Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,200 
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Post by Confessor on Jun 18, 2019 7:52:07 GMT -5
The censorship problems were a bit hilarious, considering what they would and wouldn't allow. They banned Queen's "Body Language" because it was too suggestive and featured too much skin, though no nudity. However, they did allow Olivia Newton John's Physical, which had as much skin, though they edited the ending. In the early days, you could see Queen's "Calling All Girls," from their Hotspace album; but, that was about it, until The Works, which gave "Radio Ga-Ga" and "I Want to Break Free." They did show "The Prize", from Highlander/It's a Kind of Magic; but, that was about it. They seemed to write them off and I don't recall them showing anything, beyond the Live Aid performance. Homoeroticism was censored; but, women in lingerie, draped on cars is cool. Madonna rolling around on stage, on the first VMA show, singing "Like A Virgin" is okay. Violence in videos are okay. Just don't show any homosexual acts. You can have guys look longingly, for a minute or two, if you are a big enough name act. One of my favourite MTV censorship stories comes from 1989, when R.E.M. (who used to refer to the channel as "empty-vee" among themselves) released their single "Pop Song 89". The artsy, black & white video featured singer Michael Stipe and three female friends dancing to the song, stripped to the waste. Unsurprisingly, MTV rejected the video and insisted that black censorship bars be placed over the women's breasts. The band complied, but also put black censorship bars over Stipe's chest too, with the explanation that "a nipple is a nipple". And that's how it aired.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2019 8:27:48 GMT -5
I remember when cable became available in my area and a few of my friends got it. Instead of 6 TV stations they now had 30 to pick from! I kept bugging my parents to get cable and finally they did. By then I was in college and did not have much free time to watch TV. We had cable about a year before MTV debuted.
I rarely watched MTV until I had my first apt then I watched it and had it on as background "noise" instead of the radio. Probably haven't watched MTV in 25 years.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 18, 2019 9:14:35 GMT -5
When we first got cable, it wasn't offered where I lived. One day I came home from school and Mom announced we had a bunch of new channels, MTV being one of them. I fondly remember sitting in front of the tv watching one music video after another...Madonna, Billy Idol, INXS, Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper....and later on watching Real World, Road Rules, Singled Out (with Jenny McCarthy), 120 Minutes, Yo! MTV Raps, Remote Control, Lip Service, and Club MTV. As the 90s started, I was more into Nirvana, Sound Garden, Pearl Jam, and Hole and remember seeing Black Hole Sun on there a lot. Sad now that all they have are trashy reality shows.
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Post by badwolf on Jun 18, 2019 10:48:47 GMT -5
I was enamored of MTV when it first started. I remember watching it constantly at friend's houses. We didn't get cable until later, so at home I had to be satisfied with a half-hour morning show on regular TV called Video Rock, which seemed to play the same half dozen videos over and over, but I didn't care. I remember regularly seeing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" (Bonnie Tyler), "I'm Still Standing" (Elton John), "Sweet Dreams" (Eurythmics) and if I was really lucky, "Our House" (Madness).
By the time we got cable I had pretty much moved into alternative music and only watched Post-Modern MTV (1/2 hour, 11pm weeknights) and 120 Minutes (Sunday nights/Monday mornings--why??) I used to tape videos and had several two-hour VHS tapes filled with the ones I liked. I guess you can see pretty much everything on YouTube now, though.
I also discovered The Young Ones and The Comic Strip (also on Sunday nights).
