THE VIDEO Dokken, "In My Dreams," Under Lock and Key, 1985, Elektra
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SAMPLE LYRIC "In my dreams / it's still the same / your love is strong / it still remains / in my dreams / you're still by me / just the way it uuuuuu-used / to beee-eeeee"
EXCESSIVELY DETAILED DESCRIPTION Shadows of clouds pass over a cracked desert floor. One rock is missing, and through that we see the shadow of a man holding um... a welding thingy? A very large sparkler? Not sure. Anyway, he disappears really quickly and we see Don Dokken pumping his fist in the rain while wearing some sort of leather trench coat and a Richie Sambora cowboy hat (I don't know the name for it, but it's the one Richie always wears -- it's got a low, flat top and silver medallion things around the band).
Next we see Jeff Pilson shaking it in a sort of endless space with a black and white gridded floor, then Mick Brown drumming (with a big-ass gong behind him) in the rain, then Don again in the rain. He's in all black and also has on gloves and a large silver belt. Then we see Jeff again from overhead and then (finally!) there's George Lynch playing guitar in the rain. Mmmmm... hotness.
The camera stays on George for a second before we see Don make a stupid pouty face, then George's tiger-stripe guitar falls over onto the desert floor from the beginning. There's some more cutting back and forth between band members, then Don starts singing. He's in a weird fake room with a bluish-purple and white gridded floor, and giant images of Jeff (in front of fire) and George (in front of clouds) create "walls" behind him. Don dances around for a while, then for the pre-chorus we see everyone in the rain again. The chorus shows us Don fading into the desert floor, then Jeff superimposed on the grid background - and then Jeff just standing there singing. We see some shadowy landscape going by quickly, then we're back with Don again. He's punching at the air.
Luckily, we're back in the rain again. George looks super-steamy, Don does a turn-and-pose move reminiscent of Owen Wilson's dragon impression in Starsky and Hutch, and Mick makes water spray everywhere as he hits the skins. Mick and Jeff seem to be really enjoying themselves, whereas George gives the impression that he's doing his job and just putting up with this stupid idea of Don's.
The second verse has Don singing in front of the desert floor landscape for a while, then we see the orange guitar again, then everyone playing in the rain. Don's momentarily on the black grid again, then we see the blue grid, which now is showing blue sky on all three "walls" as the orange guitar flies through the air on the screens. Don reappears and the images on the screens change to a shadowy desert landscape. Finally, the guitar solo! George plays first in the rain, then on the black grid beside a large "wall" image of himself playing on the black grid (two George Lynches -- I can only imagine...sly wink). Next the two Georges are seen from overhead standing on an image of clouds. There are a couple of quick cuts of different George shots, then Mick starts really pounding in the rain and Don starts singing again.
We see shots of everyone in the rain, then the big sparkler comes back with each band member's face singing in front of it -- first Don, then Mick, then George (who you can barely see, grr grr), then Jeff. Then we see a cymbal hit as water splashes off of it, Jeff on the grid, George in the rain (all too briefly), and Don in the rain (way too long). After a couple of quick shots of everyone in the rain, we see Jeff and George playing on the blue grid with the walls showing outstretched hands making devil horns and Mick's huge face. They fade out and are replaced by Don. The video ends by pulling back on Don singing, and we emerge back through the random hole in the desert we came in through.
THE VERDICT So what if this isn't the most fascinating video you've ever seen? It's still got George Lynch in it, so guess what, we're still gonna talk about it. But yeah, George or no, this video is pretty bad. It evokes images of the set from Olivia Newton-John's "Physical" and a film I watched in health class in fourth grade (both involved grids).
Why did Dokken choose to just mail it in on this one? My guess (and this is an educated guess but nevertheless a total guess) is that since this was made at a point in time when the band was having serious issues with getting along with each other, they (or their manager, or the director, or whomever), was like, "Here, we'll do a video where none of you have to be in the same room. You barely even have to be in the same shot." Because even in the shots where more than one band member appears, they've just been cut and pasted into the shot -- no one's ever actually together.
So maybe that explains it. Though this isn't my favorite Dokken song (we all know it's "The Hunter"), it's still a good one, and it deserves better than this video. Even though I clearly have Don Dokken issues, I still think he's quite a good singer, and this song uses his voice to great effect. And I mean sheesh, it's called "In My Dreams," a title practically begging for a model in a diaphanous nightgown and the band getting lost in some sort of moonlit maze. But I guess no one felt up to that at the time.