Monday, August 18, 2008

Billy Joel ruins St. Mark's Place: More 80s video fun

We've been having some fun of late finding cheeseball 80s videos shot in New York. Alex at Flaming Pablum has found a few more doozies...(as well as some actually good songs, like Surgery and Freedy Johnston). The dooziest of the doozies, though, belongs to Billy Joel's "A Matter of Trust" video shot on St. Mark's circa 1986. (The embedding thingee was disabled by request...) Good counsel from Alex regarding this song: "Best to turn the sound down..."

[Note from EV Grieve: I changed some of the original copy in this next section at 12:51...I explain it a little more in the comments...]

Meanwhile, moving away from the cheeseball category, here are some more 1980s videos with New York serving as a backdrop....I submit Joe Jackson's "Steppin' Out" ...



And, with apologies, Sting's "Englishman in New York" (Why am I apologizing? I like the song/video, but not Sting so much...)



Don't worry -- there are plenty more to come....
at

9 comments:

  1. boweryboogieAugust 18, 2008 at 11:03 AM

    i love the idea of this series of posts. however, youtube playing big brother really messes things up. what a pain in the balls.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 11:17 AM

    I haven't found a way to embed it, and I can't find it on YouTube, but Surgery's comparatively high budget video for the entirely awesome "Off The A List" comes close to being the perfect NYC-centric video. Host it if you can find a way:
    http://www.spike.com/video/2790168

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 12:13 PM

    Thanks for the note, Alex. Damn good video.

    I can't figure out a way to embed it either....

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 12:32 PM

    Why is "Englishman in New York" a "cheeseball 80s video" in a post about videos that ruined the neighborhood? It's shot on black and white film and includes a lot of exteriors of a guy walking through the streets, which many of us who love the city are inclined to do. The song isn't obnoxious; in fact, it's about Quentin Crisp, who is also in the video, and who was very much identified with the neighborhood during that period. I agree, there is plenty of crap out there to disdain, but let's be a little bit more discriminating.

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 12:47 PM

    Thanks for the comment, 13 journal.

    Lousy transition on my part in the post...I started by talking about some cheesy videos...then jumped to Joe Jackson and Sting just for videos showing some New York from the 1980s...As for the "apologies" part, it has more to do with Sting than the song/video. I actually do like the song and video. Sting? It's easy to dislike him, I suppose. And have found myself in a like-dislike position with him through the post Police years. Guess I was in a dislike mode when I posted this...

    ReplyDelete
  6. eeAugust 18, 2008 at 1:02 PM

    Well, talk about dislike (or like--not to offend anyone), here's a music vid by Moby feat. Debbie Harry (sorry, she's not in the vid)-- New York, NY. This one is more of '90s New York. It has a shot of CBGB's, both interior and exterior at the 2:08 mark; also, the club scene towards the end is somewhat Jackie 60 ish.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 1:03 PM

    I briefly turned off my Sting-dislike for a Police concert last summer. The album that this video comes from was the last effort of his that I liked -- The Police albums were so much better. One of the things I liked about them was that the first place they played in the US was CBGB on the Bowery, back when there was a CBGB on the Bowery...

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 1:06 PM

    It's perfectly acceptable not to like Moby, Eric!

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousAugust 18, 2008 at 1:12 PM

    Here are the Police at CBGB...(Photo only...)

    http://www.cbgb.com/shrine/shriners/police.htm

    ReplyDelete

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