Before we had music videos, the song was our own. We each had a unique "video" playing in our own mind before MTV gave us a visual of what a song should "look like". But, I am still a fan of the old MTV back when it was all about music vs. reality shows, etc. I could sit and watch Michael Jackson dance all day or watch Van Halen, The Pretenders, Def Lepard, Tom Petty and others. And, even though I love Bruce, most of his videos were just plain dumb, with the exception of "Secret Garden" and maybe "Glory Days". Sorry, buddy, but you're no actor, you're a rocker.
Where were you 30 years ago today? I was sitting in front of the television waiting for the clock to strike 12:00 am to finally see the much hyped new music channel "MTV". It was the beginning of a new era and I'm still not sure if it was good for music - or not so much.Here are the videos played (in order) during the first 24 hours of MTV:
- "Video Killed the Radio Star" by The Buggles
- "You Better Run" by Pat Benatar
- "She Won't Dance with Me" by Rod Stewart4. "You Better You Bet" by The Who"You Better You Bet" was both the 4th and 55th video to be aired on MTV, making it the first video to be shown more than once.
- "Little Suzi's on the Up" by Ph.D.
- "We Don't Talk Anymore" by Cliff Richard
- "Brass in Pocket" by The Pretenders
- "Time Heals" by Todd Rundgren
- "Take It on the Run" by REO Speedwagon
- "Rockin' the Paradise" by Styx
- "When Things Go Wrong" by Robin Lane and the Chartbusters
- "History Never Repeats" by Split Enz
- "Hold on Loosely" by 38 Special
- "Just Between You and Me" by April Wine
- "Sailing" by Rod StewartStewart's "She Won't Dance with Me" was the 3rd video played; with this video, Stewart became the first artist to have two different videos played on MTV.
- "Iron Maiden" by Iron Maiden
- "Keep on Loving You (Live)" by REO Speedwagon
- "Bluer Than Blue" by Michael Johnson
- "Message of Love" by The Pretenders
- "Mr. Briefcase" by Lee Ritenour
- "Double Life" by The Cars
- "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins
- "Looking for Clues" by Robert Palmer (the video never plays due to technical difficulties.)
- "Too Late" by Shoes
- "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" by Rod Stewart (15 seconds into the video, the video screen briefly goes blank while the audio still plays.)
- "Surface Tension" by Rupert Hine
- "One Step Ahead" by Split Enz
- "Baker Street" by Gerry Rafferty
- "I'm Gonna Follow You" by Pat Benatar
- "Savannah Nights" by Tom Johnston
- "Lucille" by Rockestra
- "The Best of Times" by Styx
- "Vengeance" by Carly Simon
- "Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden
- "I Wanna Be a Lifeguard" by Blotto
- "Passion" by Rod Stewart
- "Oliver's Army" by Elvis Costello
- "Don't Let Him Go (Live)" by REO Speedwagon
- "Remote Control/Illegal" by The Silencers
- "Angel of the Morning" by Juice Newton
- "Little Sister" by Rockpile with Robert Plant
- "Hold On to the Night" by Bootcamp
- "Dreamin'" by Cliff Richard
- "Is It You" by Lee Ritenour
- "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac
- "He Can't Love You" by Michael Stanley Band
- "Tough Guys" by REO Speedwagon
- "Rapture" by Blondie
- "Don't Let Go the Coat" by The Who
- "Ain't Love a Bitch" by Rod Stewart
- "Talk of the Town" by The Pretenders
- "Can't Happen Here" by Rainbow
- "Thank You for Being a Friend" by Andrew Gold
- "You Better You Bet" by The Who
- "Bring It All Home" by Gerry Rafferty
- "Sign of the Gypsy Queen" by April Wine
- "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" by Kate Bush
- "Message of Love" by The Pretenders
- "All Night Long" by Rainbow
- "Boys Keep Swinging" by David Bowie
- "Rat Race" by The Specials
- "Just Between You and Me" by April Wine
- "Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads
- "Victim" by Bootcamp
- "Tonight's the Night (Gonna Be Alright)" by Rod Stewart
- "Cruel to Be Kind" by Nick Lowe
- "A Little in Love" by Cliff Richard
- "Take It on the Run" by REO Speedwagon
- "Wild-Eyed Southern Boys" by .38 Special
- "Wuthering Heights" by Kate Bush
- "Celebrate the Bullet" by The Selecter
- "More Than I Can Say" by Leo Sayer
- "A Message to You, Rudy" by The Specials
- "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins
- "Heart of Glass" by Blondie
- "Oh God, I Wish I Was Home Tonight" by Rod Stewart
- "Kid" by The Pretenders
- "Wrathchild" by Iron Maiden
- "Come What May" by Lani Hall and Herb Alpert
- "I Got You" by Split Enz
- "Sister Disco" by The Who
- "Fashion" by David Bowie
- "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
- "Love Stinks" by The J. Geils Band
- "Johnny & Mary" by Robert Palmer
- "Tomorrow Night" by Shoes
8 comments:
That's an awesome list...I don't think I've ever seen it before. Talk about feeling old!
