Bowie came down under and wanted to capture the exotic feeling of Australia. I read a great article about the making of this clip – they went to a really rough outback pub, and brought 2 aboriginal kids in there to feature in the clip. Aborigines would never come into this pub, just white locals. There was David Bowie with his weird British teeth wearing high pants and white gloves, miming to Let's Dance with a stratocaster. They'd never seen anything like him. By the end of the day the whole pub was drunk and dancing.
I love this clip. I like the little old lady from Tim and Eric. I like the slacker angels playing cello and harp, and the track itself is such an original and bizarre arrangement. The metrical modulation – if you care what that is – is particularly great. It never stops the flow. The big emotional moment though is when the old man is back from the dead, and the sort of game-show grim reaper is after him. He knows he can't stay, and his little wife says “it's OK”. Holy crap. That's heartbreaking. This song came out last year, and not enough people have seen it.
I read a review of John Maus' first record, where someone described his singing as taking a shit out of his mouth. Even as a fan you know exactly what he means, and it only makes it better. His lo-fi recordings are infectious, and his songs are classic songs. This clip was done by JJ Stratford, who did our clip for 'Nightfall'. She has a distinct style all her own.
The invention of electricity was harnessed by Autechre into music, like Prometheus handed fire to man. This is just a stupendous feat of a clip. Some people may find it looks dated and 90s now, but they're just not watching it properly.
The way Iggy tries his Aussie accent on Molly Meldrum is great. Plus the lip syncing is pure gold. He's just flying.
Someone asked me once, why are you so into Talking Heads I just don't get what the big deal is? I wish I said 'just watch this clip and you'll understand'.
Prince doesn't put his clips on YouTube because “the internet is a fad”. This one emerged over 20 years after it was forgotten about. Michael Jackson and Prince get up at James Brown gig in 1983. Prince takes his top off, and dances.
Klaus Nomi is a strange man that got famous for singing this opera piece by Purcell, in a contemporary setting. His solo albums were terrible though. I know coz I listened to them all, hoping to find more like this. It's a beautiful song. But the minimalism and intensity of this performance is from another planet. Not to mention the Blade Runner costumes. He toured as a backing singer for Bowie, and he died a few years later.
I've never seen Kraftwerk live. I always imagined them to be as stoic as possible on stage – like the mannequins in the clip to We Are The Robots. But here we see one of them doing a great dance (Ralf maybe? Currently the last remaining member). They always claimed that they weren't musicians but 'music workers'. Unbelievable.
