Re: embarassing videos

[katefans@chinet.chi.il.us (Chris n Vickie)]

Chris here,

 David Koehler wrote:
>> Steve Berlin really struck a chord with me when he describes pre-HoL
>> Kate videos as being "really embarrassing" or merely "not quite as
>> embarrassing". 

 and Christopher Lishka answered:
> Yeah, I know what you mean.  I noticed that a lot of the early one's
> were produced (I think) by someone named Keith, with a company name of
> Keefco ("a Keefco production").  Does anyone have any info on this
> guy/company?  His production seemed pretty silly.

   I can assume that you hadn't seen these videos at the time of their
release. I can assure you that they were well above the average dreck
of the time. Check out Blondie's _Eat To The Beat_ collection to get an
idea. If you were to look at these antiques from an MTV-jaded perspective,
numb from years of being blasted with hours of fog-drenched, slow-motion,
spandex-covered....arghhhhh...
    Just to say "Keef" was an above average director producing above average
music videos, often in less than one day.

> IMHO, I thought the video to "Babooshka" was complete dreck.  Nothing
> to do with the song!  And that battle-woman outfit would have worked
> better in a Red Sonja/Conan movie than there. 

  That's (as near as we can tell) "The Sprit of Female Vengance". The video
was the end result of weeks of touring European TV stations lip-syncing the
song, dragging around what appears to be a bass bigger than she is. (Actually
it's a cello, she's _really_ tiny!) The story deals with a repressed wife
who suspects her husband of cheating, arranges a tryst with him in costume...

> The video with (an almost or totally nude) Kate Bush wrapped in plastic
> was also pretty bad.

  Kate is wearing a flesh-colored body suit. She is intended to be a fetus,
expressing her fears about the post-nuclear world outside the womb. The
plastic wrap is her placenta. 

> I was pretty disappointed with the boring imagery (especially in "Love
> and Anger")

  Our theory about _Love and Anger_ was re-posted not too long ago.
It's _intended_ to be cliched.

> But alas I have sworn not to watch videos by any of my favorite
> performers again.  Too often videos seem to be made to sell a song,
> rather than complement it.

  Videos are always made to sell a song. The record company would not give
an artist money to make a video, if they felt that they couldn't use it to
sell that song. If the video is good enough to stand on it's own as a piece
of art, great. But that is gravy (or in Kate's case, marmalade). This isn't
to say that a great artist couldn't make a video for it's own sake, but not
with money from the squids.

                                    Chris Williams of
                                        Chris'n'Vickie of Chicago
                                            katefans@chinet.chi.il.us