Sunday, January 12, 2014

The Cult - A YouTube Retrospective

Our first history lesson begins here.  From 1985.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCOSPtyZAPA

Here, the record company bought everybody lunch in order to keep costs low during the production of this one. Some pizzas for the crew and a salad for Ian Astbury, who does his best Steven Tyler impersonation.




This is especially impressive because it would be years before Steven Tyler became Steven Tyler.  Incidentally, Tyler traded his last $20 bill for what turned out to be a small bag of baking powder, and finally, his last $1 bill for a hot dog at a Providence Chevron station.  Aerosmith was in ruins, the hot dog was stale - it was probably spinning for hours, and Joe Perry was busy being a stay-at-home dad changing Katy's diaper. Meanwhile, Tyler was swapping blow-jobs for drugs in bathroom stalls of dirty nightclubs across New England.

And, today's second lesson.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RD5b_0QB0wI


Aside from Astbury, who looks like a zombie authority figure, or, a zombie policeman about to write a parking ticket, the rest of the band comes out of filming a Bananarama video.  Fresh off the success of the previous video, the record company spent an extra $50 and hired some dancing transvestites.  They are featured prominently in this video.  They steal the show with their interpretive 60s dance, "A fly is dive-bombing my head - just a second."  They also have really long arms, like Bigfoot does in that famous video.