Ever since the dawn of MTV and Friday Night Videos, the music video has significantly impacted musical tastes and pop culture. It might not be as extreme as when the Buggles declared that "Video Killed the Radio Star", but there is no arguing that the music video certainly could make or break a song's popularity. So this regular Flashback Video feature will serve to remember some of the music videos from the great '80s decade that made an impact on me in one way or another.
This issue we will cover "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats. The single was originally released in Canada in 1982, but not officially released in the U.S. until March of 1983. It became a huge hit peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100 at the end of September crossing over into October that year. It went on to reach the Top 10 in at least thirteen other countries. Many interpreted the song to be promoting safe sex or being anti-nuclear, but it is really more anti-establishment and freedom of expression or, more specifically, protesting bouncers prohibiting "pogo-dancing" to new wave music at the time. Either way, it has always been one of my favorite songs of the early '80s, but the music video was a little strange.
The music video for "The Safety Dance" was directed by Tim Pope who was quite prolific when it came to music video directing. In the early '80s, he created several videos for Soft Cell and The Style Council as well as almost every video for The Cure. Pope directed the video for one of my favorite non-traditional Christmas songs in The Pretenders "2000 Miles". He also came over the U.S. and, in addition to "The Safety Dance", created videos like Hall & Oates "Adult Education", The Cars "Magic" and later The Bangles "Eternal Flame" among many others. His work now exceeds 100 videos.
The video for "The Safety Dance" used English folk revival (think Renaissance Faire) imagery featuring Morris dancers, Mummers, Punch and Judy and a maypole (even though the band was from Canada). It was filmed in the village of West Kington, in Wiltshire, England. Lead singer Ivan Doroschuk is the only member of the band actually to perform in the video. Doroschuk, and the others in the video, can be seen repeatedly forming an "S" sign by jerking both arms into a stiff pose apparently referring to the first letter in "safety". The Morris dancers seen in the video were the Chippenham Town Morris Men. The little person actor is Mike Edmonds, whose T-shirt in the video shows the Men Without Hats Rhythm of Youth album cover. Edmonds is probably best known for his role in the British children's television show Maid Marian and Her Merry Men, but he also was "Og" in Time Bandits, an Ewok (and Jabba's tail operator) in Return of the Jedi as well as film roles in Flash Gordon, Dark Crystal and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Having Edmonds perform as a dwarf jester always stuck out to me as a memorable part of the video which also had no correlation to the song.
Here is the music video for "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats...
Men Without Hats was considered a new wave band and I still don't quite understand the theme or costuming for this video, but that doesn't change the fact that I love the synthesizer hook and the fact that "The Safety Dance" can take me back to 1983 in an instant.
Hope you enjoyed another trip back to the '80s thanks to Flashback Video!
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