By the time they got out of music and into "reality" TV I had already abandoned TV entirely, so I didn't really care much.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 18, 2019 13:19:27 GMT -5
One of MTV's strangest promotions (cross-promotion, really) would come in 1984: The Rock n Wrestling Connection, as it was known. MTV became involved with professional wrestling, in a synnergy of two groups trying to gain national attention to sell their product. A little background:
Professional wrestling was not a nationally organized thing, like baseball or football. Instead, there were conglomerations of promoters who had staked out territories and promoted wrestling shows within those territorial boundaries. Generally, they respected each other's turf and exchanged talent. One of these territories covered the Northeastern US, promoted by Capitol Sports. That promotion was chiefly owned and run by Vince McMahon Sr, whose father Jess McMahon had promoted boxing and wrestling at the old Madison Square Garden. Vince Sr promoted wrestling in the current Madison Square Garden and as far south as Washington DC, with major cities, such as Boston and Philadelphia bringing more revenue (due to denser populations) than the biggest territories in other parts of the country. Vince Sr promoted as the World Wide Wrestling Federation, which, in 1982/83, shortened its name to the World Wrestling Federation. Vince Sr sold the business to his son, Vincent Kennedy McMahon, aka Vince Jr. Jr decided to break with tradition and take the promotion into other territories. He was aided by having national exposure on the USA Network's All-American Wrestling, on Sundays, as well as syndication in the Northeast and East Coast. Vince Jr began selling his show as paid programming to local stations, in exchange for the advertising revenue, especially targeting areas with existing wrestling promotions. Traditionally, pro wrestling would be presented from a tv studio, with a ring and a small crowd, while stars had "squash matches" (they would completely dominate a lesser opponent) and conduct interviews and angles, designed to get viewers to purchase tickets to see the big matches, at the local arenas. The WWF taped their shows from an arena, with a big crowd, making them look like a bigger deal. They still had mostly squash matches; but, Vince started courting top wrestlers from other promotions and many, such as Hulk Hogan, defected to the upstart.
In 1983, Cyndi Lauper was on a plane (so the story goes), where she met Captain Lou Albano, a former wrestler and then-current wrestling manager, for the WWF. He was a wild character (a boozer, in reality) who pierced his cheeks and hung rubber bands from them, wore loud Hawaiian shirts, and looked like a fat Italian slob who insulted everyone and riled them up. Lauper had seen him on television, managing his wrestlers and cutting promos for upcoming cards. They got to talking and hit it off and she invited him to be in the filming of her music video, for "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." he portrays her father, in the video (with her actual mother appearing, as herself). The video was instrumental in drawing attention to Lauper, as 1983 was the year that MTV started appearing on more cable systems and more people were watching. They began having a big influence on the pop charts, boosting careers of people lie Madonna, Men at Work, Duran Duran, Adam Ant and Lauper.
The WWF saw this as a way to attract national attention and approached Lauper about appearing on their show, to do publicity and cut an angle. Lauper, being a fan, agreed. She appeared with Albano on Piper's Pit, an interview segment hosted by heel wrestler Rowdy Roddy Piper (star of the movie They Live). In the segment, Albano takes credit for Lauper's success and she goes off on him. he then makes sexist remarks and she hits him with her purse and challenges him. She will pick a wrestler to manage against his wrestler. The angle then built to Albano choosing the women's champion, The Fabulous Moolah, and Lauper picking young wrestler Wendy Richter.
Moolah, aka Lilian Ellison, was not just the champion; she was the promoter of a troupe of lady wrestlers. Richter was one of her wrestlers and they had had matches in the WWF before. Richter primarily wrestled as Cowgirl Wendy Richter, a heel, taking on babyface lady wrestlers, who were also part of Moolah's group. The WWF presented the thing as Richter being a young and up and comer, with no ties to Moolah, who was presented as the undefeated champion since the mid-50s (even though she had won and lost the title several times, in shows that she booked).
Lauper got MTV involved and they saw it as a chance to get further exposure, via the WWF's USA program and on their syndicated shows. They conducted interviews with Lauper, Albano, Richter, Moolah, and people like Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper. This led to the match, at Madison Square Garden, in 1984, in what the billed as the Brawl to End it All. Richter defeats Moolah and becomes the new champion. Richter and Albano would go on to appear in the video for "She Bop."
