Tag Archives: music video

Music Video of the Day: Run To The Hills by Iron Maiden (1982, dir. David Mallet)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Happy Columbus Day! Or if I was still living in Berkeley, CA; then the parking meters would be telling me this was Indigenous People’s Day. I couldn’t think of a better time to do my first Iron Maiden music video. Sadly, there isn’t much to say.

The song tells us the story of Europeans coming to America and brutally taking the land from the Native Americans. They tell the story from two different points of view. The first is from the Native Americans. The second one is from the European point of view. The second one takes up the majority of the song. This makes sense since it mirrors how the story of the New World is often dominated by the European side of things. So much so that we got plenty of Westerns like the one they intercut with the band performing the song on a stage.

There is one issue with writing about this music video. There are two different versions of this listed on mvdbase. There is the version above, and one from 1985 that was directed by Jim Yukich. To make matters even more confusing is that there is a version called the Camp Chaos version.

That version is even marked as unlisted on YouTube. I stumbled upon it because it is the version that IMVDb has embedded into their entry for this music video.

All things considered, I’d say that the first and second ones are the same one directed by David Mallet. The only difference being that they took out the old movie and replaced it with some animation instead. You can still see people in the comments on this music video that think the song is racist, so it’s no surprise that they made a different version of the same video. Also, people called the band Satanic back then because of the name of the title track for the album this song is on. In addition, people thought that this cover…

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of a Native American in Hell fighting a demon was equating Europeans with devils, and got angry about it. You think? The song isn’t exactly subtle, and neither is the music video.

David Mallet appears to have worked on around 130 music videos in his career

I couldn’t find a music video that they did, so here is just the song We Live from the Native American band XIT.

Music Video of the Day: Madhouse by Anthrax (1986, dir. Amos Poe)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Madhouse was banned from MTV because of its’ portrayal of the mentally ill. I didn’t think I was going to get to a music video that was actually banned from MTV till I got around to doing Smack My Bitch Up by The Prodigy.

I’m bipolar, major depressive, get migraines, have been on more psychiatric meds than I can count, have been a cutter, and have been a patient in a mental hospital (inpatient and outpatient) to only name a few things in this area that I have had some experience with in my life. The person holding a fake baby makes me think of a woman I knew while in a mental hospital that had postpartum depression so bad that they gave her shock treatment (it helped her significantly). The people that appear mentally handicapped bother me because one of my lifelong friends has a younger sister who is mentally handicapped. I grew up around her, and have known others in my life who are in the same situation, but for different reasons. The nurse at the beginning reminds me of what we nicknamed “vampires” at the mental hospital that would come to take blood samples from us early in the morning in our beds. The person who accidentally lets one of the patients fall out of the wheelchair and the doctors smoking reminds me of people I’ve dealt with that treat the mentally and physically ill like they are nothing but a burden to them and/or even as if they are criminals. The whole music video and song reminds me of late 2014 and early 2015 when my brain completely turned against me, leaving me actually thinking I was trapped inside of something like The Matrix. To quote the song:

“Trapped, in this nightmare
I wish I’d wake
As my whole life begins to shake
Four walls surround me
An empty gaze
I can’t find my way out of this maze”

There were other things that accompanied that experience, and no doctor can tell me why it happened. I was just lucky I came out of it eventually.

The point is that I completely understand why some people would find this offensive. However, what I see when I watch this music video is a controversial short film that is drawing a parallel between the internal state of the mind of the mentally ill–we all are to some degree–with the apparent chaos of heavy metal and the actual chaotic relief of a mosh pit. I think Ben Kingsley in Shutter Island (2010) said it best when he described a migraine like having razor blades being shaken around in your head. Personally, I don’t find this offensive, but frighteningly accurate.

All that said, I can see why this would get banned from MTV, and probably should have been. It’s one thing for me to stupidly seek out Still Alice (2014) when I clearly should have known it would remind me of my brain turning to tapioca, but I did, and couldn’t finish it even with several anti-anxiety pills in my system. It’s another thing to be simply watching one of the most popular networks of the era, then have this music video suddenly show up on your TV. Despite being banned, it was still very successful and pushed the boundaries of what could and couldn’t be done in music videos.

