Hi, Unk! I've got another Traumafession for you that, like my Three Dog Nightmare, is related to music. Funny how many traumatic images come to mind that have to do with album covers, music videos, and music in general as opposed to what one would expect from scary movies and such.
Back when I was a young tween in the early '80s, I used to spend summers with my dad in Fort Collins, Colorado. After dad would go to bed on weekdays, I'd stay up late and catch this hour-long alternative video show called FM TV (later to be called Teletunes) out of Broomfield, Colorado.. FM TV would play music videos from all kinds of bands that MTV refused to play from The Art of Noise, Romeo Void, Ministry, The The, and Devo, to name just a few. I'd look forward to this hour every night when I could see videos by all these bands I'd never heard of before. It really broadened my musical horizons and was a great alternative to the big acts that MTV broadcast.
Anyhow, one night they broadcast the video for The Ramones' 'Psychotherapy', a song (and band) I grew to love, but the video itself was CRAZY TRAUMATIC! For such a short song, they really packed all kinds of scary images into the video including:
-The members of the band in a lunatic asylum with all kinds of realistically crazy-looking people cavorting about!
-A therapist and hospital surgeons turning into scary-looking skeletons!
-An inmate having a "mini-me" burst out of his own face!
Being the early 80's, I never saw this video again until the advent of YouTube, but the memory of it was seared into my brain for a good 20 years! I was 13 or so when I saw it and past the age of most Traumatizers, but when I saw this video late at night, by myself, on an old tv, on a music video show that seemed almost underground….the experience gave me a nightmare or two! So, HERE is the video (now a favorite, of course!). Thanks for reading!
Thanks for this great traumafession, Robstercraws! Love this video, love The Ramones and love all the bands you mentioned (especially Romeo Void who are so underrated!)
I was traumatized by many a music video back in the day- The first one that comes to my mind is Greg Kihn Band's "Jeopardy" I miss those old school special effects so much!!!
I love the Ramones. They certainly reflected a love of horror movies in their songs (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Pet Sematary, referencing Freaks in "Pinhead"). And just horrible things in other great tunes.
My two kindertraumatic experiences with music videos happened with Devo's "Satisfaction" (the entire video isn't particularly scary, but Booji Boy electrifying himself by jamming a fork in a toaster frightened me); and of all things, The Tubes "She's a Beauty" (which, for my adult eyes, isn't even remotely upsetting, but something about it shook my childhood self, maybe the general "weird carnival ride" atmosphere).
There were tons of disturbing music videos in the early 80's….some intentionally so, like "Psychotherapy", but quite a few were unintentionally disturbing because of the lo-fi video effects and bizarre visuals. Case in point: "Demolition Man" by Grace Jones. When I was a kid, this was disturbing stuff. She looked like an adrogynous mannequin, they sped up her walk in the beginning of the video (a creepy effect), and those marching clones! Yow! I think the video is pure genius now:
Whoa Unk – how do you go from the music and lyrics in "Jeopardy" to … whatever that video is about? I don't recall ever seeing it before and I used to watch Radio 1990 when I was a kid and they showed a ton of strange videos.
Speaking of which, kind of a little "Name that Trauma" – I have this memory of a video from either Radio 1990 or early MTV that had me wigging out when I was a kid. The music was either new wave or Devo-like synth rock. The set was painted in large bacl and white squares (kind of a checkerboard) and the musicians were dressed in (I think) "futuristic" white jumpsuits. What I found disturbing were the lyrics, which started with a proclamation that it was the year XXXX – some year in the future – and that love was extinct (or dead, or outlawed – somthing like that). Must have been a young romantic because the thought of a world without love terrified me. I have tried to figure this one out a few times over the years bu came up empty…
Robstercraws – I think for a lot of people their Grace Jones kindertrauma was that first attack scene in "Vamp".
um… holy shit.
Chuckles72: I haven't seen Vamp since the 80's, but yeah….Grace Jones is the only thing I remember about it. She's a Kindertrauma in of herself…in a scary/sexy kinda way.
Another Ramones video I thought was kind of creepy that I caught on Colorado's public access when I was a kid was "Time Has Come Today". I don't think it was meant to be creepy, but I always thought the Ramones were like a cult in the video who slowly transfixed the churchgoers into a slightly unholy manic frenzy. I always thought the Goth girl at :56 was hot, though!
That was great. Would have loved seeing that video as a kid. The only one I can remember from that era that comes close to that is Billy Joel's 'Pressure'.