Up here in Canada it was Muchmusic that didn’t hit the air until 1984. I have many fond memories from back in the day of the channel that was also, at the time, an all video channel. I would spend hours with the channel and its VJ’s. I rarely see as many music videos anymore. I don’t watch Muchmusic (not that there are many videos on it anymore anyway) or music video programs. Sometimes I get curious and look on Youtube but that’s it. I still listen to a lot much music. It’s fun, as you referenced, to return to that time when a music video doesn’t tell me what the song should “look like”. You kind of get lost in the music inside your own head a little more. Cheers!!
I never realized that Tesla song "Little Suzi" was a cover!!
What an awesome list of songs and bands when MTV first aired. Those were definitely the good old days of music!
Those were the good old days in many ways! I would love to take a trip back in time. My teens/20's were wildly fun, and music was always a big part of it.
Happy Birthday eMpTyV, I hardly recognize ya any more!
Seriously, I miss the days when MTV still remembered that the "M" in MTV stood for "Music." I don't recall the last time MTV really featured music. I miss those days!
I didn't get access to MTV until the mid-late 80s (around '87 or '88). We actually had VH1 in 1986before MTV from my cable provider back then.
I remember watching it quite a bit when I'd be home sick from school. Some of my fave videos back then:
George Harrison - I've Got My Mind Set On You
George Michael - Faith
Escape Club - Wild Wild West
Chicago - Stay the Night (while not their best song, it IS their best music video! Absolutely hilarious)
Chicago - You're Not Alone (the girl in the music video... ummm I was a young adolescent and she certainly caught my attention)
Kylie Minogue - The Loco-motion (one of my first celebrity crushes)
Milli Vanilli - Girl I'm Gonna Miss You (I'm embarrassed to admit this one)
Def Leppard - Love Bites
Def Leppard - Pour Some Sugar On Me
DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince - Parents Just Don't Understand
Perplex - well said!
POUR SOME SUGAR ON MEEEEEEE.
So many great videos. Now I go to youtube to reminisce, they still have a lot of them over there.
Classic Rock Snob Bares His Soul…
OK, I admit it. I’m a Classic Rock snob.
But how can I not be, when there is simply no doubt that the music from the era 1965 -1976, was the pinnacle, the height of creativity, genius, and the dawning of the New Enlightenment. (Yes, I know some of you may debate the exact years the New Enlightenment began, but let’s agree that the time frame I’m suggesting, is somewhere in the ballpark.)
OK. There truly was a change in the world, somewhere around ’65 -’66, a change no less profound than the Renaissance in Italy in the 1400’s.
And just like during the Renaissance, there was a convergence of energy, creativity and free thinking that all coalesced in one point of singularity. And it culminated into the Biggest Bang, the expansion of consciousness…that created a new wave of music the world had never seen before. And hasn’t seen since.
Think about it. Even as shitty as Classic Rock stations are, playing the same group of songs over and over, the music has never died…and I don’t believe ever will.
Being the Classic Rock snob I am, all I can say is, how could this music ever die…when it is timeless, ageless, and well, classic.
Something happened in 1965-1966. Some cosmic switch got turned on in the collective consciousness of young musicians mostly here in the US and Great Britain. We went from “Help!” to “A Day In The Life”. We went from “King Of The Road” to “Purple Haze”. We went from “I Got You Babe”, to “The End”.
In my opinion, something BIG changed in that era. The psychic elements of protest, experimentation and thinking without restrictions all combined to take the tame, polite music before this time…into the mind blowing work that grabs you by the balls and doesn’t let go.
I mean, think about what us Baby Boomers got to do any time we wanted. We could go into the local record store/head shop (do they still have head shops any more?) and browse through the new albums that came out that week. It still makes me ache with nostalgia to think that because I only had $9.00, I had to limit my purchases to the three albums you could get for nine bucks.
I used to wander around the store, (getting distracted by the new bongs and pipes) then focusing on whether I was going to buy the new releases from the Stones, the Who, the Doors, Tull, The Allman Brothers, The Dead, the Band, the Airplane, Janis, Jimi, Led Zeppelin, Van Morrison, Dylan, Creedence, Yes…and on and on and on.
Sigh. As I’m writing this, I can see myself and my buddies shopping for over an hour, grinding out the agonizing, excruciating process of elimination, whittling down the purchase, album by painful album. Then seeing my buddies’ choices, now wondering if I made a mistake, and re-thinking my final decision on the new Who album, maybe switching it for the new Tull. What a confusing activity. Then, of course, once I got home, and waited for my parents to go to work, so I could use my Dad’s portable record player, the one with the 33 stem, and the fat 45 adapter, to hear my new choices over and over and over.
(Always having some level of buyers’ remorse, when I heard a tune on the underground FM station at 2 am, from an album I didn’t buy…wondering if I should have bought it instead.)
And to be honest, with as killer as the music was (is), part of my enjoyment was knowing that the “Man”, the “Establishment”, and my parents and all their friends, fucking HATED this wonderful and liberating music.
So, yes, I am a Classic Rock snob, and I won’t apologize for it. You younger kids who have picked up on it, welcome to our world. To those of you haven’t yet joined us, please do. We all need to rock more and worry less!
Jack Straw
www.screwtheresume.com
www.blog.screwtheresume.com
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