Egyptian Lover - 'Freak-A-Holic'

For our second stab at classic videocraft, we turn to the 'Electro Pharoah' himself...

Egyptian Lover (not his real name, fact fans. As much as I wished for a Mr & Mrs Lover to have named their son 'Egyptian', he's actually called Greg Broussard) was there from hip-hop's earliest days, DJ'ing dances at the LA Sports Arena with Uncle Jamm's Army. After releasing a slew of classic 12" singles, he would release some of the very earliest rap albums, none of which were as good as those singles (check out his all-time classic 'Egypt, Egypt'), but had a nice line in Egyptian / sexy titles: 'On The Nile', 'Filthy', Back From The Tomb', 'One Track Mind', 'Platinum Pyramids', 'King Of Ecstasy', and the inspired 'Pyramix' to name but most of them.

Here's the Lover in his best video, 'Freak-A-Holic', from the 'One Track Mind' LP. A corker of a song, and a fantastic video to boot:



THE PLOT:
Poor Egyptian Lover is plagued by vivid hallucinations. Beautiful (mostly), half-clad women (or 'Freaks' - this was 1986, remember) haunt him day and night, until he can no longer tell reality from fantasy. To seek respite (and calm his raging stalk-on), Egyptian responds to an advert in the Yellow Pages for 'Freak-A-Holics Anonymous'. There, all his fantasies and dreams are made real...

WHY IT'S BRILLIANT:
-0:01. Yes, just one second in and we're blinded by genius. "1-2-3-4, uh! Freak this!"
-0:04. He can bodypop, too.
0:22 to 0:37. An absolute masterclass in hand movements, here. Especially his hand signals for 'Egyptian Lover'.
0:40. "TELL 'EM WHAT I AM!" Our boy can do dramatic, as well.
0:47. There are far too many great 'small' moments to count in this video, so we'll just point out this great 'hair stroke' and leave the enjoyment of discovering the rest to you, dear reader, and concentrate on the main points.
0:51 to 0:53. Sarcaphogus! And who's this inside it?!?
1:15 to 1:17. A moment that would not look out of place in an episode of The Krankies or Crackerjack or something like that. Brilliant reaction from the Lover, though.
1:30. So... is this Egyptian Lover's dad? He's just mentioned his dad in the song, and that's his car, but... he's white! He's a dream anyway, so I suppose it doesn't matter.
1:57. Egyptian's comedy double act with the mummy continues.
2:17 to 2:30. Nothing, but nothing, says '1986' like this shot. A white void, filled with dry ice and party balloons appears to be the meeting place for 'Freak-A-Holics Anonymous'. No less than two keyboard players, another one on one of those keyboard-guitar combos, a bevy of beauties in their undies, and a couple of spangly poofs doing the greatest jerky dancing known to man. Makes a change from a dusty church hall, a load of school chairs and standing up to say you've been sober for three days, I suppose.
2:51. And that's it, apart from the bizarre 'A-huh, a-huh, a-huh' bit at the end.

I imagine Egyptian Lover is there still, living out every single one of his fantasies with those freaks (and not just the ones about ingesting dolls heads, pooing them out, boiling them up and then ingesting them again. I think that's a real fantasy. Might have made that one up).

In reality, Egyptian Lover is still touring! In 2009, he released the 'Electro Pharoah' EP and is currently doing Arenas, clubs and festivals.

Nice one, lad.

LeRoux - 'Lifeline'

Well, I may as well start with one of the best.

It's a genuine toss-up between this and Journey's 'Seperate Ways (World's Apart)' for the title of Greatest Music Video Of All Time And Space. Even Two-Face's special coin couldn't decide this one. I'll be getting to the Journey video in due course (don't want to shoot me load too soon, like), but in the meantime, here's it's much more obscure cousin...

LeRoux, formed in Louisiana in 1977, were originally a Cajun-flavoured pop-rock band, incorporating elements of funk, R'n'B and Dixieland jazz. So far, so sound as a pound. LeRoux swing firmly into 'World Of Videocraft's sights, however, in 1982, when they recorded the album 'So Fired Up' with new singer Fergie Frederikson, later to add 'of Toto fame' to his list of credits.

This, much more pop/soft-rock sounding album spawned the smash-hit (in America) single 'Carrie's Gone', which need not concern us for now. Not when an absolute beaut of a single emerged from the album, in the form of 'Lifeline':



THE PLOT:
Poor Fergie is plagued by visions of a dark-clad mirror-man with a dangerous moustache getting off with his missus, a possible planetary collision viewed through his kitchen window and a tense stand-off with said muzzy-man atop a gigantic circular saw.

WHY IT'S BRILLIANT:
- 0:21. A fantastic helicopter / sinister silhouette combo. Good start.
- 0:48. The Band. They look great, and seem to be performing at a venue somewhere in Heaven itself. The keyboard player's got his top off for no apparent reason (and sports one of those keyboard guitars so popular in the 80s), and the rythm guitarist is, at first glance, completely bollock naked until, at second glance, we notice his flesh-coloured safari suit.
- 0:51. Fergie Frederikson trampolines into shot in what has to be the greatest entrance ever in a music video.
- 0:55. Wind machine turned up to full. Yirs.
- 0:59. Camp walk away from camera, changes his mind, camp walk back. Textbook, absolutely textbook.
- 1:18. Shaving scene. This will become a recurring motif in 'WOV', as Journey had previously popularized this in their classic 'Faithfully' video (and I'll be featuring that one sooner or later, oh yes). TRADE SECRET: There is no stubble whatsoever underneath all that foam.
- 1:21 to 1:33. Fergie doesn't bat an eyelid when the muzzied-up villain of the piece appears IN HIS BATHROOM MIRROR. Only when his missus also appears and she and the villain start necking does F react, with a gloriously essayed 'Ooh, I've cut meself shaving!' face.
- 1:34. Fergie finds himself standing on a razor's edge. Literally, on a razor's edge. Got that? Good.
- 2:18 to 2:41. It doesn't get much better than this. Planetary collisions, insane girlfriends and a great 'rubbing the eyes' double-take.
- 3:38 to 3:51. Some good examples of emotive 'clutching and grabbing' arm-work here. Emotive arm-work is very important in WOV, as we will see.
- 4:01 to 4:19. Giant circular saw. Tense face-off. And our hero LOSES! Look at his little legs go at 4:17!
- And it ends with Fergie, and us, asking 'What is real? And what is dream?'. One to ponder.

Great song, even better video. Why was this not a hit?

Oh, and in 1996, LeRoux released a Greatest Hits CD, which rejoiced in the title 'Bayoux Degradable'.

Brilliant.

Wilkommen!

Music videos. The forgotten artform.

Oh, I don't mean your flouncy modern swag, with it's computer generated drumkits and Emos and Puff Jay-Z and birds dancing round with no kecks on. I mean proper music videos. From One Million Years B.C., when there were no rules, and recording artists had about as much idea of how to act in front a camera as you or I. A time when directors first cottoned on to the idea that a three or four minute promo for a Saxon song could, in fact, contain as many layers of narrative depth as a Dostoyevsky novel. But with much better barnets.

Welcome, then, to 'World Of Videocraft', where I'll be presenting the very greatest music videos of the 70s, 80s (and, yes, sometimes 90s), and dissecting them till they scream like a girl.

Your comments and, especially, requests are very welcome. Definitely requests.