Bad outfit, bad choreography, bad hair, OK song.

What a great aerobics video though!

Totally hilarious. Random thought running through my mind while watching it:

What a cool place. I want to live there.
What the eff is that thing he's doing?
Billy Squier has some good drugs. Wonder where he gets them.
Where did he find pants that small....my god.
He's skinny fat. Like....he's super skinny, but has absolutely no muscle tone at all. Weird.
Good thing I don't have any sound here at work.
What the eff is that thing he's doing?
Why aren't any of the instruments plugged in?
What the eff is that thing he's doing?
Satin sheets are slippery and it's hard to stay on them.

Poor Billy Squier. Before this he was a decent journeyman hard rocker, then he had a few hits and some video director said "Bill, y'know what the hard rock audience really likes, when you dance around like you're trying out for an all-male Broadway musical. The mulletheads love that." This is all compounded by the ridiculous costume, the pink guitars and the fact that Billy does not look comfortable with the whole idea.

("Lonely is The Night" by Squier is one of the best I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Zeppelin songs ever.)

some of my random thoughts:
nothing says "80s" like hard-rocking finger snaps.
I wonder how much tongue in cheek they had here? If any.
There definitely had to be some coke involved in this.
ripped my shirt. No problem, this little peach number will do the trick.
Nice high cymbals, dick.

nothing says "80s" like hard-rocking finger snaps

Bad ass!

I recently picked up a compilation of a bunch of 80s tunes that featured artists recording their hits acoustically. (Berlin doing the "the Metro", Asia "Heat of the Moment", etc.) The surprise of the set was Billy Squier's Howlin' Wolf influenced acoustic take on "The Stroke". I was always thought Squier was just a cheesy wannabe when I was a kid, but hearing that version enabled me to develop at least a little more respect for him.

Man, someone should have told him that there is only room for ONE Peter Wolf.

psmealey: you should hear the stuff he did with Piper back in the 70's. Nothing earthshaking but very ennjoyable Zep-style rock. And his solo stuff was fun too. But then video and it's emphasis on visual image...and he managed to destroy himself commercially in one fell swoop.

("Lonely is The Night" by Squier is one of the best I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Zeppelin songs ever.)

indeed. it's almost safe to say that "lonely is the night" wouldn't have existed without the availability of "nobody's fault but mine" as a near-template.

playing a 45 of "the stroke" at 16 rpm on a classroom record player running through a maxed-out octave pedal and a little bit of delay sounds neat. :)

That is one of my favorite videos of all time. I even picked up the Squier DVD to make sure that I owned a copy. I can watch that video 10 times in a row and still laugh as hard on the tenth viewing as I did the first time I ever saw it. It fails on so many levels, I don't even know where to start. That is a classic example of why an artist should not surround themselves exclusively with yes men.

jon: I was wondering if you knew about Piper. I can't remember the details, but Piper was formed as a result of Billy Squier turning down Tom Scholz's offer to join Boston. Or, something like that.

What could have been...

I had a mullethead "real man" buddy in high school who LOVED Billy Squier. Then he went to go see him in concert in El Paso and came back angrier than shit. Apparently, the onstage version of "The Stroke" was really, really, really, REALLY gay. I had a chuckle or six over it at his expense for the duration of my time in high school.

Hee, "skinny fat".