According to Rick, the basic concept of the video was "keep
the workers nullified so they can keep doing their work, and the revolt of the working
class against the ruling class."
When comparing this video to Human Touch, he said "it was the total opposite, HT was a very
clean looking video, clean on the inside with a very infected outside and that BTYD was
infected inside as well."
Rick seemed very excited about this video because of David Fincher who had something to do
with "Jedi"......was directing it.
Rick's character within the video is the rebel who frees the working class.
About the song he says "it's a fun song, it's a....I have no idea...I wrote it in
Tahiti so....I was out of my mind, I had no idea...." They phoned him telling
him they needed an extra song for the movie....."so I was sitting on the beach after
touring for 6 months, and was just out of my head, just relaxing, and what came out of it
was I felt I'd been working too hard....if you want to know the heart to heart of it, the
deep part of it, I was working incredibly hard and was letting the real side of my life
denigrate and that's what the song is about....it's about me although I don't' wear makeup
on a regular basis" (this was before EFX :-P)...."it's just letting the whole
game of work become more than a game, it's just not that serious of a song, so we thought
we'd have fun with it in the video...."
The song that is playing during the video, is a remix of the song that was on the
soundtrack...
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O.K. That awful
music at the beginning made my EARS BLEED! That little guy deserved to get blown to
smithereens!:o)
One thing that struck me about Rick in this video is that he didn't seem real into it. Not
like watching the other video's.... it was just so different. It always confused me
because I always thought he was so excited about this vid with the sci-fi thing and the
people that worked on this vid. Plus it sounded like he had a lot of input in the video on
this one.....
I like the story idea. I liked some of the visuals. I just felt like something a little
better could have been done with it. I think the ideas and some of the stuff they were
using in the video were probably at that time a little ahead of their time, but it just
doesn't all work for me...
When I hear the opening part of the
song, I always think of the scene from the movie where Rick and Diana (funny, I use his
real name and her screen name), go running (is that even the scene where the song was
playing?).
Also, at the beginning of the Karma Tour, Rick actually used to perform this song quite a
bit from what I understand, and in Agoura, we got a peek at the set list and I believe
this song was on there, so I guess he's flirting with the idea of doing it live again.
This is one of my least favorite
songs on the album as well. I am not a sci-fi fan...so I did not like the set. I did
not like the depressing theme and I did not like Rick's hair. Let's get to the
important stuff here.....the hair. It looked greasy...like in "Beat Of The Live
Drum". He was just way too handsome to look like that. It was
criminal. I remember seeing interviews around this time where he just did not like
being Rick Springfield and I think seeing this video brings back the sadness of that time
for me. Is it possible that just two short videos ago Rick was jumping around the
room, looking drop-dead gorgeous (looking past the wrap-up, belt-up funky boots here),
seemingly having the time of his life?
As with "Don't Walk Away", when I hear this song I think more about the portion
of the movie it was played in rather than the video. Not that this makes me
feel any better. Remember Jamie and Diana jogging on the wharf? The poor
man just wanted to wear a headband (although it was dangerously close to a
Springsteen headband ... so I do object to that part of the whole equation), is that a
crime? We all know he sweats ... would it be too terrible to be jogging with him if
he wore the headband? I always wanted to scream "look in the mirror there
Diana, then look at the specimen you are jogging with. Headbands should be the LEAST
of your worries honey"!!!! Yea.....I was hoping he would throw her in when they
got to the end of the dock. I will admit it.
The only redeeming part of the song for me is that it did mention "Hard To
Hold". I am weird that way ...I love it when the title of a movie or album is
at least mentioned once on the album. I do think Rick is the single most gifted
singer / songwriter / musician on the face of the planet....but yes, this song does sound
as if it were written on the beach in Tahiti ...very quickly. "Whoa...whoa
whoa...Whoa...whoa whoa. Oh dear.
I think this is my least favorite
song of Rick's on the soundtrack. I'm not sure why as it has a good beat and is quite
catchy throughout the chorus. I think it's the Bop thing...I dunno.
My friends and I back in high school dubbed this "Shop Til Ya Drop" as that was
our mantra to live by. (I still hold that one up quite well I might add!)
It's interesting to know that Rick wrote this after the movie was completed because I
always thought it was just a song Rick had laying around and didn't know what to do
with (ok, I was a teenager...I figured that songwriters were like artists, had lots of
stuff that they had worked on lying around just waiting for someone to buy it)
because it certainly didn't go with the movie. Then I thought maybe he was
writing it from the opinion of the character, "keep on workin' day and night - don't
stop 'til you get what you want" as James Roberts in the movie was definitely intent
on getting what he wanted in terms of a relationship with Diana.
Seeing Rick do this song live in the '80's was awesome. The little motorized buggy thingy
he would ride around on the stage was hilarious. Rick was definitely a Vegas showman back
then, he really used alot of props and whatnot in his shows which I personally preferred
to than the "just stand there at the mike and sing" kind of performer.
The video is another story. I'm thinking the guy who's idea for DWA was hired for this one
also. Again, the story does not make much sense as to how Rick fits into it. Why is he a
prisoner who is dressed differently, and has the fortunate luck of not working with the
other prisoners? Now, we all knew Rick really couldn't dance, even back then - so
the forceful little hand movements he's making must be his attempt at some sort of
dancing. The hair stylist must've been on strike that day too, because he was certainly
sporting the bed head look way before it was cool to wear your hair like that.
You can tell he is totally enjoying himself however, in the "breakout" scenes.
I knew of Rick's love for sci-fi back then, so I attributed this video (along
with Human Touch) as more of his way to get to act in something sci-fi while
still doing his music. At least I hope that was the excuse for the story behind this
video. |