To the youngins out there, music videos in the early to mid-80s were the penultimate form of artistic expression.
I remember seeing this video on the communal dorm tv, and everybody basically said this is so bad.
Well anyway MTV's first video was "Radio killed the radio star"
Lionel Richie killed the video star.
He follows her, he almost touches her hair, he crank calls her at night…
Creeper…
I remember the woman in the video was a Playboy centerfold a few years earlier.
YIKES.
I couldn’t get through the first minute, it was so creepy.
And yet everyone loves The Police’s “Every Breath You Take” which is a song about a stalker.
Worst Song Ever.
needs more cowbell...
My dad’s favorite song. Every time I hear it on the radio I think of him.
And what was the ultimate form of artistic expression?
People would come up to me and say "What's up with the fancy-schmancy beer?" as most men stuck to Bud, Miller High Life, and Pabst Blue Ribbon in those days.
Certain songs just bring these kind of random memories flooding back for me.
Anyway, I liked Lionel's music better when he was with The Commodores.
Great song for sure. Far better than dancing on the ceiling LOL
Greatest hit: Let's Roll Over Lionel Richie With A Tank".
That reminds me of a funny story from the NY Post I think.
So, Richie had been seeing his girlfriend at her apartment but his wife followed him over there.
So the writer says something like: “I bet when he answered the door he didn’t have to ask his wife: “Babe, is it me you’re looking for?”
Anyway I thought it was hilarious.
I think not. I see it as a metaphor.
If you have never loved someone from afar, it may be cheesy. Think about it, quietly loving someone whom you are so afraid of letting know, because you fear rejection, is kind of like stalking them mentally.
Fear of failure is what keeps the losers in life standing together in the gym talking to each other about why she would reject them, or what they would do if they had the balls to ask her to dance. While the heroes are those who come to the realization that failure is not an option, so they step up and ask the beautiful gal to dance.
When all these boys grow up and go to war, it's the losers who sit back waiting for the heroes to face the fire, so they can go home and brag about how they were brave enough to fight. Sadly, too many times the heroes seldom go home, but they did make it possible for the cowards to.
Cowards make videos of beautiful blind girls making the first move, because in reality they themselves are the blind ones. In their mind, the beautiful girl is too blind to see what a coward they truly are, so she makes the first move.
In a symbolic way, the video speaks to the fear we all have of failing. Failure is so much easier to hide, when someone who doesn't know us makes the first move, or takes the lead in war. Often times, it's that one friend we all have who steps up, giving us others courage to follow suit. In life, we call those men true leaders, while the rest are followers.
Sadly, in the fantasy world of music and movies, it's the losers who become the heroes, while and the heroes become the losers. Just look at who is adored in life by the masses, the cowards. While too often the true heroes are painted as the losers.
Yes, I remember this video well, yet I saw it differently. I saw a metaphor of how the coward won the girl without having the balls to walk up and say,
“Hi, my names is ……….., would you like to dance?”
I prefer to be the hero who took a chance and asked the girl to dance. The guy who took a chance at failing, and ended up winning the war. They guy who looks back in my life at the many times I did fail, but took the chance and tried anyway. The guy who is now comfortable in my skin is because when I needed to be, I was a hero. If even just for myself.