On this day - 2nd January 1989 MTV premieres the video for Leave Me Alone. The music video for Leave Me Alone, was directed by Jim Blashfield and Paul Diener and also featured in the 1988 film Moonwalker. The song is not officially released as a single in America, although it, and the video, do receive considerable airplay. The video features a unique blend of animation and live action and shows Michaels humorous side while addressing some of the ridiculous rumours still being circulated about him. The amusement park in the video, consists of stylistically crude images based around Michaels successful career since 1982s Thriller, with emphasis on the tabloid view of Michaels personal life and public image, referring to the nickname Wacko Jacko given to him by the press, and the various headlines associated with him in the 1980s. Lampooning rumours that he tried to purchase Joseph Merricks bones, Michael dances with stop motion Elephant Man bones in the video. This particular segment (without the image of the bones) was used for the singles cover art, and the boneless video segment was featured in the Moonwalker trailer. In the video, there are images of shrines to actress Elizabeth Taylor, a real life close friend of Michael. Throughout the video newspaper headlines, published by National Intruder, with bizarre titles are shown, such as Michaels Space-Age Diet and Michael Proposes to Liz. Another notable scene in the music video was a nose being chased by a surgical scalpel, which was reference to Michaels plastic surgery being criticized by the media. At the end of the video, it is revealed that a gigantic Michael himself is the amusement park. He breaks free, tearing the park to pieces. That scene is a somewhat reminiscent of Gullivers Travels, where Gulliver eventually breaks free from the Lilliputians grasp from Lilliput. Watch a video of Michaels Leave Me Alone here: youtube/watch?v=crbFmpezO4A
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 09:33:17 +0000