I totally remember it, because I saw it on VH1's "I Love the Eighties" about a year ago.
Agreed on YouTube being a "visual collective memory bank."
Oh man. I'm the reader Ogged had in mind for this post: I had no idea!
It's especially worthwhile to see Ogged and Labs glance back over their shoulders after walking out.
I was not permitted to watch such filth in my youth. Looking at it now, I agree with my caretakers.
Given the arc of tolerance in American society over my life, I really wouldn't have thought that music videos had gotten less gay over the years. But I'd have been wrong.
4- It makes a crazy kind of sense. There was a long time in which gay subtext flew below the radar- 'normal' people didn't react to it because they thought no one was gay. Then when gay people weren't something that could be denied those 'normal' people started jumping at everything, fighting for such ancient institutions as marriages in which women weren't simply vectors for the transfer of property.
Watching a Rock Hudson film knowing he's gay, for example, gives those movies entirely new meanings. But the straight people watching them when they were made had no clue about the low-hanging fruit orchard in which they were wandering.
Isn't there a Rock Hudson movie where he plays a straight guy pretending to be gay? I want to see that one.
In Pillow Talk he implies that his romantic rival (played by himself) is gay. And then when he is acting as that rival he talks about window treatments and his mother and cooking. But I don't know of a movie where he pretends to be gay the whole time.
Hey, speaking of gay, did you know that Nicholas Cage is starring in a Liberace movie?
Before 9/11 we didn't realize the need for serious camel-toe defenses, apparently.
I just saw this video at the gym a couple of weeks ago (they always play 80s videos on Saturday morning) and didn't remember that ending. According to Wikipedia, MTV (and I assume the stupid Health Club Video Network [or whatever they call it]) frequently cut off the video before the ending. When I saw ONJ in concert last year, she talked about the video having been banned in England.
But that ending isn't subtext, exactly. One of the youtube commenters says that MTV ended the video prematurely to edit out the gay.
Also keep in mind that there was a lot of gay in disco, and in the early 80s the bathhouse scene was still alive and well.
Tangentially, I would like to approve of ogged's method of linking to the YouTube, as opposed to embedding it. Older computers have a hard time processing embedded YouTube clips.
I had never seen that. Y'all are old, or had cable. And I'm glad they were gay, because they were totally gay in the scene before that; it would have been so unrealistic had they gone off with her.
(The Calamom: but the lyrics aren't about working out, are they?)
But sometimes, JM, I will embed, because I think people are much more likely to watch when I do. My apologies.
There was a long time in which gay subtext flew below the radar
Surely at some point something is done so blatantly that it ceases to be subtext. Of course what's "blatant" is going to vary by time period, but jesus, two oiled up guys in speedos wandering off holding hands?
And Ogged is right, I really didn't remember that video at all.
No, no, dear god. Rent "Send me No Flowers," Ogged. He plays a hypochondriac who thinks he's dying, and his best friend is played by Tony Randall, and they go around together checking out men. Because, you know, they need to find a new husband for Doris.
What about the guy with the red 'fro and the total porn star moustache?
What about the guy with the red 'fro and the total porn star moustache?
You mean Ben?
Both 2 and 20 make jokes I wanted to make. Advantage: Armsmasher!
15--That's alright. It's just that I've been wanting to make that point to someone ever after that silly YouTube war between The Poorman, Atrios, and Sadly, No! It slowed down my computer tremendously, and crashed my honey's computer twice. The occasional clip will be fine. Just fine.
The ending is great, but all that beating up and making fun of the fat guys made me a little uncomfortable.
The bathhouse scene may have been alive and well on the heathenish coasts, but deep in America's throbbing heartland no one knew about the gay. The backlash that started with Stonewall is only getting stronger because the gay movement is more vocal and visible even than it was in the eighties. It was fine and dandy when gay people hid in the closet, but heaven forbid people have to face the fact that some famous person they'll never meet doesn't like girls.
That also explains MTV cutting the end of the video- they were afraid of people who were becoming aware of the gay movement complaining, but Bogey could put his ex-girlfriend on a plane and walk off with another man without anyone really noticing. Now even Spongebob is gay because the people who have made a business out of rejecting gayness are jumping at shadows and seeing everything being gay. It's a stimulus-response thing.
And Dr B is right- Send me no Flowers is hilarious, too. I like 'That Touch of Mink' for a commentary on pre-marital sex from back in the day. All the Doris Day/Rock Hudson movies are entertaining. But never under any circumstances rent The Pajama Game. It's terrible.
Bogey could put his ex-girlfriend on a plane and walk off with another man without anyone really noticing.
That's 'cause Rick and Renault were totally not gay.
I had only the vaguest memories of this video. The men in speedos to hot chick ratio was not at all what I rememberd.
Unbelievable find, baa! An act of YouTube genius.
27 -- that does not number among the popular "sing-along" Village People hits you hear at e.g. bas mitzvahs, Catskills resorts, mall p.a. systems, etc.
29 No indeed. But it should be!
I love the computer running the Sex Scenario. State of the art, man.
The great thing about YouTube is that in addition to sophisticated pieces of cinema like Oliva Newton John's "Physical" video, we also get gems like "The Day I Shot My Crippled Friend in the Leg While He Was Peeing."
ogged,
I was looking for the pic of Green's face post the 4am brawl in harlem. Couldn't find it, alas.
SCMT,
I knew you would like that!
This clip which is the opening to the village people's movie "can't stop the music" is weirdly watchable. I think it is because it was filmed on location. Steve Gutenburg is happier than you.
pic of Green's face post the 4am brawl in harlem
I looked for that too. Even the internet won't go to Harlem.