This is one of those music videos where we apparently only know the director. That would be Amos Poe who only appears to have directed five music videos, including the one for Animotion’s Obsession. He has done other work in film that includes the documentary The Blank Generation (1976) that was filmed at CBGB during the birth of punk rock.

Music Video of the Day: Feed My Frankenstein by Alice Cooper (1992, dir. Penelope Spheeris)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I thought this would be simple. It’s October, so of course Feed My Frankenstein by Alice Cooper would fit. Also, I find that I get more hits on artists and songs that people know. It was in Wayne’s World (1992). A perfect storm to feature as a music video of the day. I had no idea it would be so difficult to find out who directed it when it should have been obvious.

You would immediately think that Penelope Spheeris directed the music video. I went to the two major databases on music videos–IMVDb and mvdbase–but neither of them had a director listed.

At first glance, it looked like what I remembered from the movie. I pulled out my copy of Wayne’s World and played that sequence side-by-side with the music video. It certainly is the same set, but they actually look quite different.

The next thing that came to mind was that it made sense that she would shoot a little extra material for Alice Cooper so he would have a music video for his song. After all, she directed The Decline of Western Civilization movies and has a personal quote on IMDb that says:

[on why she does documentaries about metal and punk music] “I mean, look, you don’t see me making documentaries on Britney Spears, you know what I mean? Sweetheart of a little girl, you know. Or Madonna. That’s not my thing. I just like this harder edge stuff. That’s just me.”

My next step was to look up whether she did have any credits for directing music videos, and up came some results. She shot at least three music videos for Megadeth. However, that was only a tease because she actually directed the music video for Megadeth’s cover of Alice Cooper’s No More Mr. Nice Guy.

Luckily, the website Songfacts came to my rescue, and said exactly what I thought to begin with when I went in to writing this post. She shot some more footage to create an extended version of that scene from the movie.

I don’t know how that wasn’t in the two biggest music video databases, but there’s the series of steps I went through to find out that piece of information.

Sadly, that’s pretty much all I have on this music video. The difference between the music video and the film, is that you get the full song with all its’ sexual metaphors. The only other thing to mention is that Alice Cooper was originally going to perform School’s Out, but two weeks before filming, Mike Myers was told by the band’s manager Shep Gordon that he would be performing their new song, Feed My Frankenstein. Again, thank you Songfacts for that information too.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Hell by Squirrel Nut Zippers (1997, dir. Norwood Cheek, Grady Cooper, & Tom Maxwell)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

We had the Rapture yesterday courtesy of Blondie, so today we go to Hell. I probably shared this story at some point, but I’ll do it again. I remember back during this time when my mom used to watch Regis & Kathie Lee. On one episode they had Squirrel Nut Zippers on there to perform. I don’t remember if it was this, Prince Nez, or Blue Angel. Shortly after, I went to Tower Records looking for their album. The people there had no idea who I was talking about. Eventually I did find the album. It’s one of the most unusual albums I own. It didn’t come in a regular plastic case, but half paper and half plastic. According to the cover, I was supposed to light it on fire because it says “do not hold in hand after lighting.”

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It has some pictures of Satan in it. One is in the hole where you press to release the CD.

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The disc was even one of those enhanced albums that came with content for your computer. It won’t work with my modern Mac, but the readme file still opens and has some backstory on the album:

When I first heard Katharine, Jimbo and Tom singing their hot songs off the “Inevitable” album on the radio last year I was taken back and amazed by the tremendous diversity and quality of the Squirrel Nut Zippers’ music. I felt like they were the “missing link” in the lost imagination of contemporary music and were successfully bringing together all that is old and all that is new and making it their own. I rushed out and bought “The Inevitable” album and immediately began trying to think up some way of doing something creative with the group. I wrote to Jimbo and Katharine asking them if there was anything that I could do for them in the way of a film or video project.

Luckily they were going to perform here in Atlanta just a few days after I sent them my letter. I went early to “The Point” that evening hoping to talk with someone from the group before the show. I had memorized their names from the album and thought I could easily recognize any of them. However, when I arrived, there were people dressed in ’20’s attire everywhere I looked and I didn’t have a clue as to who was actually in the band and who wasn’t. It wasn’t until Don made a move for the stage that I was able to distinguish a Zipper from the rest of the crowd. I talked to Don for a few moments and he introduced me to Jimbo. That is when this all began.

