There is life after MTV death for music videos, and it's on cassette. More than a dozen controversial clips have been released unexpurgated in long-form video compilations and are widely available in video stores. Viewers have a chance to decide in private whether the banished work was daringly artistic or just trashy, or possibly both. These are some of the most notable:
Aerosmith
Things That Go Pump in the Night
MTV smacked
black bars over the big make-out scenes in ''Love in an Elevator,'' but
here a bit of bare breast can be seen pressing against guitarist Joe
Perry. The cassette also contains some revolting brain splatter in
''Janie's Got a Gun'' — the only brains in evidence.
R.E.M.
Pop Screen
R.E.M.'s singer and
resident artiste, Michael Stipe, wanted his ''Pop Song 89'' to be a
statement on sexism. So he decided to have both male and female
dancers go shirtless, daring the viewer to see them as objects. MTV
put bars over both the women's and the men's chests, all seen barless
on this tape.
The Ramones
Lifestyles of the Ramones
One of the first videos to be banned by MTV was 1983's ''Psycho Therapy,''
included in this compilation. Set in an insane asylum, the clip shows
a simulated lobotomy, complete with a grotesque creature spewing from
the patient's head, and is not for the faint of heart.
Twisted Sister
Come Out and Play
There's gore
galore, as well as poor spelling, in this tape's ''Be Chrool To Your
Scuel.'' MTV thumbed it down because of its gushing, Dawn of the Dead-style flesh-eating, but aside from a few shots, it's no bloodier than
Michael Jackson's ''Thriller.''
George Michael
Faith
MTV wanted Michael's sex, but not this
much of it. The channel cut a few tongue clinches and fleshy
undulations from ''I Want Your Sex,'' included here, and persuaded
Michael to offer a mealymouthed intro about how all this pertained
only to monogamy.
Skid Row
Oh Say Can You Scream
One of the most
gruesome clips ever to become an MTV hit is Skid Row's ''18 & Life,''
centered on an abused teen who gets drunk and shoots his best friend
in the head. The video version includes still more gunplay, a look at
the friend's falling body after he's been shot, and a painting of
blood pouring from a smiley face.
The Rolling Stones
25X5
A snip of the infamous, repressed
Stones feature movie, C---sucker Blues, finally turns up in this
compilation. Included is some mock cunnilingus from the airplane orgy
scene, which the band now claims was staged for the camera.
