ZZ Top was big in the blues rock scene in the mid to late 1970's but as the 1980's started they were looking for some mainstream success......and they found it with their 1983 release, Eliminator. Sparked by great songs and classic, iconic videos the album sold over 10 million copies in the US alone.
Legs was their 5th single from the album and their third video. As with the previous two videos, it featured the 1933 custom Ford from the album cover and a trio of beautiful women the band dubbed "the Muses" (two of which were former Playboy Playmates....so muse that for a minute). The video is filmed in a strip mall that's filled with lots of really mean people. The stock-girl from the shoe shop is being picked on by the customers and employees at the burger joint and the only nice guy in the place has eyes for her. Of course, the whole place picks on him as well, so they have something in common. Up rolls the Muses and after a makeover for the stock-clerk and some abuse delivered to the mean people of the mall, the nice guy and the stock clerk are off in the back of a dune buggy.
The band shows up to laugh at the mean people and encourage the stock-clerk. But they also put on a performance of the song in the parking lot which features fuzzy guitars that can do a 360 degree spin. (its always funny to me that the member of the band that doesn't have a beard has the last name Beard).
Please enjoy the video and I'll just say it......she's got legs!!
Yes, it talks about being infatuated with your teacher and the video is the most inappropriate video this side of a Motley Crue video but there's no denying that pubescent boys are attracted to anything that moves during high school (I apologize to every girl I met between 1980 and 1990).
The video features our hero, Waldo (voiced by Phil Hartman), trying to get through an average day in school. The video was filmed at John Marshall High School in Los Angeles (Leonardo DiCaprio went there) and four of the students look like younger versions of Van Halen with the rest of the class looking like every school in the Los Angeles area at that time. Punks, metal heads, wierdos, 80's hair abound. But here comes the teacher......in a bikini!!!! The teacher is played by Lillian Muller. She was the Playboy Playmate of the year for 1976. And she looked really good (sorry, my teenage self started to kick in again).
But I've always loved this song for Eddie's guitar work. The solo is so awesome, it requires two trips down the library desks. And who doesn't love Dave being Dave with his ad-libed kid complaints about the clock being slow?
Released in March of 1985, this tribute to baseball only reached #44 on the US charts but it can be heard in nearly every baseball stadium across the country and in every level of the game.
It includes references to some of the greatest players to ever play the game: Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb. It invokes the feeling you get as you step out of the darkness of the tunnel leading to the seats, as the sun first hits your face and that first flash of green grass meets your eyes. The sights, the sounds of the game....its all there in those first lines of the song. A nearly perfect marriage of a song and its subject.
Released in 1985, a full year before their debut album, this was something of an introduction to the boys and their goofiness.
Slightly misogynistic, and devoid of any political correctness, this is the way they presented themselves to the world. And it sold really well. Within four years the Boys would redefine themselves as more mature and much more politically minded, even going so far as to donate entire proceeds of album sales to charitable causes and organizations.
But not back in the early days. This song is just about a girl they can't seem to convince to fall for them. They go to extraordinary lengths and fail miserably. Their mentor, played by record producer and thrash metal guru Rick Rubin, is no help. At least they get what's coming to them in the end.
I was going to go into a long post about how much I like this song, which I do.....but then I watched the video (which I had never seen before) and now I'm just at a loss for words. The official video for the song is typical early 80's...light on concept, big on weirdness. The photo from above is of Lene from a European tv performance......and that's a hair style, no doubt about it. But it seems that she was always a little free-wheeling with her hair and lets face it, it was the 80's and hair was a way to express yourself. So who am I to judge?
I would be doing you all a disservice if I didn't point out Lene's keyboard player. He's in the video. Its none other than Thomas Dolby. Maybe it was Lene that blinded him with science.
Released in July of 1984, this was his first solo single, although he wouldn't officially begin his solo career until 3 years later. In the US it was credited to Wham! (featuring George Michael) but its obvious this was where he was headed. The song reached #1 in ten countries and has sold over 3 million copies.
A crushingly sad tale of a guy that cheats and ruins the best relationship he had and his acknowledgement that he's to blame for what happened. George claimed that the sax line in the song was written when he was 13 on a bus heading home from school. If that's true, than good on ya. The song, co-written by Andrew Ridgeley, has been covered multiple times but the original version still has the best sax performance....no other even comes close.
The video was filmed in Miami and really captures the story of the song, with George putting in a great performance as the cheater singing his ass off about how badly he messed up. It was an instant classic on MTV.
This may seem confusing but this film is so bad but I still love it.
Released in 1980, this Robert Altman film was not given the script it should have. It had a great cast. Robin Williams, in his first staring role and Shelley Duvall, coming off her role in The Shining, lead a cast that would be recognizable over the next few decades. Paul Smith (as Bluto) would be seen again in Dune. Paul Dooley (as Wimpy) would play Molly Ringwald's dad in Sixteen Candles. Richard Libertini (as Geezil) would play the guru in the movie All Of Me. Ray Walston (as Poopdeck Pappy) would play Mr. Hand in Fast Times At Ridgemont High. David Moffat (as the Taxman) would play LBJ in The Right Stuff. Linda Hunt (as Mrs. Oxheart) would win an oscar for her role in The Year Of Living Dangerously (she's also reunite with Paul Smith in Dune). Dennis Franz (as Spike) would be nominated for an emmy award all 8 years he played Detective Andy Sipowicz on the television show NYPD Blue, winning 4 times. And in a small nod to the music in the film, Klaus Voormann (as the band leader) was once the artist that created several album covers for the Beatles and would play bass for the band Manfred Mann.
The story is all over the place: Popeye is looking for his father and comes to Sweethaven to find him. Olive Oyl is getting engaged to Bluto and during her engagement party, she and Popeye find an abandoned baby, which Popeye names Swee'pea. Bluto destroys the Oyl house when he learns that Olive has skipped out on the engagement and beats up Popeye. To pay for the taxes that Bluto imposes on the Oyl family, Olive's brother, Castor, signs up to compete against a local prize fighter, Oxblood Oxheart. When Castor fails, Popeye jumps into the ring and beats Oxblood. The next day, Olive tells Popeye that Swee'pea can tell the future. Wimpy takes Swee'pea to a gambling riverboat and uses Swee'pea's ability to win at the horse races. Bluto kidnaps Swee'pea so that he and the Commodore, who runs the town, can get rich. SPOILER ALERT** The Commodore is really Popeye's father, but since we meet the Commodore only 3 minutes before we learn that he's Popeye's father, its all ok. Popeye confronts Bluto and saves Olive, Swee'pea and dispatches a giant squid all to bring the film to a happy ending....well as happy as you can be after 120 minutes of this script.
But the saving grace for this film is the songs and the performance of Robin Williams. With most of the songs being relatively catchy and the visuals for each musical number being so layered and full of sight gags, the songs will stick with you. Robin's ability to immerse himself into a role was on full display from the first scene. Most of his little asides and comments were ad libbed and added to the performance. Seeing him with bleached blond hair and rubber arms is still very odd but he sells the character.
The set was built in Malta and still exists and is a tourist attraction. It was a fully functioning town and every scene of the film was filmed within the town, no studio sound stages used in this film.
Please enjoy the trailer for the film and take the time to watch the whole film. Its so bad, its good.....sorta.
