In the mid-1980s, I anticipated the first showing of Bruce Springsteen’s video for “Dancing in the Dark” on MTV to support his Born in the U.S.A. album. The rock icon and my favorite artist was entering the modern music video era.
While Springsteen years earlier had released a music video for “Atlantic City” as part of his previous album Nebraska, that video was a grainy black and white video of scenes around Atlantic City with no sign of the artist. The new video for “Dancing in the Dark” featured the legendary live performer in a concert setting, directed by Brian De Palma. While it was obviously staged, right down to his invitation to an audience member (a young pre-Friends Courteney Cox) to join him on stage, it was exciting to be able to repeatedly watch Springsteen perform on TV.
But the video for “Dancing in the Dark” almost looked quite different. There was initially a failed attempt to create a video of Springsteen . . . actually dancing in the dark.
Springsteen Walks Out of Video Shoot
As originally recounted in “The Golden Age of Music Video,” before director Brian De Palma became involved in helping Springsteen with the video that was ultimately released, Springsteen made another attempt at a video with director Jeff Stein and cinematographer Daniel Pearl.
Pearl was already on his way to his legendary career as director of photography, having already shot the landmark videos for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take.” But this encounter with Springsteen would not have such success.
Stein, the director, told Pearl that the concept for “Dancing in the Dark” was to have Springsteen dancing in a dark room. Pearl did not think it was much of a concept but began his work when Springsteen arrived. (Stein later explained that he also thought at the time that Sprinsteen should have been shot in a concert setting.)
Pearl immediately noticed Springsteen’s new look: “Big sideburns, he’s pumped, rippling muscles in his arms, good muscle definition, he’s wearing a wife beater sleeveless shirt, sharkskin pants, and black pointy-toe shoes and basically, that’s the New Jersey, sort-of early ‘60s thing going on, right? But very manly, right? So I lit him very hard – hard edge lights for his rippling muscles, and just really chiseled him with light.”
But Springsteen did not like the lighting and asked about using a silk lighting filter to soften the look. Pearl responded that such lighting was for a woman like Stevie Nicks and Springsteen was “manly.” Springsteen was not convinced, but the director asked Springsteen to follow Pearl’s way for a shoot and if he still didn’t like it they could shoot it again with the softer lighting.
And so they did a few takes, producing the following video, including Clarence Clemons at the end.
After a few takes, Springsteen went to the green room for a break, but then he disappeared and never returned for more shoots. He took off, apparently with Clemons, without telling anyone, possibly unhappy with how things were going.
Pearl blamed himself for Springsteen’s disappearance, and in later years director Stein, without saying much about the shoot, claimed that it was Pearl’s fault that Springsteen left.
The New “Dancing in the Dark” Video With Brian De Palma
Subsequently, Springsteen went to movie director Brian De Palma, who created the legendary concert video for “Dancing in the Dark.” In Springsteen’s autobiography, Born to Run, he makes little note of the earlier attempt to make a video for the song, only saying, “We had a false start a week or two previous with another director, so Brian’s come to make sure justice is done to waht will turn out to be my greatest hit.” (p. 325)
De Palma shot the video at the Saint Paul Civic Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on June 28 and 29, 1984 (the second date was the opening of the Born in the U.S.A. tour).
Bruce still danced, but this time he had an audience and performed before calling up the young actress Courteny Cox from the audience to dance with him in the video. Watching it today, you may see Springsteen using some of the same moves he tried out in the Stein-Pearl video. As Springsteen notes in his autobiography, “We would make many videos in the future — I’d even come to enjoy them — but none would ever elicit the same knee-slapping guffaws and righteous, rolling laughter from my kids as me doing my Jersey James Brown in “Dancing in the Dark.” (“Dad . .. you look ridiculous!” (p. 325.)
Others did not find the video ridiculous. The song went to number two on the charts, held out of the top spot by Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” The new music video went on to win the MTV Video Music Award for Best Stage Performance in September 1985 and was nominated for Best Overall Performance.
Hurt Feelings and a Reunion: “Human Touch” & “Better Days”
As for the cinematographer of the first “Dancing in the Dark” video attempt, Daniel Pearl, he refused to work with Springsteen through the 1980s after his encounter with the fleeing artist. Even while he often was doing cinematography for director Meiert Avis, Pearl declined the work when Avis was directing Springsteen.
But in the early 1990s, that changed. Pearl was working for Avis on a shoot for a band when they went to New Orleans where he expected to continue the shoot. While working at the new location with Avis, though, a surprise walked in. It was Springsteen.
Pearl assumed Springsteen was just visiting the director, and so he tried to ignore Springsteen. Pearl later explained: “I’m not going to talk to him [Springsteen]. So we’re shooting another take and as we finished the take, I get tapped on the shoulder by Springsteen, and he goes, ‘Daniel, the circle becomes complete.’ He says, ‘You were right on how you wanted to light me. I was wrong. This is my song. We’re shooting here now, and this is the only way we could get you to do it. I want to apologize because you were right.’”
The two men buried the hatchet and created the video for “Human Touch.”
Pearl later correctly noted, it “is a great video in a lot of ways.”
In the interview, Pearl does not discuss it, but soon after the filming of the “Human Touch” video, he again worked with director Amis to make the video for Springsteen’s song “Better Days.”
This video was recorded on a soundstage in Los Angeles, with the song appearing as part of a double A-side with “Human Touch.”
These songs appeared on two early 1990s albums Springsteen made without the E Street Band, Human Touch and Lucky Town. Because of the new band, some fans disparage these two albums, which were released at the same time. But I love these albums and listen to them often.
One of the things I like about these Springsteen videos created by Pearl and Amis is that like much of the two albums, they capture a confident and happy version of Springsteen, with a genuine smile coming through that did not necessarily appear in some of his more “serious” videos from the previous decade.
Of course Springsteen smiles in the two “Dancing in the Dark” videos, and there are wry smiles at the end of the videos for “Glory Days” and “I’m On Fire.” But the smiles appearing in the early 1990s videos for “Human Touch” and in particular “Better Days” capture a more mature man, a new husband and father, confident, and maybe a little less nervous about being filmed for a music video.
And maybe there was also a little joy about making amends with a cinematographer he once walked out on.
And that is how a failed video for “Dancing in the Dark” led to a reunion and the videos for “Human Touch” and “Better Days.”
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