Don’t worry, everyone, David Cook’s alright!
Incidentally, I was one of the few members of my family to vote for David Cook over David Archuleta. I worried that Archuleta was just too young to be burdened with the title of American Idol and I stand by that decision.
Enjoy!
Enjoy!
Why exactly this chirpy tribute to abstinence was included on the Pokemon soundtrack is anyone’s guess. Apparently, M2M had never heard of Pokemon until they were told that their song was going to play during the film’s end credits. They were also not happy to learn when they were told that they would have to change some of the lyrics to make the song Pokemon-appropriate. “You start kissing me, what’s that about?” was changed to “You said you love me, what’s that about?”
I’m not a huge fan of this song, as you may have picked up on. But I do think the video is kind of cute. Maybe it’s just because I wish there was a drive-in near my house. Who knows?
Enjoy!
Bed of Nails is from Alice Cooper’s 11th studio album, Trash. It was the album’s second most successful single, despite not even being released as a single in the U.S. Maybe some of that success was due to this music video, in which Alice the singer performs over and in a bed of nails while women in leather walk through the studio and play the cello.
This video was directed by Nigel Dick, who directed videos for anyone who was anyone. If Nigel Dick has not done a video for you, you are not really a rock star.
Enjoy!
After a stint as lead guitarist for KISS, Vinnie Vincent went on to form Vinnie Vincent Invasion. Though the band was only together for four years before the members split up to pursue their own projects (two members of the band would go on to form Slaughter), Vinnie Vincent Invasion had a number of minor hits during its existence.
Love Kills was featured in Nightmare On Elm Street 4: The Dream Master and Freddy repaid them for the song by appearing in the music video. This video was directed by Nigel Dick, who I think has directed at least one video for every band that has ever existed.
Enjoy!
Supposedly, this is a video that MTV initially rejected, feeling that it would be too intense and sordid to appeal to its audience. In the end, the only reason MTV relented was due to the intervention of David Geffen, who convinced the channel to play the song once at five in the morning. No sooner had the video aired than the station started to get calls from viewers who wanted to see it again. Just as the song would become one of Guns N’ Roses’s signature songs, the video became one of MTV’s signature videos.
This is yet another video that was directed by Nigel Dick. The video follows a young Axl Rose, as he gets off the bus in Los Angeles and finds himself in the jungle. Interestingly, the members of the band appear as an assortment of drug dealers and other lowlifes, all of whom are trying to corrupt Axl. It’s been said that the video actually follows the real life dynamic of the group as Axl, despite his reputation, stayed away from the heavy drug use that the rest of the band happily indulged in,
The video has been called a combination of Midnight Cowboy, The Man Who Fell To Earth, and A Clockwork Orange. That sounds right to me.
Enjoy!
This is the version of Outside that does not feature Fred Durst providing “backup.”
I prefer the version without Durst but, in all fairness, they’re both good. The version that Aaron Lewis performed during the Family Values tour was still a work in progress and Durst wasn’t lying when he said that he was feeling those lighters. The version that Staind later released as a single is the final version of the song. It’s the way the song was meant to be heard.
The music video was directed by Nigel Dick. If you’re a successful musician, Nigel Dick is eventually going to direct a video for you. That’s just the way it works.
Enjoy!
Maybe it’s the whistling at the start but I’ve always thought of this as being a Guns N’ Roses country song.
The video was directed by Nigel Dick, who has directed music videos for anybody who is anyone in music. The scenes of the band performing were filmed at The Record Plant, a legendary Los Angeles recording studio, The scenes in the hotel were filmed at the Ambassador, which is the same hotel where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1968 shortly after winning California’s Democratic presidential primary. At the time the video was shot, the Ambassador had been closed down and was scheduled to be demolished. (It would be another 17 years before the hotel actually was torn down.)
This was the final Guns N’ Roses video to feature drummer Steve Adler, who was fired from the band after the video was shot. Most people who have seen this video will probably agree that the snake is the true star of the production.
Enjoy!
You can thank Thor for today’s music video of the day.
This video was shot in the Mendiola’s Ballroom at Huntington Park, California. All of the band’s then-girlfriends are featured in the clip. Erin Everly was dating Axl Rose at the time and he wrote the lyrics with her specifically in mind. Sally McLaughlin was dating Slash. Steven Adler was dating Cheryl Swiderski while Duff McKagan was going out with Mandy Brx and Izzy Stradlin was seeing Angela Nicoletti. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of those people are still together but the song still rocks.
The video was directed by Nigel Dick, which is not surprising. From the 80s to the present day, being a star means that Nigel Dick will eventually end up directing a music video for you. Along with doing several other videos for Guns N’ Roses, he’s also done videos for Nickelback, Il Divo, R.E.M., Barry Manilow, Britney Spears, Madness, Iron Maiden, and pretty much every other band that’s ever had a major recording contract. Did his work with Iron Maiden and Guns N’ Roses prepare him to work with Barry Manilow? We may never know.
Enjoy!
A former boxer and phone sex addict (played by real-life boxer Gary Stretch) is picking up women in Los Angeles, taking them to cheap motels, and beating them to death. Detective Matt Dickson (Michael Madsen, with blonde hair) is a burned out homicide cop who finds himself investigating the murders. It doesn’t take Dickson long to figure out that the killer is using the names of former boxing champs when he checks into the motels. He also figures out that the boxer has phone sex before and after the killing. That’s a lot but it’s not enough to solve the case. To do that, he’ll have to team up with a journalist (played by Lisa Bonet) who has personal reasons for wanting to take down the killer.
Back in the 90s, the main reason that I watched Dead Connection was because I had a hopeless crush on Parker Posey and she was listed as being one of the stars of the film. Parker does appear early on in the film and is just as funny and appealing in her small role as she was in bigger parts in other movies. Unfortunately, Parker gets killed pretty early on in the movie. That traumatized me the first time I saw the movie.
After Parker dies, the main reason to watch the movie is to see what Michael Madsen can do with his clichéd role. It turns out that Madsen can do a lot, even though there’s nothing unusual about the character on paper. Madsen just had the right look and the right style of acting for neo-noirs like this one. Even in a movie like this one, Madsen makes the whispering and the arched eyebrow seem cool and natural. Judging from her performance here, Lisa Bonet should have been a bigger star too. Just as with Madsen, there’s nothing unusual about her role but she still plays it with a lot of conviction.
The main problem with Dead Connection is that it reveals the identity of the killer in the first few minutes and it’s hard to believe that it would take the police a particularly long time to track him down. The minute it was learned that he was using the names of boxers to check into motels, that should have been the end of it for him. Instead, the movie dithers around for a good 90 minutes before finally ending on a predictable note. Despite the script’s flaws, Dead Connection is competently directed by Nigel Dick, who was also responsible for several music videos in the 80s and the 90s. Perhaps that explains why Tears for Fears’s Curt Smith has a tiny role as a desk clerk.
In the U.S., the film was released under the title Dead Connection, playing up the phone sex angle. In Europe, the focus was instead put on the killer’s boxing career and the film was called Final Combination, which made it sound like it was a movie about safecrackers. Neither title is really great but I prefer Dead Connection.
Through the Shattered Lens 