Dog Police.
I have mixed feelings about Dog Police. The song is like a cross between Devo and a Queen-like chorus. I just realized where that chorus comes from. It’s from the Spider-Man Theme Song by The Electric Company. Here is a particular episode of the show that also ties in with Dog Police and Da Funk.
That means Dog Police is connected to Marvel and Daft Punk had one of their songs used in Iron Man 2 (2010). That is also Morgan Freeman narrating who was in two movies that were worked on by Larry McConkey.
Getting back to what I was saying, the first thing I noticed about this song was how unbelievably catchy it is. It’s no wonder that you can now just listen to the song on that new YouTube topic thing.
I also noticed that if you watch the video closely, then you are seeing a woman who is persecuted because of presumedly liking to have sex like a dog. The bartender tips this secret police force that then comes in and drags her away to who knows where. However, since they are dogs themselves, it means they are not just a secret police, but a hypocritical secret police. A perfect fit for the 80s. I love how the waiter gives a short, but heartfelt performance in this.
It would be great if that was all there was to this music video. Da Funk has similar themes where someone who has always been different from everyone else, moves to the big city, and finds themselves dealing with having to get around on a broken leg, being a dog person, and being so tied to his radio because of its connection to his youth that he can’t get rid of it even though it means he has an opportunity to connect with an old friend in a new place snatched away from him. Unfortunately, while Da Funk does it right, Dog Police muddles the water. It doesn’t just have a clever political message. It was also meant to be funny in a crude manner and introduce the band to people. As a result, it gets its semi-offensive comedy mixed in with the other part.
Its still a lot of fun. I half wish they had fixed that issue. But that would also mean this amazingly ridiculous thing wouldn’t exist. I don’t want that.
The music video was produced by Wayne Crook, directed by Joe Mulherin, and the dog makeup was done by William Kopfler.
At the time of writing this post, I only now found out that official lyric videos are a thing. I guess they figured that if enough people were making them, then they might as well do it themselves. There’s also at least two other semi-official music videos for this song as well. One is a remix and the other was constructed using concert footage. I’m not doing those ones.
If you’ve only seen the version of this where they used marketing most people are familiar with as an analogy, then this one is worth your time. It isn’t really a lyric video in the traditional sense, but one that gets to the point while also throwing in some lyrics here and there. Just like that other version, this one is also worth downloading and looking at carefully. They did a good job filling it with all kinds of subtle details to go along with the obvious stuff.
The thing I like best about this music video is that while I still find that it unnecessarily breeds paranoia and is counterproductive, it doesn’t feel patronizing like the other one. It relies on you using your brain and looking deeper into things that aren’t obfuscated by bashing heads, gay for pay, and other nonsense.
One example is that they go through several artists to show that they register on the Google Knowledge Graph until they reach White Sea, which results in a Wikipedia entry. They then cut to White Sea having a Twitter page and Joywave, that showed up in the Knowledge Graph, having a Facebook Page. The obvious part is that the Google Knowledge Graph pulls together all kinds of information including birthdates into a central location. The more subtle part, that is quickly glossed over by the runtime, is that it implies that the Knowledge Graph places more weight on an artist having a Facebook page than a Twitter page. It also reaches back to the overarching idea that “Big Data” is useful for predictive algorithms that allow things like autocomplete and targeted advertising.
Another example is that the video actually takes place over several days. They don’t really draw attention to it either. If you just watch the upper right hand corner throughout the video, then you’ll notice the different times, the changing battery levels, and other things up there.
At the end of the day, I am obligated to like this as an EECS major because it is probably the only music video I will ever see that has the kmalloc function in it. It is in one of the lines of code that pops up when they go to hackertyper.net.
The posting on YouTube tells me that this music video was directed by SCANTRON and Greg Yagolnitzer. SCANTRON has done numerous music videos, including several for Weezer. I am assuming it is a pseudonym, or a name used by different directors who work for Scantron Films. I can only find a couple of animation credits for Yagolnitzer on IMDb, but a quick Google search turns up a few other music video credits.
Through the Shattered Lens