Meanwhile, the WWF and MTV aren't done with each other. The WWF is hot and MTV is hot and they look for ways to further things. They have Roddy Piper get involved in things, which gets Hulk Hogan involved. They then set up a match, to be aired on MTV, called the War to Settle the Score. They even had Alan Hunter host a press conference/debate. The match features interference for Piper, which bring Mr T, who had appeared in Rocky 3, along with Hulk Hogan, running to the ring for the save. This leads to a war of words and a challenge, for a tag-team match of Hogan and Mr T, against Piper and Paul Orndorff (who Piper was managing), at Madison Square Garden, on a show that was to be called Wrestlemania. It was broadcast on close circuit tv and featured guest referee Muhammad Ali, guest announcer Liberace, the Rockettes, Yankees manager Billy Martin and Lauper (who was managing Richter against Lelani Kai, for the title, after Kai had won it on the War to Settle the Score event). The event was a big gamble, due to the expense of promoting it; but, it paid off and cemented the WWF as the top ational promotion and has continued ever since. MTV was seen as cutting edge, both musically, and in drawing in other media elements for cross-promotion.
Aside from the Lauper and WWF stuff, MTV broadcast a video, from George Thorogood, covering "Willie & the Hand Jive." The video was produced by Pro Wrestling Illustrated Magazine, for a video compilation of matches from across the country, with commentary from editor Bill Apter and Gordon Solie, host of World Championship Wrestling, on Superstation WTBS, the other nationally broadcast wrestling show. The music video closes out the program and features clips from matches seen in the video, plus bits and pieces from others. MTV had it in strong rotation, for a couple of months. Then, they kind of moved on to bigger things.
(MTV is name-dropped in the song)
Cut to 1997 and wrestling has grown hot again, as the WWF and WCW are locked in a major war, with competing programs on Monday nights and promoting in the same cities and towns. WCW, with the deeper pockets, cross-promotes with MTV, with WCW putting on shows during Spring Break, with MTV covering and using the wrestlers in their programs. Meanwhile, Vince secures a deal to do a Sunday program on the MTV network. MTV also runs a documentary program, True Life, which includes an episode about pro wrestling. featured in the documentary is a lot of backstage WWF footage, focusing on HHH (future son-in-law of Vince McMahon and current WWE President) and Chyna, as well as former star Tony Atlas, and a kid who is going to Les Thatcher's wrestling school, in Cincinnati, OH. The kid drops out and focus goes on another student, about to have his first match. The breakout star of the piece is Atlas, a former major name whose drug problems left him working the smaller indie promotions and his story of getting clean and rebuilding, as we see him try to save a local show that the promoter has cancelled, because of issues with Atlas (Atlas was the booker for the promotion, setting up the matches and paying the talent). That documentary proved popular and many others followed, on other networks, leading to barry Blaustein's Beyond the Mat documentary film, which got a major national release, featuring Mick Foley, Jake the Snake Roberts, and Terry Funk.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 18, 2019 13:29:20 GMT -5
ps Piper and some of the other wrestlers appear in the music video for the film, The Goonies.
In further music and wrestling connections, Bob Mould, of Husker Du, became a writer on the WCW booking committee, during the late 90s. Billy Corrigan, of Smashing Pumpkins, became involved with TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, attempted to buy the promotion, and later bought the name rights to the National Wrestling Alliance, the former major association of the territorial promotions, before the WWF expansion.
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Post by berkley on Jun 18, 2019 21:16:21 GMT -5
Never saw that before. That was both charming and excruciatingly terrible. I feel sort of bad that I missed early, anarchic, "We'll play anything as long as it doesn't have a black person in it" MTV.
Nice song, hadn't heard it before now, myself. I assume that's Todd Rundgren's Utopia? An under-rated songwriter and performer.
I never really got into music videos as an artform in itself, in spite of being a big fan of both movies and of pop music.
One thing about not having seen much of MTV, I have no idea about the hosts and presenters who seemed become pretty major figures in US pop culture for a few years. This is the first I've heard of Martha Quinn, for example. You'd occasionally hear a name like Pauly Shore being referred to in something else, e.g. a comedy show, or something, but had and have nothing - no image or persona - to connect it to. Meanwhile, I was very familiar with the Much Music hosts, many of whom were quite well known up here and went on to do other things.
