[troutman]

I Want My MTV

An excerpt from Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum's MTV oral history.

http://pitchfork.com/features/articl...i-want-my-mtv/

I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution is a hugely readable and fun new oral history of the first decade of MTV. Veteran music writers Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum interviewed many of the era's major players, putting a microscope on the biggest, weirdest, and most memorable videos of the time, and we're thrilled to present the following excerpt.

"the non-stop video parade of pouty cuties wearing low-cut leather bikinis or skintight skirts, their bodies sometimes chained but always concupiscent,"

LIONEL RICHIE, artist: I just figured that the video would be a simple love story. And then Bob leveled me to the floor when he said, "Here's my big pitch. You're a teacher, and you're gonna fall in love with a blind girl." I admit, I hesitated for a moment. But you don't hire Picasso and then tell him how to paint.

The funniest story about "Hello" is that I kept going back to Bob over and over again saying, "Bob, that bust of me does not look like me." "Bob, the bust does not look like me." Finally, Bob came over to me and said, "Lionel, she's blind."