We didn’t exactly know whether this project would turn out to be a documentary film, video or enhanced CD-ROM but the important thing was to get started in documenting their shows while they were touring extensively last year. Last July, my wife, Leah and our daughter, Sydney, went with me up to Charlotte and Asheville where I began shooting the Zippers’ shows and becoming a permanent fixture in their crowds. Everywhere I went with the Zippers from North Carolina to California, I would overhear people in the audience and even the club owners commenting that it was the largest turnout they had ever for a music performance at their place. The Zippers were starting a glorious craze that I feel will intensify even more with the release of the “Hot” album.

I have always known while I have been making this project that I have been a part of something very special. This has always been the motivation that has kept me burning the midnight oil for days on end to get this project finished in time to make it onto the “Hot” album. I can only hope that what I have done captures at least a fraction of the wonderful experience of seeing the Squirrel Nut Zippers perform live and the diverse and comical personality, brilliant talent and dedication that makes up the band.

I cannot thank everyone in the Zippers enough for their extreme amount of cooperation, patience, openness and trust that they have shown Leah and myself. I also want to thank Lane Wurster and Mammoth Records for taking a chance with my project and Lane’s tireless effort in helping to get it completed.

And of course, this project would never have been what it is without the never-ending support of the one and only Shorty Brown.

Clay Walker
April 28, 1996

I don’t really have anything to say about the music video itself beyond mentioning that it was inspired by Twin Peaks. It does capture that throwback to the swing dance days that bands like Squirrel Nut Zippers were part of in the mid-90s. Out of the bands I remember from the time, they were the ones that really tried to sound like bands from that time period rather than having a more modern take on it.

There seems to be a little bit of disagreement between two sources about the directors of the music video. No one disagrees that Norwood Cheek and Grady Cooper directed it. Cheek directed a few music videos as well as working in other capacities in film. Cooper has done many things over the years including directing 67 episodes of Survivor. According to IMDb, Cooper also appeared in the music video. Cooper edited it as well. Both Cheek and Cooper produced it. I think we can even thank Grady Cooper himself since he appears to have been the one to make a high quality version of this music video available on YouTube.

John Leuba shot the music video and has the usual handful of credits on IMDb.

The part that there is conflicting information about is whether Tom Maxwell had anything to do with directing the music video. Whether he did, or he didn’t, he did write the song. More recently in 2014 he published a book called Hell: My Life in the Squirrel Nut Zippers about the history of the band. He also wrote a post over on Medium about why he wouldn’t be joining the band on their 20th anniversary tour in honor of this album.

Enjoy this throwback to a throwback!

Music Video of the Day: Rapture by Blondie (1981, dir. Keith MacMillan)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

We had some fun the past couple of days watching Carman kill Satan and banish movie monsters from his house, but now it’s time for the Rapture.

I’m sure people know the historical significance of this particular music video by now, but I’ll restate it anyways. In the very early days of MTV, they rarely let blacks appear on the network. They of course had accusations of racism thrown at them. Thinking about it now, it was probably that they were operating on the fringe so much that they figured what little audience they had would go away, and they’d go under based on the demographics information they had. That’s my best guess considering it just took Michael Jackson having a big hit with them to get rid of that. However, during that period, this meant that Rapture by Blondie wound up being the first rap music video aired on the network.

As is often the case, Wikipedia has some good information. The music video was set in the East Village section of Manhattan. That’s exactly what it says over on Wikipedia. I’m not sure if that means it was actually shot there or not.

William Barnes was the guy in the long white suit referred to as the “Man from Mars”. According to IMDb, he went on to work on localizing video games such as Mario Party 5. He also choreographed the music video.

Graffiti artists Lee Quinones and Jean-Michel Basquiat make cameo appearances. Basquiat was hired after Grandmaster Flash didn’t show up for the filming.

Rapper Fab Five Freddy not only is mentioned in the lyrics of the song, but also made a cameo in the music video.

Wikipedia also mentions that much of the outside portions of the music video were shot in one take.