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Post by codystarbuck on Jun 19, 2019 0:27:33 GMT -5
Never saw that before. That was both charming and excruciatingly terrible. I feel sort of bad that I missed early, anarchic, "We'll play anything as long as it doesn't have a black person in it" MTV.
Nice song, hadn't heard it before now, myself. I assume that's Todd Rundgren's Utopia? An under-rated songwriter and performer.
I never really got into music videos as an artform in itself, in spite of being a big fan of both movies and of pop music.
One thing about not having seen much of MTV, I have no idea about the hosts and presenters who seemed become pretty major figures in US pop culture for a few years. This is the first I've heard of Martha Quinn, for example. You'd occasionally hear a name like Pauly Shore being referred to in something else, e.g. a comedy show, or something, but had and have nothing - no image or persona - to connect it to. Meanwhile, I was very familiar with the Much Music hosts, many of whom were quite well known up here and went on to do other things.
Yeah, that's Rundgren's group. In the early days, you got some experimental stuff like this, from groups who were into creating an actual piece of "art," rather than just a promotion of the song. Devo did quite a bit of this, from their inception, though MTv didn't show many of their videos (Whip It, Peekaboo, Dr Detroit and Satisfaction got heavy play; but, some of their more political stuff was left out), as did Utopia and Talking Heads. "Once in a Lifetime" was one of the early uses of blue screen, with the various images floating across the screen and they further experimented with editing techniques and visuals in "Burning Down the House and 'Wild Life." Some of the UK bands had elaborate videos; ABC had one (a short film, actually, more than a video) that was a mini-detective film (Mantrap), while Phil Collins would do gimmicky things, like using split screen of himself as both the lead and back-up singers for his version "You Can't Hurry Love," making himself his own Supremes. He also did a parody of images in other videos. As videos and MTV became a bigger thing, you started to see comedy shows and others start lampooning it. Britain's Not the Nine O Clock News had all kinds of music parodies and did one of artsy pop videos, from less than stellar bands... That pretty much has every video cliche of the period. Stephenson later, to her utter regret, came to the US and did one season on SNL, where one of the few sketches she was in (they mostly used her for Weekend Update)was a parody of MTV, at Spring Break, on a UK beach, with depressing scenery and punks (even though punk was long gone), when Miranda Richardson guest hosted. Tiny Tunes did a whole show parody of MTV, which included two They Might Be Giants songs, animated by the Warner gang (Istanbul, Not Constantinople & Particle Man)... MTV also delivered up the parody, themselves, with Weird Al Yankovic. First I ever saw on there was Hey Ricky (done to Tony Bail's Hey Mickey), with Al as Ricky Ricardo and cartoon voice actress Tress McNeil as Lucy. That was followed by Eat It and a legend was born. Soon, we had AL TV specials, where Yankovic was the guest host (all day in at least one case). Sometimes, the parody came from an unlikely source. Yes had a video out for the song "Leave It," from their 90125 album. Actually, they had 18 versions of it, with producers Godley & Creme doing computer manipulations. MTV would show the various versions, then devoted an entire day to showing each variation, in succession (which was funny after about 3, then got tiresome). MTV also brought The Young Ones to America, with the alternative comedy show blasting onto our sets, and also showcasing such bands as Madness, Motorhead, The Damned, Dexy's Midnight Runners, Amazulu, Rip Rig & Panic, Nine Below Zero, Radical Posture, and John Otway. Rip Rig & Panic would feature a young Neneh Cherry, who later had a hit on her own, with "Buffalo Stance.). The popularity of the Young ones led MTV to also bring over The Comic Strip Presents, which featured a sort of proto Young Ones, with Adrian Edmondson, Nigel Planer, and Rik Mayall, as the band Bad News, going on a tour. They later showed Monty Python. By the 90s, they had their own comedy shows, both in animation and with the sketch comedy show The State, whose members would go on to appear in Wet Hot American Summer, Viva Variety and Reno 9-1-1. Quinn had a minor celebrity here, as she appeared in commercials and did some acting, including the infamous Brady dramatic show, with the cast of the Brady Bunch reunited. She played Bobby's wife. The rest of the originals did infomercials for 80s compilations and ended up back in radio, for the most part (Quinn too). JJ Jackson passed away several years ago. Pauly Shore used MTV as a launching point for his career (thankfully brief) in movies, and Colin Quinn got exposure on Remote Control, before moving on to SNL. Rosie O'Donnell was a VJ on VH1, before getting the gig to host their Stand-up Spotlight, then A League of Their Own and her own talk show. Jenny McCarthy got noticed, hosting Singled Out, before she went on to become an immunization denier. |
