Nothing did more to further the cause of Alternative Nation-building than 120 Minutes, MTV’s Sunday-night video showcase of non-mainstream acts. For nearly two decades, the program spanned musical eras from ’80s college rock to ’00s indie, with grunge, Britpop, punk, industrial, electronica and more in between. MAGNET raids the vaults to resurrect our 120 favorite and unjustly forgotten videos from the show’s classic era.
#48: Peter Murphy “Cuts You Up”
Peter Murphy will always be remembered for “Bela Lugosi’s Dead,” his goth classic with Bauhaus. But 1990’s Deep gave him a respectable solo career. Unresolved issues with this video for “Cuts You Up” abound, however: the bowed electric bass at the 2:07 mark—we realize things like this are done, but is that really capable of producing a synth/violin sound? Why does Murphy become a falconer at 3:20? Finally, not limited to the scope of this video, why does Englishman Murphy sing with a German accent?