Keith MacMillan directed and John Weaver produced this music video. They both seem to have primarily worked on music videos for Kate Bush, but also did some work for Motörhead. The two as a team went by the name Keef. You can find Keith MacMillan under that name on IMDb. He has also used the name Marcus Keef. John Weaver on the other hand is buried under so many people with his name that I don’t even know if he is there. There are only two that have anything of note in their credits. One worked in the art department on three Playboy movies, and another was a director on the TV Show Dark Shadows.

Enjoy! I always do anytime we get somebody predicting the world will end on a particular day and time.

Music Video of the Day: No Monsters by Carman (1996, dir. Stephen Yake)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I don’t usually like to feature two music videos by the same artist in a row, but this is too perfect to not include during October as a companion to Satan, Bite The Dust.

In this music video, Carman recalls when he was kid watching scary movies. He’d get frightened and have trouble sleeping. However, he would then remember he’s Carman, and banish them from his house. One of them is even a man-gator. They also come for him as an adult by literally stepping out of the television. One of them is Frankenstein, and another looks like Uncle Fester with an axe. If only Rockwell had Carman with him, then he would’ve been fine.

Unlike Satan, Bite The Dust; I do have some info on this one. This music video is from the movie R.I.O.T.: The Movie (1996). Carman himself wrote the screenplay. I haven’t watched it yet, but I do have a copy. The film is padded out with music videos like this one. According to the credits on the film, Stephen Yake produced and directed the music video. There are a bunch of other credits that are all lumped together for all of the music videos in the film. They are too numerous to mention. Also, I have no way of knowing whether every single one of these people worked on this particular music video.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Satan, Bite The Dust! by Carman (1993, dir. ???)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I only found out about Contemporary Christian artist Carman this year thanks to The Cinema Snob review of this music video. From what I have watched of his material, his stuff is hilarious cheesy fun. I am largely guessing about the release date of this music video based on the release date of the album that had this song on it. I think that Stephen Yake probably directed the music video since he would go to direct the movie R.I.O.T.: The Movie (1996) that starred Carman. He also directed at least one music video for Carman. I can’t properly talk about this guy. Plus, I don’t need too. I’ll let Brad Jones do that, or you can just watch the music video. It’s fun. Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Princes of the Universe by Queen (1986, dir. Russell Mulcahy)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I had to do a Queen music video eventually, so why not do one of my all-time favorites from one of my all-time favorite movies. Plus, I think that Clancy Brown as The Kurgan is scary enough for October. I’ve tried to pick out music videos that fit with the month somehow if I could.

Going in to watching this music video, I figured it would just be Queen performing with cutaways to footage from the movie. I wasn’t too far off, but they actually bothered to do more than that. We get to see them performing on the set of one of the final battles that took place on the Silvercup rooftop stage at Elstree Studios, London. We also see Brian May play guitar as the castle from the film collapses. But more than that, we actually get to see Christoper Lambert clash swords with Freddie Mercury at almost exactly the two minute mark. Do you need more of a reason to take four minutes out of your day to watch it just to see that?

That’s really it. All the sources I find say that Russell Mulcahy not only directed the film, but also the music video on February 14th, 1986. I couldn’t find any other credits.

I wish there was more to say, but it’s a simple music video for a great song. Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Dragula by Rob Zombie (1998, dir. Rob Zombie)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

Nothing says 1998 like seeing Rob Zombie and a group of devils doing The Night at the Roxbury (1998) head bob.

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The greatest thing about this music video is knowing that Robert Osborne and/or Ben Mankiewicz saw it, which lead to him hosting TCM Underground for awhile. Thanks to Rob Zombie’s brief time there, I was introduced to Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965).

I wouldn’t be surprised if the dancing lady is a reference to that movie. Then again, it could be any cult film from the 1960s.

Thanks to Wikipedia, I know some of the footage he uses. The bit about “superstition, fear, and jealousy” comes from the film The City Of The Dead/Horror Hotel (1960). The line is spoken by Christopher Lee. That part is played over footage from 1920’s Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde. The killer robot is from the The Phantom Creeps (1939). Frankenstein is in there too. I know I’ve seen the shocked woman at the beginning somewhere, but I can’t place it. I wanna say the 1958 version of The Fly, but it’s just a guess.

There’s plenty more in there, but those are the only ones I could find. If you can tell me more, then please do so.

The car in the music video and in the song title itself comes from Grandpa Munster’s dragster on The Munsters.