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Post by Chris on Jun 19, 2019 1:22:03 GMT -5
 Yeah, you beat me to it just barely, but you just mentioned it in passing instead of giving it the bigger than life presentation it deserves. And you failed to mention how Al brought to MTV one of history's greatest musical finds - Dog Police! It doesn't get any more 80s than that. ______________ This video is so 80s-awesome that it broke my internet connection. I was three quarters through the video when it crapped out and I had to restart my modem. This really happened. |
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Post by Chris on Jun 19, 2019 1:44:20 GMT -5
My street got cable in spring of 1983, with MTV included. I don't think I started watching it right away though, if I did, it wasn't much. I can't be sure, but I think it took me about a year to properly get into it, but once I did, that was it. Loved a lot of the New Wave stuff.
The music seemed to have ups and downs, but there was enough to keep me interested for quite a while, but after a couple years it seemed more and more generic. More and more, acts like Bob Seger and Jackson Browne were doing videos, but they were really just warmed-over 70s songs dressed up in 80s drag, with a few synths and that electronic 80s bass sound laid over the top of a 70s blue collar rock song structure.
By spring of 1987, my parents got rid of cable and we'd had persistent cable outages a number of times during the preceding months*. Local radio had been crap for over a year by that point, and I couldn't tune in the only alternative station** from where I lived, so I was pretty much out of the music scene at that point.
What really hurt, though, was the loss of Night Flight.
* That's probably half the reason my parents got rid of cable. Why pay for it when it's just static over 50% of the time?
** 97X, the future of rock 'n' roll.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 19, 2019 10:49:42 GMT -5
^ you know it's back, right? as short, 15 minute episodes, but mining the clips from the classic show. on IFC, latenight on Fridays: www.ifc.com/shows/night-flightalso as an online streaming, I believe |
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2019 9:23:43 GMT -5
So, what did you think of the early years of MTV (say the first decade or two, depending on your age and access)? Did it start losing you when the videos became secondary or was that what was drawing you, with things like the animation, reality shows, TRL, or some of the rest? Did MTV open up new music to you or was it more of the same? No effect? I first discovered MTV in the early-to-mid 90s around the time my mother and stepfather got cable. Via MTV, I discovered great songs like Obsession by Animotion, Money For Nothing by Dire Straits - and so much else. I'm more of a rock/metal fan than pop fan, but I did discover many great non-rock songs via MTV. I enjoyed Beavis and Butt-Head, too. The last time I watched MTV was probably a good decade ago, most likely due to a documentary being on. Now, I stick to a playlist. I also used to check VH1 out, but I haven't looked at that for at least 6-7 years. In my life, MTV has been added to my "obsolete list" which also includes phone boxes and video rental stores. Nice in their day, and thanks for the memories, but technology has made them an irrelevance for me. |
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Post by The Captain on Jul 4, 2019 9:35:23 GMT -5
We didn't have cable when I was growing up, as my father thought it was a waste of money and would lead to us doing nothing but sitting around watching TV all day. Luckily, my best friend had it and I spent a lot of time at his house where we would watch hours of MTV (as well as ESPN and our local sports channel). I slept over at his house on Saturday nights a lot (mainly to escape my house, as my father is an alcoholic and Saturday evenings were not pleasant after he'd had a day to marinate in the sauce), and we would stay up to all hours watching Headbanger's Ball. Knowing now what I didn't know then, I wish it had been on nights with 120 Minutes, as I currently listen to maybe 3% of the music I used to from Headbanger's Ball but my playlists are overflowing with The Smiths, The Cure, Echo & The Bunnymen, Depeche Mode, INXS, etc.
