Before Tawny Kitaen became famous for appearing in Whitesnake videos, she dated Robbin Crosby, the lead guitarist of Ratt. Those are Kitaen’s legs on the cover of Ratt’s first self-titled album. Decorating those amazing legs with high heels and rats results in a classic 80s music image.
The video below is for one of the songs from that album, You Think You’re Tough. You Think You’re Tough was Ratt’s first single and was released with a cover version of Rufus Thomas’s Walking The Dog. The video keeps things simple, highlighting the band’s musicianship and saying, “These guys can really play!”
Like a lot of people, I was shocked and saddened when I heard yesterday that Tawny Kitaen had died at the age of 59. Though Kitaen is arguably best-known for appearing in a series of music videos for Whitesnake, her first music video appearance was in today’s music video of the day.
In this video, Kitaen plays one of two women who apparently really love RATT. (At the time, she was dating the group’s guitarist, Robbin Crosby.) When she puts the Out of the Cellar album on the jukebox, it mystically summons two members of the RATT. Soon, Tawny and her friends are running out on the check, stealing cars, and eventually getting pulled over by two cops who turn out to be Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee! At the end of the video, Milton Berle shows up, recreating a role that he played in an earlier RATT video. Milton’s nephew, Marshal, was the band’s then-manager.
Despite the presence of Uncle Miltie and two members of the Motely Crue, this video today is all about Tawny Kitaen, who is young, beautiful, and appears to have not a care in the world. Rest in peace, Tawny.
Oh my God, what is the thing with Ouija boards in movies?
Seriously, nothing good ever comes from using one. I have seen hundreds of movies featuring people foolishly using Ouija boards and, without fail, it always seems to lead to someone getting possessed by an evil spirit and then killing all of their friends. Whenever I see anyone using a Ouija board in a movie, I always want to ask them if they’ve never seen a horror movie before.
Then again, despite knowing all the of the terrible things that can happen as a result, I have had a few Ouija board experiences. For instance, when I was like 13, I asked a Ouija board if a boy named Diego liked my friend Jenny. The board replied that Diego liked me and Jenny needed to deal with it. Jenny accused me of manipulating the pointer and basically never spoke to me again but I suppose that’s better than either one of us getting possessed by a homicidal spirit. Myself, I don’t even believe in ghosts but I still find it difficult to resist a séance.
I guess my point is that it’s easy to laugh at movie characters who foolishly use Ouija boards but the main reason were laughing is because we know that we’re just as stupid as they are.
I recently watched one of the better Ouija board movies, 1988’s Witchboard. It’s about an angry spirit that might be named David, a skeptic named Jim (Todd Allen), a believer named Brandon (Stephen Nichols), and the woman who they both love, Linda (Tawny Kitaen). When I watched the movie, I immediately related to Linda, mostly because we both have red hair and everyone in the kept talking about how Linda hardly ever curses. That’s pretty much the way I am too, though there are exceptions. For instance, on Monday, the internet was down for 12 hours and I cursed up a storm. Linda, meanwhile, starts cursing after she has a bad experience with a Ouija board.
Jim (who is Linda’s current boyfriend) and Brandon (who is Linda’s ex) spend a lot of time debating who is to blame for Linda potentially getting possessed. Personally, I hold them both responsible. Brandon is the one who brought his Ouija board to Jim and Linda’s party. Brandon is also the one who contacts the spirit of a boy named David. At the same time, Jim’s the one who insulted the spirit, which led to Brandon’s tires getting slashed and Brandon storming out of the party. Brandon left behind his Ouija board, which Linda then used unsupervised. (Apparently, that’s something you should never do.) Basically, Jim and Brandon came together to form a perfect storm of testosterone-driven incompetence in this movie.
Soon, people are dying and Linda’s acting weird. When one of Jim’s friends is killed in a construction accident, Linda is upset to see that Jim didn’t even cry. Brandon informs her that Jim has “ice water in his veins.” For his part, Jim just wants to know why Linda is suddenly using so much profanity. Brandon brings in a medium named Zarabeth (played by Kathleen Wilhoite), who is one of those extremely flamboyant and outspoken characters that you’ll either totally love or thoroughly hate. (Personally, I liked the character. Even if she was somewhat annoying, she brought a jolt of life to the film.) Zarabeth attempts to exorcise the spirit of David and ends up getting tossed out a window as a result.
