By Tim Parks | March 20, 2023
My formative years as a “child of the ’80s” were truly something almost indescribable.
Could. The film ends with a man at home by his fireplace conjuring up a friend in a silver visor. Knocked. All of which makes Williams one of music videos best cheerleaders for our team!
Fun Fact: She duetted with Johnny Mathis on the theme song for Family Ties, sha la la la.
Wham!, “Wake Me up Before You Go-Go” (1984)
The gay per capita is high on Wham’s videography, and again was a challenging task to take on.
However, it was an early reminder to illustrate that Madonna was in charge.
Fun Fact: “Burning Up” was the second single and video from her debut self-titled album.Now what was the name of it again?
The B-52’s, “Song for a Future Generation” (1983)
“Hi, my name is Tim.
I’m a Pisces and I like computers and hot tamales!”
Well, that’s what Ricky Wilson professed on the song from 1983’s Whammy! “SFAFG” also informed us, between choruses of “la la la la la,” that the Athens-based band was primed to take over not only the fashion world, but the entire galaxy as well.
The pulsating rhythms of the opening strains of “The Wild Boys,” mixed with a drum machine effect that mirrors gun fire, perfectly sets up the band’s post apocalyptic video.
The Mad Max adjacent vibe—and the Wild Boys’ loin cloth outfits—will leave you wondering if it will be a Thunderdome type situation of two men entering, one man leaving...in bed.
He was Boy George, dammit, and skipped to the beat of his own reggae-infused beat in the video! It’s been named Billboard’s No. 1 hit of the entire ’80s and helped launch the fitness craze of the decade.
Soft Cell, “Tainted Love” (1981)
Lead singer Marc Almond is a commanding presence on a bargain basement set, as an ancient Greek, shooing away the carb filled foods that a woman is attempting to feed him.
She exemplifies the ultimate rocker chick in the video, in both attitude and looks, so I was not surprised when she came out. Yet, if I were to try to put into words how it felt to be that lonely gay boy, longing for acceptance, I would summarize the feeling with three letters: MTV.
Every day I was barraged with a wealth of imagery that spoke to some part of myself I was not ready to reconcile until I turned 15—and then it was game on like Donkey Kong.
Talk about living in a powder keg and giving off sparks! He certainly turns a “bright spark into a flame” many times over in this video, but never so much as during his day-glo jazz hand infused performance near video’s end.
Fun Fact: The origin of the song happened accidentally when Ridgeley needed a wake-up call, and wrote a note to his mum that read, “Wake me up up.” Upon discovering he repeated the last word, he finished the sentence with “before you go go.” All it took was for Ridgeley to recant the story to Michael, who penned the tune that became Wham’s first hit in the U.S.
Tim Parks is the Lambda Literary Award-nominated author of The Scheme of Things and a freelance entertainment writer for 23 years, columnist for 18 years with his latest one, Hollywood, appearing in The Rage Monthly.
However, there were a few sequences that bear mentioning, including a sweet ass shot in the showers.Then there’sthe shirtless sweaty man in a hard hat, ahem, turning a crank. A cute guy performs a solo, laughing at the camera and climaxing. And vice versa.
Which begs the question, did EJ have a handy, I mean, hand in selecting these dancers, or in the very least applied their body paint?
Oh, and Fred Schneider expressed his desire to “explore the caves of the unknown.” Hmm, that’s queer.
Fun Fact: The next year, Schneider released the solo single “Monster,” and the video has an appearance by Keith Haring.
Bonnie Tyler, “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (1983)
Definitely one of the weirdest videos I ever deposited into the spank bank repertoire of my youth.
What?