Y’all know this, right?
It is, of course, Bruce Springsteen’s Dancing In The Dark, the breakthrough hit on The Boss’ mega successful 1984 album Born In The USA. Much if the reason for the song’s success was that it was Springsteen’s first proper video, which propelled this guy in his mid-30s into 1980s MTV cool and also kickstarted the career of future Friends star Courtney Cox (and disproves the Friends theory that Monica was fat in the 80s).
Although not one of his best songs and completely out of character for him (in fact, the lyrics of the song are about Springsteen being unable to write the song he was in the middle of writing) - especially considering it directly followed the dark, brooding Nebraska album - it’s hard to deny that it helped The Boss become one of the musical icons of the era.
But it could have gone another way.
This is one of the takes of the original concept of the video. And, though the released video has it’s fair share of 80s cheese, you ain’t seen nothing’ yet…
White men can’t dance.
Although Springsteen’s dancing at the end of the video that became an instant MTV hit may have been hilarious enough to inspire the infamous Carlton Banks dance from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (seriously, look it up!), at least he didn’t look like he was having some kind of mental breakdown in it. He looks so uncomfortable, so unnatural. Just because Michael Jackson’s videos were popular with dance sequences in them at the time, doesn’t mean yours will be. At least Clarence Clemons is cool at the end.
In the unlikely event that there is such a thing as a parallel universe, this embarrassing video was likely released, and did damage to Springsteen‘s career and reputation (which, at that point, was pretty flawless).
And if that is the case, it’s pretty safe to say this one WASN’T released.
Billy Squier was making quite a bit of noise in the mid-80s. Each album was bigger than the last. Then this came along…1984’s Rock Me Tonite…
The blatant homoeroticism didn’t go down well with the rock crowd. Unfortunately for the human race, that kind of thing mattered in those days (although nobody seems to mind the extortionate campness of Kiss’ Paul Stanley).
The lying (presumably) naked in pink satin sheets, the pink vest, the ripping his shirt off, the dancing around the room, the writhing around the floor, the apparent orgasm…? What the fuck? And why is it that everybody in the 80s felt the need to DANCE? And I don’t mean just dance, I mean full-on Flashdance. What on Earth is he doing? Although the song was a hit, as the subsequent tour went on and the video was seen more and more, attendance each night slipped.
The end of the video, which shows Squier simply playing with his band on a soundstage, is fine. A bit of 80s cheese, but nothing that anybody would have noticed. Why not just recut the video and make it all THAT? Surely, they watched this back and though “maybe not”.
Had the video not been released…who knows? Maybe Squier would be more fondly remembered, and not just as the guy who made all of middle America say;
