THE VIDEO Great White, "Save Your Love," Once Bitten..., 1987, Capitol
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SAMPLE LYRIC "Save all your love / save your love / for me! / when I'm aloooone at night / you're all / I see-eeee!"
THE VERDICTLet's face it: Ever since 2003, pretty much no one is going to think of Great White as anything but the band whose ill-advised indoor pyro resulted in the horrific deaths of a hundred people. But, if we can think back before then, we can recall Great White as a band that -- following a self-titled album that was a true masterpiece of sleazy rock -- decided to stake their claim in the kingdom of the power ballad. Much as I might like to ignore them, there's just no getting around Great White in the power ballad department. If nothing else, plumbing the depths of their faux sincerity may help us learn how it was that, from every anecdote I've ever heard, a guy as icky as Jack Russell could get so much ass.
I've chosen "Save Your Love" because of the numerous Great White ballads that are out there, this is the only one where I'm consistently like, "you know what? This is a pretty good song." Even though the sentiment is a little weird -- we're both dating other people, but hold out for me, which sounds like a good excuse for a guy to string along two women at once (or vice versa, I suppose) -- I really like the instrumentation, particularly the guitar at the beginning. The vocal is a bit underwhelming, but you feel like maybe a stronger vocalist could do this song justice. I also especially enjoy the bit at the end where the voice and guitar keep cutting themselves and each other off, giving it sort of a layered sound.
As for the video: Well, Great White may have been known for their power ballads, but they were never known for their videos. So what's going on here? Well, I guess to play up the sort of classical guitar sound in this song, the lads are playing it all sitting around in some kind of music storeroom, with all kinds of instruments -- pianos, cellos, drums, etc. -- for whatever reason suspended in the air around them. They're hanging from chains, so that makes it a little bit more metal, as does the fact that Audie Desbrow has a gong suspended behind him. But then you see Michael Lardie playing a guitar harp (a guitarp?) and it gets, you know, a little less metal.
Great White -- or maybe just Jack Russell -- must've had a thing for straight-haired blondes, because the girls in all their videos look like the same girl. With the exception of the girl in "Rock Me," who's also on the album cover of Once Bitten..., they aren't ever actually the same girl. Anyway, here we've got the usual sort of Bobbie Brown-looking gal (though for some reason she's giving me a Stacey from the Baby-sitters' Club vibe), wearing a hooded black cape, a black blouse, a high-waisted black leather skirt, sheer black tights, and I think strappy sandals.
Honestly, in a way she looks downright glamorous (even with wet hair!), particularly when compared to Jack Russell's ensemble. He's wearing a sleeveless denim jacket over a pouffy pirate shirt, and what may or may not be chaps. Definitely some sort of embellished black leather pant. As per usual, he's thrown on wayyy too much silver and turquoise jewelry. You know, I think actually he's the one dressed like a member of the Baby-sitters' Club. And he does sort of have Stacey's hair, so... you be the judge.
Oh goodness, as if we didn't get enough of this with Whitesnake, now this girl's face is being reflected in water too. Somehow this is one power ballad cliche the Crue missed! Anyway, she's walking around touching the instruments in the same space as the band, though we see she's not there at the same time as the band.
And things are getting more intense. The girl is standing behind a rainy window, it's raining indoors, and next thing you know Mark Kendall and Tony Montana are standing up and rocking out. In a truly bizarre turn of events, the girl's clothes magically change (into a sort of long white nightgown thing) as she walks past a brass bed strewn with red rose petals. We get an overhead shot of her jumping onto the bed. And oooh, it's a sensual time there on the bed. We get shots of the girl making sexy faces, rolling around and caressing the rose petals, juxtaposed with Mark just playing the sh-t out of his guitar. Yeah, that's sexy. Mm, I'm realizing belatedly it may be hard to hear a sarcastic tone of voice when I'm, you know, just typing. Crap.
Anyway, next thing you know, she's disappeared. Jack tries to reach for her, but it's just her reflection in water. And now she's back to her all-black outfit and walking away from the bed, which may or may not also be covered in barbed wire. Huh? Next thing we know, she's put the cloak back on and dissolved into thin air.
So long story short, is this love? Umm, not sure. But I think I'm going to have to save all my love (or at least the bulk of it) for the next video. I need to come up with something that puts the pow! back in power ballads.