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However, the car in the music video only resembles the car driven on the show.

This stuff came out in an interview that Rob Zombie gave with Billboard magazine. Don’t quote me on it, but I swear I remember him saying his dad or grandfather owned a Dragula, which is where the song came from. I could have just misheard it for Grandpa Munster. I couldn’t find a reference to that anywhere.

Of course Rob Zombie directed the music video before he went on to give us the backstory of Michael Myers that I don’t think anyone was asking about. After Halloween II (2009), I think it’s safe to say he was all but crucified. But being a zombie, it didn’t matter. He’s alive and well. Even 82-year-old John Hetlinger performed the song on an episode of America’s Got Talent back in July of this year despite not knowing what the lyrics mean–according to Songfacts.

Welcome to the club, Hetlinger! I have no idea what they mean either. This is one of those songs where I ignore the lyrics, and take Rob Zombie’s voice to be just another instrument. That goes for the music video that to this day is pure fun, whether it’s October or not.

Jeff Selis edited the music video. He’s edited over 100 music videos, and still is working today with artists like Beyoncé, Usher, Jennifer Lopez, Lana del Ray, Selena Gomez, Taylor Swift, and many more. It looks like before he was a music video editor, he was a location manager on films such as Body of Evidence (1993) and My Own Private Idaho (1991). I can’t find a credit for him working on a Madonna or Dogstar music video. That would be too awesome.

Dave Hussey was the colorist on this music video. He has worked on somewhere around 330 music videos with Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Eminem, Katy Perry, Britney Spears, OutKast, Aerosmith, The Offspring, Michael Jackson, and many many more. He has worked on two Madonna music videos.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Somebody’s Watching Me by Rockwell (1984, dir. Francis Delia)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

A few years ago when the Snowden stuff happened, it was priceless to come and look at this music video. You’d see comments along the lines that if Rockwell had only knew it was really the NSA that was watching him, or simply that Rockwell was right that somebody was watching him. Of course you also got the usual comments of people coming many decades later wondering if that is Michael Jackson singing the chorus. Yes, it is.

As is par for the course, this is the first time I have actually paid close attention to the music video I’m spotlighting. It is loaded with a lot of interesting stuff to tie-in with the theme of paranoia.

Why is Rockwell reading the Chinese characters at the beginning? Is that some sort of ghostly reference. Is that supposed to be a second Rockwell? We follow that one while it cuts back and forth to Rockwell in the shower. Is that supposed to mean he has a split personality? It’s probably just the music video’s requisite reference to Psycho (1960), but then we also get the scene with him watching himself on TV. I love it.

I think my favorite part is when someone dressed like a grieving widow is right outside his shower, but he doesn’t see them. They do the same thing while he is standing in the cemetery that apparently is in his backyard.

It comes as no surprise to me that this music video was directed by Francis Delia. He’s the director who brought us the music video for Blue Öyster Cult’s Shooting Shark, which is one of the best of the 1980s. That one was also surreal.

We know quite a few of the people who worked on this music video beyond the director.

The blonde coming out from under the bed is Francis Delia’s daughter Amy.

Nancy Leiviska wrote and produced the music video. You might know her as being the mother of RedFoo whom she had with Barry Gordy. She has apparently gone on to work as an executive assistant on numerous films for Ice Cube. She worked on several other music videos including appearing as one of the people in the music video for Rick James’ Super Freak.

Dominic Sena shot the music video. He directed around 40 music videos and shot around 10 of them. He also went on to direct movies like Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000) and Swordfish (2001).

Jason Braunstein was the production manager. The only other credit I can find for him is having worked as an associate in charge of production on Ms. 45 (1981).

Jon Leonoudakis was the production coordinator. He is in the music video as the guy who is looking in through the porthole of the front door. I can find a few credits on him like directing some sports documentaries in recent years. However, it’s clearly his work as an electrician on The Last American Virgin (1982), a production coordinator on Dead Women in Lingerie (1991), and a second unit location manager on Maniac Cop 2 (1990) that jump out at you on his IMDb profile page.

You could do a step-by-step review of this music video, but it’s only about three and a half minutes, so if you haven’t seen it yet, then watch it. It is one of the greatest music videos ever made, and still relevant today. In particular when you are trying to find a music video to help bookend the month of October.