THE VIDEO Mötley Crüe, "Looks That Kill," Shout at the Devil, 1983, Elektra
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SAMPLE LYRIC "She's got the looks that kill! / that kiiiiiiiiiii-iiiiillllllllllllllllllll / she's got the looks that kill! / that kiiiiiiiiiii-iiiiillllllllllllllllllll / [she's! got! the! looks! that kill! / she's! got! the! looks! that kill!]"
EXCESSIVELY DETAILED DESCRIPTION Wide-eyed women dressed in pseudo-futuristic cave gear appear behind a wall of rock. They look back and forth rapidly in a manner similar to that of my dog when she thinks I might drop food, then begin to climb over the wall. Clad in rags, the two (a brunette followed by a blonde) join several more in a small, rocky clearing and appear ready to begin some kind of interpretive dance.
We cut away from them to see the four members of the Crüe, backlit and holding torches which then spark and light themselves. As the torches begin to burn, we see the light reflected on the faces of the women, who begin to panic. Okay, or make panicked expressions. The Mötley boys break from their poses and bring the torches down lower (lighting their faces a little) and begin waving them around. This causes the women to break it down like a bunch of Sarah Lawrence dance majors, if you see what I'm saying. They all stand together in a group and collapse while making jazz hands. As they do so, the camera zooms up and right toward a particular blonde.
Nikki Sixx walks down a hallway that's part rock, part the kind of railing used in high schools and Miami condos. Cut to Vince Neil, seen almost over the shoulder as he checks out some rocks with his torch. Next Tommy Lee, who appears to be somewhere a bit darker and spookier, kind of swivels his hips and makes an assertive hand gesture. Mick Mars, as per usual, gets the shaft.
Turns out Tommy was signaling the rest of the gang to wave their torches at the ladies, causing them to scatter somewhat artfully. Nikki squats and brandishes his torch as the women scream, Vince keeps them moving, then Tommy performs a lift with an especially supply young lass, spinning her around on his hip a la Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing.
As the Crüe advance, even Mick gets in on the action. They eventually corral the women into a well, corral and continue holding up their torches while they fence them in. For reasons unclear, we then watch each torch being carefully secured to a fencepost.
Their audience in place, the boys proceed to rock. First we see Vince, looking the fittest he's ever looked in his life. It's not just the painted-on lavender cheekbones, in this rare case Neil is actually in fantastic shape. He's wearing a Mötley Crüe headband in his platinum locks, some kind of studded choker, and a silver and red studded um... it looks like a shoulder holster. He also has on many studded arm and wristbands plus little black fingerless gloves.
We check out Tommy briefly and next clearly see Nikki, in that classic shot of him rolling his head back and bugging his eyes out. He's wearing a skinny black headband plus a black studded dog collar, and he's also got on big earrings with crosses hanging from them and red and white cords of some description coming out of his hair. His top is very Road Warriors and also very The Road Warrior, with spiky shoulder pads and ripped stockings on his arms. He's got on his classic Shout at the Devil makeup too, with black streaks across both cheeks and red lips. The more faces he makes, the more dry ice they pile on behind him.
Next we see Mick. His hair is teased to perfection as he brandishes his guitar, and he's wearing a black shiny shirt with torn up sleeves. He also has on a headband (red, to match his lips), and extra-creepy fake cheekbones drawn on. Then we finally sort of clearly see Tommy. He's headbanging away so he's a little hard to make out, but he's wearing a red and black striped studded shirt, a white headband, lots of makeup (eyeliner, lipstick, and the requisite bdouble cheek stripe).
The women look on in agony, one of them even bent over on the ground. The camera zooms in on her dirty hand, then moves over to some reflective liquid above which stand the Crüe, who are all wearing high-heeled boots a la Kiss. The camera moves upward till Nikki, Vince, and Mick (all singing) come more clearly into view. The camera then pulls back, revealing that they're playing in a rubble-strewn, concrete area bounded by fog and what looks like gasoline spilled on the ground but is probably just paint or something.
Vince writes around almost stripper-like, enjoying his fleeting hotness, as the band rocks out. The camera then pans up Nikki as he bangs his head, showing off his torn-to-pieces black shirt. Very bondage chic. Vince does a very David Lee Roth-esque spin, then as he sings "the clock strikes midnight," Tommy hits a big bell. We watch Tommy drum very enthusiastically for a moment, then see Nikki making more cool faces.
