The early days of MTV were the Wild Wild West in terms of music video concepts. The network didn't invent the idea of a promotional video for a pop single, but it did make it universal, and artists of all kinds took big creative leaps to try and deliver the splashiest, most visually interesting presentations they could dream up. It was a remarkable moment for creativity with the form, and it produced some truly odd, still fascinating artifacts.
I love Eddie Money. You can blame my Dad for that, and now that I'm a Dad myself it just feels like it comes with the territory. He's great. He's got hits, he's got hooks, and he looks like what would happen if your pipe fitter uncle who lets you sneak a beer with him every Christmas became a rock star.
He's not flashy, is what I'm saying. His music is straight-ahead, anthemic pop made for stadiums and tailgate party playlists. But in 1982, with MTV still in its infancy, Eddie decided he'd take a stab at playing Dracula. Or at least, some version of Dracula.
"Think I'm in Love" was the debut single from Money's fourth studio album, 1982's No Control. The album was a major success for Money on the strength of its singles ("Shakin'" was the follow-up to "Think I'm In Love"), and marked Money's arrival before the eager eyes of the MTV generation. Again, this was a time when artists were eager to try just about anything to get noticed in front of a TV audience like nothing they'd ever had before. So, Money and director Mark Robinson (who also worked with Pat Benatar, The Pretenders, and Tommy Tutone in the same period) decided they'd try a video in the style of classic 1930s vampire picture, with Money popping out of a coffin as The Count.
The black-and-white photography is actually quite lovely, and really captures some of the Universal Horror vibe that Robinson was clearly aiming to echo, but it's the plot that really gets me. Basically, a beautiful blonde woman shows up at a dark castle in the dead of night, her protective attendant in tow, and beds down in a luxurious, draped boudoir. Money, singing all the while, stalks his way up the stairs, while the blonde removes the garlic her attendant had carefully hung on the wall. When he finally makes it to the young lady's neck, surprise, she's the real vampire. Or she's another vampire. Or...wait, what?
There's a metaphor in here about how the object of your affection can wound as easily as soothe you, but that's lost along the way in the pure burst of creative energy in this thing, and the number of questions the rest of the video raises. If the girl was a vampire, why could she touch the garlic garland hung up in the room? If Money wasn't a vampire, why was he in a casket when the video began. If they're both vampires, what's all the posturing about? And why do we occasionally cut to Money and his band jamming on a stage, in full color, like none of this ever happened? Is Eddie Money secretly a Daywalker who's developed his rock star persona over centuries? Does he think the sweetest music comes from the wolves howling through the mountains? Has he crossed oceans of time to find you?
When the music's this good, it really doesn't matter.
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