Now, in my previous post, I showed some examples of videos where the use of horror imagery was directly related to the lyrics of the song. That, of course, didn't always happen. In fact, one could even use the phrase "very rarely" in this context and not be out of line.
Huey Lewis and the News had a relatively huge hit with "Doing It All For My Baby," but their video was pretty much unrelated to the song. (This is the shortened version - embedding on the full-length, almost-eight-minute version has been disabled. It's here, though, if you'd like to see it.)
There is absolutely no reason for this video to be set in a haunted castle with a mad scientist running amok in the basement, but there it is.
The single biggest hit for the Greg Kihn Band would easily have to be the song Jeopardy. Now, an argument can be made that the zombie-themed video is a metaphor for our progagonist, seeing the freedom of his single days flying away. Yes, that argument can be made, but it would be wrong.
The lyrics to the song make it obvious that, far from being about a man who doesn't want to get married, it's about a man who thinks his relationship with his girlfriend is coming to an end. Somewhat unrelated to freedom, zombies, or anything of the kind.
(On an interesting (but only vaguely related) note, Greg Kihn has since written four novels, one of which, Horror Show, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award by the Horror Writers Association of America.)
Sheena Shirley Orr was born in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire, Scotland on 27 April 1959. At the age of 20, she married Sandi Easton, the first of four husbands; she was divorced from him within eight months, but kept his surname on stage. Sheena Easton had a string of hits throughout the 80s; in 1983, she had a (barely) Top 10 hit with "Telephone," which had absolutely nothing to do with the video that they filmed for MTV, but managed to be an interesting homage to the monster movie.
(Personally, I didn't care; even ignoring the bad 80s makeup, she was easily the hottest woman around. For me, it was easy to ignore substance and just concentrate on the style. But I was always shallow that way...)
2 comments:
You're completely wrong about the song Jeopardy. It has nothing to do with zombies, death or the trap of marriage, or a failing love. How can you possibly missed the true meaning? It's about someone going on the game show Jeopardy and losing. Sheese, I fail to see how you could have. . .what? Weird Al? oh well, that changes everything. Never mind.
Thank you, Miss Rosannadanna...
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