20 some years later, I finally know what happened to Billy Squier
The question first hit me when we were driving to New Hampshire back in October. After listening to the "Classic Rewind" channel on Sirius for a good portion of the drive, we were inundated with a good deal of old Billy Squier songs. We wondered...hmmm...whatever happened to him? He so white hot in the early eighties, then he just seemed to disappear.
But then I heard on Howard Stern this week what happened. I'll let Wikipedia sum it up best.
...Squier revealed that his career as a chart-topping rocker came to a stunningly rapid and sudden end with the release of the music video for "Rock Me Tonite", universally derided by his fans (who saw him as a guitar hero) for its effeminate set (a bedroom dressed in soft, pastel fabrics) and Squier's bizarre, vaguely homoerotic prancing and ripping of his clothing, reminiscent of Jennifer Beals' performance in the film "Flashdance". The video was a demolishing blow to Squier's image among his fans, who deserted him virtually overnight. Billy confirmed that his career didn't recover after that video...And for good measure, here's the video.
Wow. Of all the videos I watched in the eighties, I can honestly say that I don't recall that one. Of course, there's also a damn good chance that I subconsciously blocked out any memories of that horrid, horrid performance.
posted by Doobie | 1/28/2007 12:49:00 PM
7 Comments:
I thought he was hot as shit in that video, but then again, I was only 11 or 12, so what did I know?
How could he have not known, while doing that, how ridiculous he looked?
The only excuse I can think of is pretty much the boilerplate excuse for *anything* that happened in the eighties: It was the eighties.
Who cares? He is/was such a good artist... really wasnt fair to him or the music world of listeners to see him go radio silent. Too bad!
I saw him in concert twice when he was at the top of his game. He played & sang just as well, if not better than his albums! To u kiddies out their, an album is a really big black disc that is played on a record player, look that one up if you don't know what that is. Unfortunately aprox. 5-6yrs. later i saw him on the 2am Seattle to Bremerton ferry. He was so wasted his female "companion" (legs up 2 her neck, hair down to her waste & VERY YOUNG, yet legal) had 2 help him from falling. His face showed a man who clearly lived life in the much to "fast lane"!! There is more to the story but ive already typed much to much. Anyhoo, I have a HUGE suspicion it wasnt 'that' video that screwed his career. Mind you, he said he had just plyed a show that very night at a large Seattle venue. This was in 88 so he SHOULDN'T have looked like he was 60 already, it was pretty sad. I hope he found the obvious help he needed. Regardless, he did rock it hard on stage in the years before. Hopefully he saved some of that money he made & is living the sweet life somewhere in the islands.
His first album was white hot and still sounds great. I bought the second album and it was really bad. Not the same quality as his first. That's the real reason.
Billy is worth 60 million so he did save his money he owns his publishing and his music is sampled by a lot of rap artists
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