Those must be good drugs, man.

[wombat1138]

"Bonnie Tyler's video, 'Total Eclipse of the Heart', is a brilliant homage to Kafka's 'The Trial', retold as a struggle between female sexuality and the Church."

(If you need a refresher on the visuals, that video (and various others) can be viewed here.)

Comments

[qadgop.livejournal.com]

I kinda prefer the version in the comments section, by the woman who carried the small-c christ and doesn't punctuate much. A friend of mine at the time the video was current, who later went on to become a crazy person (going by a website of his I scrounged up one day, with a photo that makes him look like Carmen Miranda), saw it as her walking through a mental landscape of all her sexual fantasies. I personally just think it's a dopey video, but then again I thought (in college) that "Like a Prayer" was a well-done call for religious reform.

Of course, I've also been a bit prejudiced: until this moment, I misremembered "Total Eclipse of the Heart" as being by Bonnie Raitt, who apparently took time out at a concert Herself attended in college to ingratiate herself to the townies by slagging on the college kids.

[wombat1138.livejournal.com]

Because who doesn't fantasize about balletic ninjas storming a ballroom???

However, I feel vaguely vindicated to learn that one single songwriter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Richard_Steinman) was responsible for not only the conjunction in the music charts between "Total Eclipse" and Air Supply's nearly-identical "Making Love Out Of Nothing At All", but also a second one, years later, between Meat Loaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love" and Celine Dion's nearly-identical "It's All Coming Back To Me Now." The second pair even had nearly-identical *videos*, both in the same general style as the one for "Total Eclipse"-- dark house, billowing curtains, moody lighting.

Strangely, the similarity between Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth" and Bon Jovi's "You Give Love A Bad Name" seems to be a genuine coincidence. Or plagiarism. Or something in the water.

[qadgop.livejournal.com]

If the Bon Jovi video also involves masked dwarves whipping illuminated globes around for no apparent reason, that's a bit disturbing. But I never saw what it had to do with heaven being a place on Earth, anyway.

[fujifunmum.livejournal.com]

O.M.G!

I hardly know where to begin!

I guess I'd be more inclined to buy into the Kafka/christianity stuff if there weren't ninjas in the video. (which I've always liked, btw, since I like her gravelly voice for reasons unaccountable.)

However, SERIOUSLY - that video is found under B for Bonnie? WTF?
(And here I was thinking they couldn't spell Tyler...)

I think you musta been into the bikers doing the 80's up the stairs....

But setting ALL this aside....the wikipedia link! That person should be in the dictionary next to "WTF"!