Of course, in true fashion for my life, as soon as I moved out of the house to go to college, my father finally broke down and got cable so he could watch more sports. Apparently it wasn't a waste of time and money when it was for something he wanted.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 4, 2019 15:57:07 GMT -5
I used to watch about 30 minutes a day, plus Celebrity Deathmatches, and sometimes ... I watch the early MTV just to kill time so that I can watch an important documentary or movies on Turner Classic Movies from 1988 to 2006. You can see, I was a semi-regular viewer during that time. I watch MTV very rarely from August 1981 to 1988 about a hour or so per month. When Celebrity Deathmatch came on ... it was 4 hours a week. After 2006, I stopped watching altogether ...
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Post by rberman on Jun 11, 2020 9:18:56 GMT -5
I never had cable TV growing up, so MTV was just something that I occasionally saw when visiting friends who did have cable. But I recently had the opportunity to see the first four hours of MTV, which were amusing for both content and technical issues. I'll post an hour at a time:
0:00:00 It starts with the shuttle launching, then an MTV flag over rock backing. Then "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles then a brief documentary covering the development of recorded music through different technological phases like hi-fi and stereo. Then comes the second video (Pat Benatar). She keeps baring her neck like a vampire is incoming.
Next, the five original VJs briefly introduce themselves. Four of them have been DJs on Sirius/XM's "80s on 8" station in recent years, with JJ Jackson having died in 2004. Martha Quinn left that role as well in 2016. The segments are out of order; Mark Goodman comes last but speaks as if he's introducing the other four to follow him.
Then come the very first block of commercials. "The Bulk" is a spacious three ring binder. Superman II movie trailer. An ad for... Dolby Noise Reduction. Weird; that's not something you can purchase directly. I guess they were just building a brand name.
0:12:00 Mark Goodman is back briefly, again acting as if we've met the other four VJs since we last saw him. Next, a video of a forgotten Rod Stewart rocker "She Won't Dance with Me." A brief MTV promo, then The Who's "You Better, You Bet," which has fantastic B&W cinematography. It makes the three preceding videos look like an elementary school project. Show these young kids how to do it! The song itself is noteworthy for a slinky Telecaster guitar part. New Wave was in, and distortion/overdrive guitar sounds were out.
0:18:00 Mark Goodman is back. Then the Mountain Dew commercial (with "Gimme a Dew" jingle) in which young adults horse around at a swimming hole. The next ad is Interfaith Hunger Appeal, raising money for famine relief. This was a joint project of Catholic Relief Services, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Comittee and the National Council of Churches' Church World Service. Were ads for nonprofits like this paid, or a free PSA? REO Speedwagon has a short promo for a concert to be broadcast on MTV a week hence.
0:20:22 back to music. I've never heard of "PH.D." or their song "Little Susie's on the Up." But it's not a bad New Wave track, with a comedic video themed around a ballroom dancing competition. This is the MTV first video with cinematic aspirations, trying to tell a little vignette instead of just being a performance piece.
0:23:27 Cliff Richards: "We Don't Talk Anymore" from 1979. A British pop legend, barely known in the USA, lip-syncs solo and with band before a black background, fog rolling around his ankles. Despite a few primitive camera tricks, a very uninspired video, but not a bad song.
0:27:28 the aforementioned Pretenders with "Brass in Pocket." Chrissie Hynde plays a sexy waitress. Her bandmates and their girlfriends enter the diner, sit, then leave without ordering anything. When the lyrics are "special," the band members point to the Special on the diner menu. Groan... She wistfully watches them drive away.
