Isn’t it funny that I can watch hours of VH1 Classic and just get the biggest kick out of seeing videos that I used to groan at when they came on for the 7th time in a day back in the 80’s? Did I actually just sit through Billy Idol‘s “Dancing with Myself?” Surely I’ve seen that video about 350 times in my lifetime, but it’s true, I probably haven’t seen it for at least 15 years. Of course, the trade off is getting to enjoy a pair (since it’s Tuesday Two-Play) of videos from Erasure that very cleverly, and much to my delight, segued into a pair of vids from Yaz! “Nobody’s Diary” is a favorite of mine, and I had never seen the video for “Only You.” (I think I would have prefered the wacky hijinks of “Don’t Go.”) Then imagine my surprise when I found out that old song I loved (and hadn’t heard for ages) “Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy,” was by Sammy Hagar!
I admit it, I was a video geek during the 80’s. When MTV first come on, and it was cool, commercial free, and there so few videos they had to play really cool, offbeat stuff, the town I lived in didn’t get it. I was in a band at the time (the appropriately 80’s-named Psyclone) and after practicing at our friend’s house in a neighboring town, we’d all sit around and watch MTV. So cool… I actually remember seeing a video by Robin Lane and the Chartbusters! How cool is that? Does anyone else remember “All Touch” by Rough Trade in heavy rotation? Clearly a dearth of music videos was heaven for a burgeoning queer like me. (And if you haven’t read Rough Trade vocalist/songwriter Carole Pope’s autobiograhpy Anti-Diva… oh, what do you care. No one south of the Canadian border cares that Rough Trade was one of the most sexually subversive pop bands in history of modern music.)
Hmmm… I think I’m going to make a list of the 10 videos I’d most like to see again. Not now, this is going to take some time! Look for it in a few days…