It’s tempting to just shrug and say, “Well, this is what happens when you mess around with the spirit world,” but Witchboard actually does a pretty good job of developing its characters and getting you to care about what happens to them. The fact that Jim and Brandon are both in love with Linda adds a bit of unexpected depth to the film’s story. Does Brandon really believe that Linda is being stalked by a spirit or is he just trying to win her back for himself? Even the seemingly throw-away detail about Jim’s emotional reticence pays off later in the movie. And, when that evil spirit does finally actually make a physical appearance, he’s just as creepy as you would hope he would be.
Witchboard is a definitely a film that will be appreciated by anyone who has ever used a Ouija board and felt kind of nervous about it afterwards.
I did some actual research and I discovered that two years ago, on this date, Valerie selected Whitesnake’s Here I Go Again for the music video of the day. That was a perfect choice because that video is the first thing that most people think of when they hear the name “Tawny Kitaen.” The song may have been called Here I Go Again and the band may have been Whitesnake but the video will always be known as “The Tawny Kitaen video.”
Today’s music video of the day is the other Tawny Kitaen video.
I like to think of this video as being a direct sequel to Here I Go Again. David Coverdale has asked Tawny to stop dancing on his car because he’s worried that she’ll dent the hood and Tawny’s finally walking out on him. Good for her! She packs up her suitcase and she leaves. Meanwhile, David Coverdale leans against a wall and thinks about Tawny dancing while wearing the same white dress she was wearing when she walked out on him.
He’s upset to have lost her and, when you see screenshots like this, you can’t blame him:
One of the reasons why the Tawny Kitaen videos were so popular was because they suggested you could come across as being a total douche and still end up with a girlfriend as hot as Tawny Kitaen. Seeing her walking out at the start of this video should have been a warning to every man watching. It takes more than just soulful looks at the camera to keep Tawny Kitaen happy.
At the end of the video, Coverdale and Tawny are reunited. It had been a while since I last watched this video so I had forgotten that Coverdale wins her back by jumping out from around a corner, grabbing her, and throwing her down on the hood of a car. That wouldn’t play today.
Speaking of coming across as being a total douche, Coverdale fired all of the other members of Whitensake after recording this song so, with the exception of Coverdale, no one that played on the original recording is actually present in the video. As for Tawny and Coverdale, they separated for real in 1991.
Happy Birthday, Tawny Kitaen! You took what would have been a high-spirited, but quickly forgettable “put the band onstage and focus on the lead singer” video, and made it one of the most memorable music videos of the decade.
She didn’t have to do much either. The bits in the car are probably the least focused on, but I have always loved the part when she grabs lead singer David Coverdale and rips him over the front seat. I really love that because she doesn’t do it easily either. She grabs him and yanks him right over the seat. You can even see her reach to grab his leg to get him completely into the backseat just before it cuts away.
Lisa being our resident lover of dance, of course loves the hood dancing part. Who doesn’t? I remember last year when someone tweeted a screenshot of it and said something about her being their second biggest crush in the 1980s. I don’t recall if they even included her Twitter handle, but she responded asking basically: “My God! Who was #1?”
Thank you, Tawny Kitaen. Not only for the video, but insuring that no one would forget what is a really good song. A song that could have been forgotten if they hadn’t made this version, and only stuck with the 1982 music video. All it took was adding dancing a little on two car hoods, hanging out a car window, and ripping Coverdale over a carseat. We’ll talk about the 1982 version next month because Kitaen and Coverdale were kind enough to have birthdays in August and September respectively.
“An’ I’ve made up my mind, I ain’t wasting no more time but here I go again, here I go again.”
Previous entry to our 27 Days of Old School I mentioned something about how hard rock and metal music videos were mostly the realm of hair metal bands. Videos all about loud, over-the-top costumes and personalities. bands such as Motley Crue and Poison just to name a few. Other bands would mimic the long, over-teased and hairsprayed look which gave hair metal it’s name. Coming in at #22 is a rock band from England that took on the look of your typical hair metal band, but had some deep roots in old school blues rock.
“Here I Go Again” by Whitesnake is a great song of the 80’s and part of it was due to an even more awesome video which included a young Tawny Kitaen, white lingerie and the frontman’s Jaguar XJ. Yes, the car used in the video is David Coverdale’s own car. Kitaen would later marry David which just took the whole thing full circle.
While Whitesnake and Coverdale made sure to take advantage of the hair metal look of the 80’s he definitely channeled Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant more than he did Vince Neil or Bret Michaels. And for that the world was and continues to be grateful.
Through the Shattered Lens 