Then, in late 1993 or early 1994, I saw the following Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds video for the first time:
I was mightily amused. Over the next few months, I looked forward to catching this video on MTV Europe, where I was stationed at the time. Each time I watched it I laughed. I was never sure if I was supposed to laugh or not, but it was much more enjoyable than anything I’d recalled from The Birthday Party, when I first spun their records at my college radio station in 1981.
Cave also showed a sense of humor acting in Johnny Suede, which I saw in the early ’90s. Since that time I’ve read interviews with Cave, and he seems like a good egg, like a guy who knows what’s going on in his life, like a guy with a sense of humor. Now when I see a new Nick Cave video and laugh, I’m pretty sure that’s what he wants me to do. Right?
What other formerly humorless artists have come around to the notion that rock ‘n roll can be fun?
I’m not too sure if Iggy Pop ever took himself too seriously, but when I first saw the Dead Man cameo, there is no doubt in my mind, that he could have fun:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=pKVVkiMIkM0
There was Elvis Costello singing Crawling to the USA (I think?) in Americathon (1979).
I don’t know that Iggy ever took himself seriously, Mac, and BigSteve, were 2 years of somewhat serious Costello enough to qualify? Maybe I never thought he was THAT serious in the first place… Thanks to both of you for trying, though.
By the time I got into Richard Thompson’s work with Fairport Convention and his pre-suck (ie, pre-Froom) solo albums, he was already making a name for himself as a surprisingly funny folk rocker with a dark bent. Before that time, when his music did all the talking, was he known as a bit of a clown? Would he have been expected to record the ’70s equivalent of a Britney Spears cover in those days? I don’t know. If not, he’d be the kind of artist I have in mind.
I think The Birthday Party was funnier and less serious than you’d suspect. “Release the Bats” is a case in point.