Yes, that’s a youngish and less crazed-looking Randy Quaid, playing the truck driver who asks the Bangles if they want to walk like an Egyptian. It can sometimes be surprising to remember that, before he dedicated his life to exposing the Star Whackers, Randy Quaid was a busy and popular character actor.
Little Richard also shows up towards the end of this video. There’s no chance of ever mistaking Little Richard for being anyone other than Little Richard.
This video was directed by Gary Weis, who is best-known for directing short films for the first few seasons of Saturday Night Live. You know that black-and-white film where John Belushi goes to a cemetery and talks about how he outlived the entire cast? Weis directed that. He also directed Steve Martin’s first stand-up special and several concert films.
Today would have been Leonard Nimoy’s birthday. I thought it would be fun to spotlight that other music video he did a little over 25 years prior to the one for Bruno Mars. The big question is why he did it. It’s simple. He was friends with the Hoffs. Susanna’s mom directed the video. It was produced by Matthew Hintlian.
That’s it. It’s a very simple video that is worth watching because you have The Bangles confusing and annoying Leonard Nimoy. I never thought I would be writing that sentence.
I have no idea what to say about this music video for what is one of the best known songs of the 1980s. Lucky for me, Vicki Peterson shares a little behind-the-scenes bit about her part in the video, and Hoffs shares pretty much everything else in the book I Want My MTV. I’ll let them speak for themselves:
Vicki Peterson:
“It wasn’t just the hair that was big in the ’80s. It was the shoulder pads, parachute pants, everything. For ‘Walk Like an Egyptian,’ I wore four pairs of false eyelashes.”
Susanna Hoffs:
“We used Gary Weis because we’d been huge fans of the Rutles movie he codirected. It was a two-day shoot in New York. You really felt like you had arrived when you had a two-day shoot. Part one was a live performance in some warehouse filled with contest winners from a radio station. The DP was using a long lens way back in the crowd. There was a close-up on me toward the end of the video, when I sing my section, but because the camera was so far away from me, I had no idea how close up it really was. Back then, when we performed live, I’d pick a friendly face in the middle of the crowd and then someone to my left and someone to my right, and I would sing to them, using them as focal points. That’s what I was doing in that part of the video. I wasn’t aware it was such a tight shot. People always ask me, ‘Were you trying to do something with your eyes there? Was that a thing?'”
This is another one of those that made the Clear Channel list of songs not to play in the days following 9/11. That’s sad seeing as I hear this and think it is a song about acceptance of different cultures by having a swath of different kinds of people share in something comical.
I want to remind people again that while a whole bunch of AC/DC songs were also on that list, Thunderstruck was not one of them, and there are numerous military montages set to it on YouTube. There are many examples of songs about peace and acceptance on that list while one that is arguably promoting revenge was just fine. That list never ceases to amaze me.
Robert Glassenberg produced the music video. He seems to have worked on one other music video for the group Fishbone.
Another song from my youth during the 80’s is the classic rock song from the all-girl rock band The Bangles. It makes an appearance in a later episode of Netflix’s Stranger Things, but it’s better known as the unofficial anthem for the drug-fueled drama Less Than Zero starring a very young (and rumors abound of being very drugged out) Robert Downey, Jr.
Less Than Zero was adapted from a novel written by the 80’s agent provocateur Bret Easton Ellis. It definitely was part of the list of 80’s films that all the teens wanted to see. It being rated-R meant double the temptation. It was a film that both celebrated and condemned the Reagan-era yuppie culture that was fueled by excess amount of drugs, alcohol and sex.
The song “Hazy Shade of Winter” would become part of the film’s soundtrack and The Bangles had been tasked with covering the Simon & Garfunkel song of the same title. Where the former was more attuned to the duo’s folk sensibilities, the cover by The Bangles would put a harder edge to the song which made for a nice complement to the rough edges of the film.
Oh, I still have a major crush on Sussana Hoffs to this very day.
Hazy Shade of Winter
Time, time, time See what’s become of me…
Time, time, time See what’s become of me While I looked around For my possibilities I was so hard to please
Look around Leaves are brown And the sky Is a Hazy Shade of Winter
Hear the Salvation Army Band Down by the riverside It’s bound to be a better ride Than what you’ve got planned Carry a cup in your hand
Look around Leaves are brown And the sky Is a Hazy Shade of Winter
Hang onto your hopes my friend That’s an easy thing to say But if your hopes should pass away Simply pretend That you can build them again
Look around Grass is high Fields are ripe It’s the springtime of my life
Seasons change with their scenery Weaving time in a tapestry Won’t you stop and remember me
Look around Leaves are brown And the sky Is a Hazy Shade of Winter
Look around Leaves are brown There’s a patch of snow on the ground Look around Leaves are brown There’s a patch of snow on the ground Look around Leaves are brown There’s a patch of snow on the ground
Through the Shattered Lens 