Writing Sunday’s post about the 85 MTV Video Awards prodded me go to back and look on YouTube for the nominees for Best Experimental Video (whatever that means). Art of Noise’s label, ZTT, has put up a copy of “Close (to the Edit),” but it’s hardly hi-def. Otherwise, we’re pretty much at the mercy of fans keeping things from going down the memory hole. I posted last October about “Ways to Be Wicked,” from Lone Justice, shortly after Petty’s death; that video was ripped from a VHS-promotional tape. I couldn’t find the original vid for Lindsey Buckingham’s “Slow Dancing” anywhere, and the only copy of “Go Insane” is something recorded from VH-1 Classic–the quality’s not there, either. Come on, Lindsey–share with us!
The clip for Chris Isaak’s “Dancin’,” however, looks great. I don’t know now how familiar I was already with the song that September evening, but it couldn’t have been long after that I scored a promo copy of Silvertone from Cut Corner Records. I didn’t find anything else on it that grabbed me the same way, but over the years I’ve generally liked what I’ve heard from him: “You Owe Me Some Kind of Love,” “Don’t Make Me Dream About You,” a cover of “Solitary Man,” “Somebody’s Crying,” and “Baby Did a Bad, Bad Thing” are always welcome on any playlist (“Wicked Game” was quite the victim of overplay, though).
Isaak clearly had a vision for his career, a retro sensibility, and didn’t appear to deviate from it. In the end, he carved out a decent niche. In my case, it was the first encounter with his music that was the best.
(According to the comments, that’s Denise Crosby playing the femme fatale in the video.)
The Music of My Life 