Music Video Time - back to the 80s...

I just have to share this old music video today, because it makes me happy!

This particular piece of pop-history is Just a Gigolo with David Lee Roth, who used to be the lead singer in the hard rock band Van Halen.  All of the sudden (as I recall it) he breaks free from this hugely famous and "serious" heavy metal band (1985), starts a solo career and decides to make this hilarious video while singing the Just a Gigolo/I Ain't Got Nobody.

I say hilarious because he makes fun of a number of different things.

• First off, he heckles a bunch of music videos made with the big stars from around the same time.  We have parodies based on Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Idol, Willie Nelson, Boy George, Heavy Metal and even a Richard Simmons work-out video in the "Daversize" section of the video.  The parodies are really well done; the scenery is essentially identical copies of the other stars' video stages and the actors playing the stars are real lookalikes down to body-language.  An entertaining trip down memory lane.
• Second, he shows us how superficial the entertainment industry is and it seems that most of the women are clingy and half-naked in this video...  Luckily the Censorship Board is shocked and is trying to get him to stop!
• Finally, the guy totally makes fun of himself!  I have always admired the ability some people have not to take themselves too seriously, especially when it comes to people of the opposite sex.  I think that there are several reasons for this attraction to people with a relaxed attitude about their Position in the Universe of mine.  It has been said that humor is a sign of intelligence and I agree 100% with that statement!  It also feels like I sometimes have to interact with, in particular, men who think that/act like they are best, smartest, coolest, richest, best looking - you name it.  It gets real old after a while.  I find it refreshing to see a man who does not have an issue with dressing up like a crazy jazz-dancer/clown, dancing like a maniac, falling off a roof, getting bumped, wiggling his butt - all while singing an old medley.....
• And what a medley it is!  Yep, because in a music video, the music really does matter!  If you don't like the rest of the mess in this video, just close your eyes and listen - happy, happy, happy.  (A tad ironic, since the subject matter is very sad...  According to Wikipedia: "The original version is a poetic vision of the social collapse lived in Austria after World War I, represented by the figure of a former hussar who remembers himself parading in his uniform, while now he has to get by as a lonely, hired dancer."  Sniffle....)

I can understand that younger generations may not really get this video, especially since some readers of this blog were not at all impressed with the awesome "Sledgehammer" video (yep Littlest Sis, I am talking about you here, lol).
If you didn't grow up with MTV (back when MTV actually showed music videos) as the single means to get your hit-music fix without spending a fortune on easy-to-scrape and oh-so-bulky records, chances are that you may be at a loss.  Yep, this was before we could download music or upload You Tube videos (wow, I feel old - we also walked all the way to and from school during the ice-age, uphills both ways...).
I would dare say that this was about the same time as the Sony Walkman portable cassette player finally broke through...  Ah, those were the days.  :-)  I had the Walkman Sports!  Very cool, isn't it!?

Well, as usual, I should have gone to bed about 2 hrs ago...  Hope this makes you as happy as it makes me!
Good Night!

 

PS Here is the karaoke version.... I dare you - just go on - sing it!!!!  :-)