THE VIDEO Crimson Glory, "Lonely," Transcendence, 1988, Roadracer/MCA
SAMPLE LYRIC "She can't wait another night / take another day / she doesn't want to be / lonely in looooooove / lone-ly in looooooooove"
THE VERDICT I should love this song, but I just can't get past the goofy metal Phantom of the Opera masks. I am pretty sure I have turned down Crimson Glory merchandise in the past — they're one of those bands like the BulletBoys or House of Lords where deadstock is very available, but for a reason.
I get that it's sort of progressive metal, but IDK — given how accessible this song is, sonically and lyrically, they probably should've just dropped the masks.
Crimson Glory sort of feel like Grim Reaper put on masks and tried to make a stealth comeback. Okay not really, it's just that both bands have made the bold move of going with pudgy-faced, unattractive frontmen with super-pouffy hair. And in this case, one who calls himself simply "Midnight" (RIP).
Still, this isn't a bad song, and it's interesting because it's a very power ballad-y topic — a sad woman who feels lonely, heartbroken over a man she should have never been involved with in the first place — but they've made it into a much more rocking song.
Usually rocking songs written from a woman's perspective are less sympathetic to the woman — sort of bad choices/good girl gone bad stuff ("Fallen Angel"), exploring the woman's secret sexy side ("Thrills in the Night"), or, of course, implying the woman is actually a homicidal killer who victimizes men ("Midnite Maniac").
So long story short, it's not a bad song. Unfortunately, this ridiculous video — like those ridiculous masks — doesn't do them any favors.
The video alternates between footage of a blonde woman, mostly alone in a bed, and the band performing the song. The band members are each playing atop their own cube, each of which is bathing their crotches in blue light. Humongous amounts of dry ice fog drift through the room, and I would be remiss if I didn't mention the red laser lights up above. In all, the room looks like your standard-issue cheap laser tag place.
Laser tag aside though, for me this video is oddly Vixen-esque. The band walking out at the beginning silhouetted in fog reminds me of "Edge of a Broken Heart," and singing a rockin' number from a realistic woman's perspective while standing on platforms reminds me of "Cryin'". (It's the addition of the song that makes the latter Vixen-like, since lots of bands sing on top of platforms — think Dio's "I Could Have Been a Dreamer" and W.A.S.P.'s "I Wanna Be Somebody".)
Huge, ghost pirates-like amounts of dry ice fog provide all the transitions in this video, by blurring out the screen and allowing for a smooth switch to the next thing that's happening. We see the woman walking around through dry ice fog in a white lace bodystocking, with the guitarist superimposed over her. The lead singer, Midnight, regularly disappears and reappears in banks of dry ice fog.
I like that it looks like they couldn't get the woman anywhere near the band. We mostly see her sort of rolling on her back in an all-white bed, looking concerned. It feels like it might be an ad for one of those depression medications or birth control pills that they're trying to expand into covering PMS, or for a feminine hygiene product. From the expression on her face, it appears she may be experiencing a 'not so fresh' feeling. And given the band's name... okay, let's just stop right there.
Also the room she's in is completely white, and it's tiny — for some reason, the bed is in the middle of the room, and it looks like there's only one to two feet between it and the wall on each side. Based on these dimensions, we can guess this is an apartment in Manhattan.
Well, more seriously, based on the budget of this video, we can guess this is (best case scenario) a fake apartment set they made just for this video, or (worst case scenario) a fake apartment set they made in the bassist's mom's basement.
The other way we see the woman is, as mentioned above, walking through the fog in a lace bodystocking. Is it the same gal? I'm assuming it is, even though the woman in the bed has very fine, straight blonde hair, and the woman walking around has a teased mane of it. (Hair products were strong in the 80s!)
While the walking woman looks a bit different from the laying-down woman, I'm assuming they couldn't afford two models to be in the video. I would say also that having two women doesn't really makes sense, but given how little anything in this video makes sense, that probably wasn't a consideration.
They do a quick meet-the-band sequence at the end of the video, but come on — they're all wearing black leather and those goofy masks! It's beyond impossible to tell who's who, especially without the instruments (which in the case of the two guitarists, still don't help).
I mean yeah, each guy is taking his mask off for the camera, but given that they are semi-opaque and super-imposed over footage of them walking toward the camera, it's impossible to really tell what's going on. In any event, it doesn't really matter, as they finish walking past the camera and we're left with just dry ice fog and laser lights.
P.S.: Sorry the quality of the images on this post aren't up to my usual standards — good copies of some of these more obscure videos are really hard to come by!
P.P.S.: Re: the title, come on people! Alice Cooper, anyone?