After a shot of Tommy from above, Vince sets aside his mic and he, Nikki, and Mick approach the cage. They taunt the women and again, the gals make the faces my dog makes while I'm eating popcorn. Vince regains his mic as a wind machine kicks up, and a better shot of Mick than we had before reveals that he's also wearing some serious leather strappage. Vince sticks his face in the cage, which makes them go nuts, and Nikki vamps some more.
Suddenly, a big square thing appears, surrounded by tons of fog. The wind blows back Vince's majestic mane and causes tumbleweed to roll across the ground. Blocks of crap fall out of the sky, and a piece of fabric falls onto one of the women's face. Lights flash as all the women in the cage thrash about, then as one of them looks up, screaming, the block begins to fall away to reveal... Tia Carrere! No, it's Kimora Lee Simmons!
No, I don't know who it is, but basically it's like the queen babe. She has giant black hair and is wearing an enormous headpiece, a costume that reminds me of the one chick in He-Man, and is carrying a large shield. She also has like a crossbow type thing attached to her left arm. The band backs off and the women scream as she jumps down and poses. She uses her wrist thing to shoot a ton of sparks at the band, but Mick catches it with his guitar.
This greatly displeases the babe leader, and she makes a scary face. Mick, however, makes the most guitar face I've ever seen him make. Next, the babe pulls one of the torches off of the fence, throwing it onto a pile of rocks which it inexplicably ignites. She then sets the other women free, and they jump off and frolic about like extras in Cats. Nikki makes guitar faces in front of the fire, but it's all in vain, they've already been freed.
Two of the women kneel and hand their leader her shield. They then run away modern-dance style as she raises her wrist thing again. Before she can hit them though, Tommy's bass drum launches a giant spinning pentagram at her. It lands in the middle of her shielf, causing all of its points to shoot out sparks. As the sparks die, Vince tries to approach her but she shuns his advances. She looks over her shoulder coyly and leads him to wall, which she leans against, but when he tries to put his hand to her face she jerks away from him and smacks him in the face.
She saunters away and winds up in a room with a black and pink floor and walls on either side of foot-long spikes with lots and lots of fog coming out between them. Nikki and Tommy appear on either side of her, blocking her way out, but then she lays back on the spikes. As they reach in and grab her, she sinks into the spikes then slides down, evading their grasp. They turn and look after her as she crouches and then leaps sideways on all fours.
She then looks surprised, and we see Mick making a scream-y face, then Tommy looking pensive, then Vince pouting, and lastly Nikki bugging his eyes. Yes, it's move Poison will perfect -- showing every member of your band just when the video's about to end in a 'meet the band' sequence -- and yes, I frickin' love it. We then go from Nikki playing to Tommy drumming to Vince and Mick singing (even though he gets cut out of a lot of the action in this video, Mick still is like 10x as active in this video as he is in any other Crüe vid).
From overhead, we see the boys all join hands, encircling the head babe. They raise their fists, causing blue light and white smoke to pour in. The band are immersed in both momentarily, then their images fade away to reveal a flaming pentragram on the ground. The pentagram continues to glow as we see Nikki and Vince singing, then we begin zooming in toward it as we see Tommy drumming and finally, Vince and Mick singing before the screen behind the pentagram goes black.
THE VERDICT Clearly, I needed an antidote to my recent overexposure to Winger, and what better solution than some SATD-era Mötley Crüe. It's the best of times, isn't it? They still retain the all red and black leather all the time look of Too Fast For Love, but their signature sound is fully in place. So hot. I mean, they look great up until about "Dr. Feelgood," but this is definitely their best. And honestly, I find the pseudo-satanic thing suits them well. It's a little bit badass, but since they don't take it as far as W.A.S.P., it's just a style thing, not a way of life.
And this video has it all. Women are imprisoned, then attack. Costumes reference both Les Mis and Mad Max, two heavy metal classics. Also, tbe fight scene where their music helps them launch their attack is incomparable. I love it!
Not to mention the women in the video. I don't know who was directing them, but props to that person. Compared to these gals, the extras in "Rock You Like a Hurricane" were frickin' asleep. Between all the wild eyes, the jazz hands, and the ballet-inspired leaping about, there's nothing these girls can't do. I hope they at least got to make out with P.A.'s.