Paul Rachman | Through the Shattered Lens

I said I would try to get every genre of music I could into Black History Month.

Here we have the hardcore punk band Bad Brains. They’ve been around for a long time now. They started out in 1976 as a jazz fusion band before migrating to Hardcore Punk. They released their self-titled debut album in 1982. There are some good songs on that album, but the one of special note is Banned in D.C., which was based on an unofficial ban put on them in clubs in 1979 in Washington, D.C. I’m kind of surprised since the all-black proto-punk band Death only didn’t have their record released in the early-to-mid-70s because they refused to change their name. That was it. It would get released decades later, but I’ll leave it to you to watch the movie A Band Called Death (2012).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2qi-YAR7m8

Then again, the mostly white hardcore punk band Dead Kennedys took endless flack all the way up to Tipper Gore, among many others, so it’s believable. What isn’t believable, but is true, is that Dead Kennedys would perform under their actual name at my high school in the early-80s. I thought it was a myth until numerous people who had been there told me stories about that night. That’s a story I will have to look into more detail at some point.

If the director of this music video sounds familiar, then that’s because he also directed Hunger Strike by Temple Of The Dog and a couple of videos for Alice In Chains. One has to wonder what the conversation was between the band and Rachman:

Bad Brains: We’ll take one part Smells Like Teen Spirit, two parts Jeremy, and feel free to sprinkle in a little Faith No More and Living Colour.
Rachman: You got it!

I’m not complaining. You can see the same sort of thing with their video for the song God Of Love. The group was inspired by musicians like Black Sabbath and Bob Marley. They even got their name from the Ramones song Bad Brain. So why not draw on the music videos of bands they no doubt help to inspire. Makes sense to me.

Enjoy!

When I was a kid, we didn’t know Temple Of The Dog was even a thing at some point. I mean a super group with Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder, not to mention those who played the instruments. That would have probably been more than our little minds could have handled. You know what is still too much for my mind to take? Why the heck is Eddie Vedder standing in bushes, and why make that your thumbnail for the music video? At one point in the music video, it’s like the cameraman is stumbling upon him in the bushes. He is also staring away from the camera. Vedder is an excellent front for Pearl Jam, but he was never a performer whose talents translated that well to the short film form of a music video. That said, according to IMDb, he is playing a role in the first episode of the new Twin Peaks. People change. Michael Stipe used to be deathly shy behind the microphone.

With director Paul Rachman previously having worked on Alice In Chains’ Man In The Box, he could say he worked with three of the big four grunge rock bands of the 1990s. He just did it in an economical form.

The band was conceived by Chris Cornell as a tribute to his late friend Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone. That’s probably why the one and only other song I have from their only album group is called Say Hello 2 Heaven. Apparently Mother Love Bone did at least one music video for Stardog Champion. Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be one for Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns.

Getting back to this music video, you basically have a sad tribute where the band is at a beach at sunset belting out the song. As the song goes on, the night gets darker. There’s a sadness that rightfully permeates it because of the origin of the band and the material of the song.

I don’t think there’s anything else to say except you get to watch some of the best musicians of the early-90s all playing together, which includes two of the greatest vocalists of the period.

Even if the music video is nothing to write home about, the song is well worth the listen.

Enjoy!