{"id":807,"date":"2007-08-16T06:02:00","date_gmt":"2007-08-16T10:02:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-11T00:44:58","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T00:44:58","slug":"inherently-cool-artists-that-failed-to-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/inherently-cool-artists-that-failed-to-c\/","title":{"rendered":"Inherently Cool Artists That Failed to Capitalize on the Video Age"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Of all the inherently cool bands with enough label support and public interest to reasonably be expected to capitalize on the video age, have any artists failed as miserably as <strong>The Rolling Stones<\/strong> and <strong>The Clash<\/strong>? <\/p>\n<p>Granted, the Stones were already old when videos became a major marketing tool, but compared with their peers, have they even come up with something as &#8220;anti-clever&#8221; as George Harrison&#8217;s &#8220;I&#8217;ve Got My Mind Set On You&#8221; video? That one in which the sepia-toned Stones try to act cool while towering over New York City strives to be cool, but it&#8217;s quickly ruined its invasion of tired <strong>Victoria&#8217;s Secret models<\/strong>. Yeah, we know the ladies love you and you&#8217;ve collectively sired 107 illegitimate children to prove it.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s what may be the most ambitious Stones video.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sthRYIB91P8?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><br \/>\nIt plays like an episode of <em>Walker, Texas Ranger<\/em>. While the producer hired every sweaty Hispanic extra available on short notice and willing to work for meal money, he or she couldn&#8217;t have found a better fake moustache and glue than the bargain-basement stuff <strong>Oliver Stone<\/strong> likes to use on his period pieces? Did Stone have something to do with the making of this video? Jagger, like any actor in a film by Oliver Stone whose character requires facial hair, must answer one question: You don&#8217;t have a desk job with a dress code, the Principal and your Mom&#8217;s not going to give you a hard time, your mate is understanding of the demands put on your career&#8230;<em><strong>can&#8217;t you take a couple of weeks out of your schedule to grow a real moustache?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>All that said, I can write off the failed opportunities of The Stones in the video age to the fact that they&#8217;d already conquered the genre, the world, the underage models of Brazil. The Clash is another matter, and I have determined <em>exactly<\/em> what held them back.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nAlthough The Clash did not enter their video marketing stage during any highpoint of the video age, there were plenty of great, cheap videos in their time. Did they have some beef with <strong>Julian Temple<\/strong> or some other go-to guy of the punk video scene? Who did the videos for The Clash? I&#8217;ll tell you who: it was their buddy, <strong>Don Letts<\/strong>. He must have had some primo weed to share. Has Don Letts ever shot an effective frame of video or film? Whoever directed <em>Rude Boy<\/em> &#8211; <strong>Ray Gange<\/strong>, no? &#8211; knew how to capture The Power and Glory Rock as done by The Clash. Check this simple, effective, attractive live footage out, as directed by Ray Gange!<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/-lbryVFLlCc?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Letts, on the other hand, makes everything look like amateur video not worth watching on YouTube. Here&#8217;s a Letts film &#8211; posted on YouTube &#8211; of <strong>Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers<\/strong> playing &#8220;Chinese Rocks&#8221; in 1976. This <em>should be<\/em> exciting, important footage. Instead, it&#8217;s crap! You&#8217;ll likely have trouble making it through to the end.<br \/><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RpAWybzDWqQ?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t have to waste your time with the video for <strong>&#8220;Rock the Casbah&#8221;<\/strong>, do I? If ever an overdue bad hit song by a band I loved needed a great video to make me feel more enthusiastic it was &#8220;Rock the Casbah&#8221;. Instead&#8230;more G.I. Joe nonsense. What is it with The Stones and The Clash needing to play soldier and gangster in their videos? How friggin&#8217; tough do they need to be? Couldn&#8217;t they have had fun with it and made a video like the Beastie Boys&#8217; &#8220;Sabotage&#8221;? Don&#8217;t tell me that&#8217;s the point of &#8220;Undercover of the Night&#8221;. You know Mick&#8217;s auditioning for that big film role opposite <strong>Michael Douglas<\/strong>, and Keef hasn&#8217;t looked so dedicated to a part since the sessions for <em>Exile on Main Street<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m confident in proclaiming that Letts had no idea where to point a camera. Yeah, he got to hang out with cool musicians during an important time in rock history. His weed was outstanding. He was great company. However, his video documents of this important age suck! You know, his <em>The Punk Rock Movie<\/em> is the only punk rock film I walked out on during my formative years. Absolutely terrible. Letts single-handedly ruined a key claim to The Clash&#8217;s legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Of all the inherently cool bands with enough label support and public interest to reasonably be expected to capitalize on the video age, have any artists failed as miserably as The Rolling Stones and The Clash? Granted, the Stones were already old when videos became a major marketing tool, but compared with their peers, have <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/inherently-cool-artists-that-failed-to-c\/' 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],"tags":[45,36],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807"}],"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=807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}