0:30:15 Mark Goodman voiceover with MTV moon flag flying, leading into Todd Rundgren's "Time Heals," which has an inventive video inserting the singer into various surreal pieces of modern art by the likes of Magritte and Picasso.
0:34:00 Technical difficulties! REO Speedwagon's "Take it on the Run" starts playing. It's a concert video, a genre we haven't seen so far. But after about ten seconds, the video is replaced by a Black Screen of Death with a booooooop audio. Then after a moment of dead air, Mark Goodman is back to shoot the breeze. I assume this was a problem with the original broadcast rather than the VHS recording. Goodman tells readers how to write in for an MTV sticker to put on their home stereo. This is because listeners could hear MTV in stereo only if it was piped through their home FM system.
0:34:55 advertisement for Chewels sugarless gum.
0:35:30 What in the world? After five seconds of dead air comes what seems like Styx's song "The Best of Times." But no, it's another song, "Rocking Paradise," with the same music for two verses before going in a different, more rocking direction. Watching this hammers home how much Styx wanted to be Queen. Tommy Shaw's hair makes a perfect, smooth helmet on his scalp and down his neck. I didn't even realize Styx had a second guitarist, but apparently James "JY" Young was always in the band.
0:40:19 advertisement for "Andron, the first pheromone-based fragrances." An Atari 2600 ad touts how addictive the product is.
0:41:20 Robin Lane and the Chartbusters' "When Things Go Wrong" is an ambitious period vignette video with minimal lip syncing. It's about a woman whose husband leaves to be a sailor, or something. As often happens in bands like this, the video showcases the photogenic singer, relegating the rest of the band to cameos. Robin Lane, a throaty Cher-like singer, was married to Police guitarist Andy Summers from 1968-1970. Is he really that old? Or they married in primary school?
0:44:30 another glitch, with frames from The Who (a different song than earlier) intercut silently with footage of a Saturn V launch for several seconds. Then Mark Goodman is back, telling us that MTV is going to provide coast-to-coast music news. How coast-to-coast? The first feature is on The Ramones in NYC, so this first documentary odyssey stays close to home. The interview (15 seconds!) with these punk icons seems to have been repurposed from something else, but it gives MTV instant cred. Goodman then introduces the next video... "Rockin' Paradise" by Styx. Which has already already aired. Oops. This first attempt to sync the VJ's patter with the playlist misfired, but at least they tried.
0:47:34 a cross-promotional ad from fellow Viacom subsidiary The Movie Channel. Then an ad for MTV itself. Then "History Never Repeats" by Split Enz. I didn't know this one, but it's a catchy song with an inventive video dramatizing the song lyrics. The band has a playful Squeeze vibe.
0:50:30 since the REO Speedwagon video was aborted, .38 Special's "Hold On Loosely" gets the honor of being the first concert video to successfully air. They look like Skynyrd, an unkempt contrast to Styx, the other longhair band to air so far. Nary a stylist in sight. This band has TWO DRUMMERS! Both with full kit.
0:55:05 The famous moon man promo closes with a Mark Goodman voiceover, announcing upcoming videos; the accompanying video is still frames of the artists: "Rod Stewart, Robert Palmer looks for clues, The Pretenders, and Elvis Costello... going country?" Two of these videos have already played, though.
0:55:35 "Just Between You and Me" by April Wine is a pleasant slice of late 70s MOR, kind of Framptony/Cheap Trick. It's a concert video, and the sound seems live as well. Their floofed out manes catch the stage lights nicely.
0:59:35 the first hour closes out with our first repeat artist, Rod Stewart's "Sailing" (1975). Were there really that few artists that they had to repeat one so quickly? Add this to the collection of boat songs circa 1980 (Christopher Cross, Little River Band, CSN, etc.) Stewart is literally on a yacht, in a cute white sailor suit, cruising through extremely foggy waters in Manhattan's Upper Bay.
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