{"id":10494,"date":"2011-11-28T10:50:16","date_gmt":"2011-11-28T15:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=10494"},"modified":"2011-11-28T10:50:41","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T15:50:41","slug":"ken-russell-music-video-pioneer-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ken-russell-music-video-pioneer-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Ken Russell, Music Video Pioneer, Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/M-anLLNeJGM?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>You may recall an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/lemgtommyl-emg-the-movie-a-good-b-good-b\/\" target=\"_blank\">earlier discussion of the fascinating\u00a0<strong>Ken Russell<\/strong> film <em>Tommy<\/em><\/a>. The controversial director has <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2011\/11\/29\/arts\/ken-russell-controversial-director-dies-at-84.html?_r=1\" target=\"_blank\">died at 84<\/a>. While I find most of his films head-scratchingly badly amusing, his exaggerated, well-lit,\u00a0creepily sexually charged\u00a0film bios of music figures probably was highly influential on 1980s music video directors. As we reflect on his well-documented and discussed work on The Who&#8217;s rock opera\u00a0<em>Tommy<\/em> and review some of his other likely influential works, let&#8217;s keep in mind some of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/index.php\/drop-the-cat-video\/\" target=\"_blank\">&#8220;drop-the-cat&#8221; video moments<\/a> in the heyday of rock music videos that may not have been possible without Russell&#8217;s unique vision. And let&#8217;s keep in mind this quote from the director, which speaks for\u00a0the spirit driving even his most laughable efforts\u2014not to mention our own:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cI believe in what I\u2019m doing wholeheartedly, passionately, and what\u2019s more, I simply go about my business,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI suppose such a thing can be annoying to some people.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;ve never seen <em>Lisztomania<\/em>, but I wish I could say I had. I don&#8217;t know if I&#8217;d have the patience for it today, but I really should have jumped on the opportunity to watch <strong>Roger Daltrey<\/strong> acting in another movie. The following scene is just a taste of what I&#8217;ve been missing all these years:<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/peJ_ncxXung?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You think <strong>Lady Gaga<\/strong> was a fan of this film?<\/p>\n<p>Following is a more tasteful approach to music video-making, from the director&#8217;s 1974 film, <em>Mahler<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/8lCkKVtQNfQ?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Surely artists from <strong>Bj\u00f6rk<\/strong> to <strong>Thom Yorke<\/strong> gained inspiration from this scene.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t know until today that Russell&#8217;s work on music-driven films predated <em>Tommy<\/em>. Here&#8217;s a scene from a 1970 film on <strong>Tchaikovsky<\/strong>, <em>The Music Lovers<\/em>, which for highly personal reasons that I one day hope to share I now feel compelled to watch in its entirety:<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vO31n8sy0r0?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Did you know that Russell did a BBC film on <strong>Richard Strauss<\/strong>&#8216; <em>Dance of the Seven Veils<\/em>, which the Strauss estate suppressed for the director&#8217;s tie-in to Strauss&#8217; Nazi sympathies? Next, a clip from this never-aired yet influential piece of music video making:<\/p>\n<p><!--nextpage--><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/y5ldCnvAaCA?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If only Russell had been able to attach his vision to The Residents&#8217; <em>Third Reich and Roll<\/em>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Surprisingly, aside from his contribution to the opera video collection <em>Aria<\/em>, I don&#8217;t think Russell ever directed an actual rock video. <em>If he had, what song or artist would his style have most befitted<\/em>?<\/p>\n<nav class=\"page-links\"><strong>Pages:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ken-russell-music-video-pioneer-dead\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">1<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ken-russell-music-video-pioneer-dead\/2\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">2<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ken-russell-music-video-pioneer-dead\/3\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">3<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ken-russell-music-video-pioneer-dead\/4\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">4<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ken-russell-music-video-pioneer-dead\/5\/\" class=\"post-page-numbers\"><span class=\"page-num\">5<\/span><\/a><\/nav>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may recall an earlier discussion of the fascinating\u00a0Ken Russell film Tommy. The controversial director has died at 84. While I find most of his films head-scratchingly badly amusing, his exaggerated, well-lit,\u00a0creepily sexually charged\u00a0film bios of music figures probably was highly influential on 1980s music video directors. As we reflect on his well-documented and discussed <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/ken-russell-music-video-pioneer-dead\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342,16],"tags":[170,34,33,211],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}