Right, time for number 7 which happens to be from a man who I think is a musical genius as well as someone that helped pioneer art videos that were unlike anything that had been on MTV before. This song is one that is so easily to sing along too and I just love it. Combining Art with music…something I can’t get enough of. The stop motion animation provided by Aardman Animations aka Wallace and Gromit. Dancing chickens!
Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer.
If you’d just lay down your tracks
You could have an aeroplane flying
If you bring your blue sky back
All you do is call me
I’ll be anything you need
You could have a big dipper
Going up and down, all around the bends
You could have a bumper car, bumping
This amusement never ends
I want to be your sledgehammer
Why don’t you call my name
Oh let me be your sledgehammer
This will be my testimony
Show me round your fruit cages
‘Cause I will be your honey bee
Open up your fruit cages
Where the fruit is as sweet as can be
I want to be your sledgehammer
Why don’t you call my name
I’m going to be-the sledgehammer
This can be my testimony
I’m your sledgehammer
Let there be no doubt about it
Sledge sledge sledgehammer
I kicked the habit (I kicked the habit)
She’d my skin (Shed my skin)
This is the new stuff (This is the new stuff)
I go dancing in, (We could go dancing in)
Oh won’t you show for me (Show for me)
I will show for you (Show for you)
Show for me (Show for me), I will show for you
Yea, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I do mean you
Only you, you’ve been coming through
Going to build that power
Build, build up that power, hey
I’ve been feeding the rhythm
I’ve been feeding the rhythm
Going to feel that power, build in you
Come on, come on, help me do
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, you
I’ve been feeding the rhythm
I’ve been feeding the rhythm
It’s what we’re doing, doing
All day and night, come on and help me do, come on and help me do
razorbackwriteraus 
Good song and even better video. You are so right about the artistic expression. Some performers like Gabriel took advantage better than others with the new MTV. ZZ Top used stories about young lovers as they knew their looks may not sell, so they would appear at the end of songs as guru-like ghosts.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Well before the internet, the music video I think totally changed the scene and embraced art in that medium. Crowded house, was a good example of this with their videos. I gotta say, ZZ TOP; they expanded their fan base by the use of those lovely leggy ladies, along with that red roadster in the clips.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Agreed. Ah, the leggy ladies…Also, remember that unique wave they did at the end.
LikeLiked by 1 person
The rolling wave….yes.
LikeLike
Peter Gabriel is amazing. I remember this video coming out and being mesmerized. Peter has so many great songs, but if I had to pick one out of all of them, I would go with “In Your Eyes”. It’s just a haunting, beautiful song. Here’s a link to a live version with Peter and Youssou N’Dour, where everybody on the stage is just so “in the moment”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Map2v04PuFc
LikeLiked by 1 person
I happen to love In your eyes. There is a poignant moment where it is used in an eighties movie with John Cussack, as he holds a ghetto blaster over his head and just lets the song say what he feels.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, I love that scene in “Say Anything”. Very touching. Of course, it set the bar really high for all of my future boyfriends and, sadly, none of them had the creativity to do such a thing, and I was disappointed… 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
How can any guy top that? It would be pretty hard and they’d need to be a hopeless romantic.
LikeLiked by 1 person