On the resume of renegade producer/director and Monkees' co-creator Bob Rafelson, you'll find some of the more edgy films of the 1970s "Young Hollywood" era: Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Stay Hungry, The King of Marvin Gardens, and more. He also helmed the Monkees' career-threatening acid-freakout film Head, which Rafelson has described as the godfather of the modern music video. A project that most do not know and are surprised to learn of, however, is Bob Rafelson's direction of one of the most popular music videos of the 1980s, the video for Lionel Richie's blockbuster #1 single "All Night Long".
The song and video catapulted the career of Lionel Richie into the stratosphere, with continued music video success from the Can't Slow Down album for cuts such as "Running With The Night" and "Hello". Dancers Adolfo "Shabba-Doo" Quinones, Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, and actress Lela Rochon also went on to more recognition after exposure in this high-rotation video.
Bob Rafelson told THE GOLDEN AGE OF MUSIC VIDEO in an e-mail about how the project evolved, how Lionel found him, and why the breakdancers were a mandatory element.
“Lionel had seen Head (my first picture and a musical) and apparently liked it," