Today’s music video of the day was filmed at Hollywood’s famed Whisky a Go Go, while Mötley Crüe was preparing to embark on their tour promoting Dr. Feelgood. In the 80s, you knew you had made it big if Sam Kinison was your chauffeur.
This video was directed by Wayne Isham, who directed videos for practically everyone. Everyone who was anyone in the music biz worked with Wayne Isham at least once.
Enjoy!
Today’s music video of the day was filmed at Hollywood’s famed Whisky a Go Go, while Mötley Crüe was preparing to embark on their tour promoting Dr. Feelgood. Did Sam Kinison really drive the band to their performance? It wouldn’t surprise me if I did. More than any other stand-up, Sam Kinison was the comedic voice of heavy metal.
This video was directed by Wayne Isham, who directed videos for practically everyone.
Enjoy!
One of the first rap/metal songs, I’m The Man was originally meant to be a collaboration between Beastie Boys and Anthrax. However, because the two bands could never work out their schedules, Anthrax ended up just doing the song on their own, with Frank Bello, Charlie Benante, and Scott Ian tying to do their best Beastie Boy impersonation. Even though the band viewed the song as just being a joke between friends, it went on to become one of Anthrax’s most unexpected hits.
Most listeners will recognize a sample of Sam Kinison as the source of the song’s primal screams.
Enjoy!
In 1988, evangelical preacher-turned-comedian Sam Kinison had a hit with his cover of Wild Thing. For the music video, he not only recruited Rodney Dangerfield and a host of other 80s rockers, he also cast Jessica Hahn, who was at the center of the scandal that took down two other evangelical preachers, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker.
For completists, here is who can be seen in this video, backing up Sam, Rodney, and Jessica: Joe Perry and Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Steve Adler and Slah (Guns ‘n Roses), Sebastian Bach (Skid Row), Jon Bon Jovi, Alec John Such, and Richie Sambora (Bon Jovi), Jonathan Cain and Deen Castronovo (Journey), Robbin Crossby and Warren DeMartini (Ratt), C.C. Deville (Poison), Tommy Lee (Motley Crue), Rudy Sarzo (Quiet Riot), Billy Idol, and Dweezil Zappa.
Enjoy!
Thornton Melon (Rodney Dangerfield) started with nothing but through a combination of hard work and chutzpah, he started a chain of “Tall and Fat” clothing stores and made a fortune. Everyone has seen his commercials, the one where he asks his potential customers, “Do you look at the menu and say, ‘Okay?'” He has a new trophy wife named Vanessa (Adrienne Barbeau) and a chauffeur named Lou (Burt Young). Thornton never even graduated from high school but he gets respect.
However, his son, Jason (Keith Gordon), doesn’t get no respect. No respect at all. Jason is a student at a pricey university, where he is bullied by Chas Osborne (William Zabka) and can’t get a date to save his life. Jason’s only friend is campus weirdo Derek Lutz (Robert Downey, Jr.). When Thornton sees that his son isn’t having any fun, he decides to go back to school!
Back to School is a predictable but good-natured comedy. It is like almost every other 80s college comedy except, this time, it’s a 65 year-old man throwing raging parties and making the frat boys look stupid instead of Robert Carradine or Curtis Armstrong. On the stand-up stage, Dangerfield always played the (sometimes) lovable loser but in the movies, Dangerfield was always a winner. In both Caddyshack and Back to School, Dangerfield played a self-made man who forced his way into high society and showed up all of the snobs. While Back to School is no Caddyshack, it does feature Rodney at his best.
Rodney may be the funniest thing about Back to School but a close second is Sam Kinison, who owed much of his early success to Rodney Dangerfield’s support. Kinison plays a history professor, who has some very strongly held views about the Vietnam War and who punctuates his points with a primal screen.
Also, keep an eye out Kurt Vonnegut, playing himself. Rodney hires him to write a paper about Kurt Vonnegut for one of his classes. The paper gets an F because Rodney’s literature professor (Sally Kellerman) can tell that not only did Rodney not write it but whoever did knows absolutely nothing about the work of Kurt Vonnegut.
So it goes.
Through the Shattered Lens 