These days, I am desparately trying to find housing in Harlem. I'm just hoping I can get there before the tidal wave of developers do.
trippy -- to the point of unreadability.
Can't Stop the Music is full of great moments. The roller-skating intro is priceless. And Steve Gutenburg (sp?) is clearly coked up throughout the whole movie.
unreadability
The signal characteristic of myspace.
Hey apo, are you watching the Gene Simmons reality show on A&E?
No, I've seen ads for it but reality TV just seems really pointless.
I dunno, Simmons is pretty fucking charming. His sense of humor is disturbingly like the ex's dad's, but I guess that's a middle-aged jewish guy thing. I even kind of liked his teenaged son. Anyway, worth checking out one episode.
I'll set the TiVo to get it then.
Wait, the ex is jewish?
Surely I've mentioned that before?
Different woman from the Russian?
Nope. Same one. You should see me in a yarmulke.
"I just wanna hurdle your girdle and do slam dunks in your swimming trunks."
He's exclusively a minister of sobriety.
My nose doesn't need an excuse to come out.
By the way, the paperclip trader got his house.
Did the have to fit you specially for your yarmulke? You know, because of the pointiness?
Yeah, but would you want to live there? What a tool.
You have missed the message of the video. ONJ goes off with the old fat guy, and leaves the slender, good-looking, guys with the muscular definition and shit, who like all good-looking slender young guys are gay, gay, gay!, in their hell of false appearances.
Also, ONJ's grandfather was a Nobel Prize winner, Max Born, which means that she is Jewish by Nazi standards.
If the old fat guy was intended to be her father or Nobel Prize winning grandfather, then my previous statement is inoperative. Unless she was screwing them. I didb't watch the whole thing.
I don't understand your antipathy to the trader-man. I'd take a house in Saskatchewan if it only cost me a paperclip. He can always sell it.
No he can't. On the Great Plains, houses are abandoned.
Millsy, apparently the pointiness of my head is within the bounds of typical Jewish pointiness. Eve 1, Phrenology 0.
Ogged, get your little Jewish hat out of your eyes and see what is plain as day: that guy is a tool.
one red paperclip, the book, is due to hit bookshelves next summer. I will write the book in my favorite language: Canuck-Yank-Bloglish. Words like "toque" and "skidoo" are in, but those pesky bonus u's are out.
Ok, fine. But your antipathy is still irrational.
A book and movie deal. Jesus.
You see my point. Also some of the last trades were pretty weak.
55 gets it completely right. Trust me.
But the book and movie deal things piss me off.
Why are you talking about Ogged when you could be talking about the wonder that is 50? It ought to be the Unfogged theme song.
Also, ONJ's grandfather was a Nobel Prize winner, Max Born, which means that she is Jewish by Nazi standards.
I'm having some kind of super-sick waspy morning, but this is hilarious to me.
Q. What's more disgusting than sweat on Olivia Newton John?
A.
Hey watch what you say about Dexy's Midnight Runners!
"Come on Eileen" is the "See Emily Play" of 80's American pop/country fusion.
Have to agree with CA in #68. Dexy's is the canonical one-hit wonder, and should be accorded the respect it's due.
"Shelton was fired from the band during the filming of the "Come On Eileen" video. Rowland ordered his bandmates not to do any bathing of any kind or shaving of any kind. Shelton did not follow the orders and Rowland fired him." (Wiki)
A quick trawl through YouTube reminds me that Morris Day was the coolest man in American history. I dream of the day I can pull off the mirror move at the end of the video with such casual panache.
Dexy's is the canonical one-hit wonder
I disagree. That dubious honor belongs to these guys.
The great thing about "Come On Eileen" is the opportunity to be merciless when a friend's mom is named Eileen.
Didn't LB say all her mom's friends were named Eileen?
Those that weren't named either Mary Margaret or Margaret Mary.
73: I dunno, The Vapors put in a decent bid for the title. Btw, I have both this album and two (count 'em, two!) Knack albums on vinyl.
You have to distinguish between one-off song, and one hit wonder. There aren't two in ten people who remember the names of the Knack and the Vapors, but everyone remembers Dexy's. Also, women in overalls still get me a bit bothered.
women in overalls still get me a bit bothered.
Here ya go, Tim.
Back to Rock Hudson- there's also the scene in "All that Heaven Allows" in which he and Jane Wyman are talking about how she has to be strong and tell her children about their relationship, and she utters the line, "So, what you're saying is, you want me to be more like a man." !!!
I just barely remember the Fifties, but that period was obsessed with homosexuality. It was usually in a psychiatric social-problems sense, but it lurked in the background of a lot of the pop culture. Guys were pretty much told to be always watchful for signs that they, or someone they knew, might really be one of "them".
"Suddenly Last Summer" was a terrible movie in my opinion, but as vivid Fifties nostalgia it has everything -- Katherine Hepburn overacting like you wouldn't believe, Elizabeth Taylor and Montgomery Clift being sexy without doing anything, the silliest happy ending you ever saw, dystopian psychiatry giving a lobotomy to silence a witness (almost), grossly racist portrayals of mobs of Arab street kids, and an dead queer who's ofstage who's the center of the plot. Tennessee Williams and Gore Vidal.
In the fifties, homosexuality had been made more than anecdotal by the Kinsey report, which may have overstated the incidence due to sampling errors, but was not wrong by an order of magnitude. And it was widely assumed to be the consequence of social factors, of upbringing, of nurture rather than nature. That was where the panic came from: what might you be doing wrong? Was it contagious? Could you be "turned?"
