9. Undercover of the Night - The Rolling Stones, from the 1983 album Undercover.
NYC reference: “The sex police are out there on the streets / Make sure the pass laws are not broken / The race militia has got itchy fingers / All the way from New York back to Africa”
1983 saw the release of one very important remake of Howard Hughes’ 1932 classic, “Scarface.” This update saw some of the world’s foremost celebrities trying on new cultural identities, reinventing a genre, and pushing hard at established, mainstream notions of on-screen propriety. Indeed, it challenged the very notions of what you could (and could not do) on camera.
The update was, of course, the music video for The Rolling Stones’ modest hit “Undercover of the Night.”
A few quick notes:
1. It seems that an unusual amount of narrative weight is placed on Holiday Inn here. It and Mick Jagger’s fake mustache appear to provide the only contextual clues that ground this spiraling mess of a storyline. (“Oh, they are at a hotel!”; “Oh, the hotel is in San Salvador!”; “Oh, he’s wearing a mustache now!”)
2. Judging by the way he slings it, Keith’s gun appears to be wet when he first removes it from his pocket. Considering the way he carries it in the rest of the video, it never properly dries.
3. It is astounding that The Rolling Stones were - in 1983 - capable of writing lyrics that so convincingly sound like they were penned by someone who had never, ever experienced sexual relations.
