Forgotten Treasures

I must credit/blame Cirque with this post, as she started it with the Peter Gabriel video. Thank or curse her as appropriate.

Maybe I Just Haven't Done Enough Drugs?
A List of Incomprehensible Music Videos From My Pre-Teen Years

1. Peter Gabriel, In Your Eyes
I think this is best summed up by an imagined post-production conversation:

Producer 1: I don't know, I just feel like none of the four versions we just filmed are fantastic.
Producer 2: I know. And we tried so many different things!
Producer 1: I really just don't know what to do. Which should we choose?
Producer 2: ...okay, bear with me a minute, I may have had a flash of brilliance. What if we don't choose?
Producer 1: What do you mean?
Producer 2: What if we take the best scenes from each version and make one video from them? Yes! It will be brilliant!
Producer 1: ...I'm sorry, I can't let you inflict such a crime on humanity. I'm going to have to kill you now. *takes out gun*
Producer 2: *dives for gun*
*Producers 1 & 2 struggle for control. The gun goes off. Producer 1 staggers, then falls.*
*Producer 2 cackles maniacally and heads off to the editing room*

Also, what was with that extended candy heart scene? Oooh, candy hearts, oooh.

2. Ace of Base, I Saw the Sign
I clearly had blocked this video from my memory in an attempt to cope, as every scene brought with it a fresh horror. If we may dismiss the obvious-- the clothes, the special effects, etc.-- I'd like to take a moment to dwell on the dance moves. You might be distracted by women, who very much evoke images of college freshman girls lip syncing to Madonna's Immaculate Collection, but the truly priceless moves come from the men of the group. If you look closely, I think you'll find that their presentation was so timeless as to apparently inspire Fergie in My Humps.

On another note, there's something about the scene where they're sitting on two the chairs that reminds me of Benny & Joon. Despite Johnny Depp, that's not a good thing.

3. Melissa Etheridge, Come To My Window
Speaking of crazy people! Who thought a psych ward would be a good concept? The song itself verges on obsessive in places, but it mostly makes an impassioned statement about lesbian relationships in society. (Well, one assumes lesbianism for obvious reasons. Maybe I'm wrong.) The addition of crazy person just makes it...creepy. Also, thanks to MTV's and VH1's tendancies to cut off the beginning and end of songs until they're really just thirty-second sound bites, I had never heard the very beginning before. And it turns out that was really okay! I could have lived without the suicidal mumbling, thanks.

I had full intentions of continuing this list up to at least five, but any more videos of this caliber and I may be forced to claw my own eyes out. Possibly more to come when I'm feeling particularly masochistic.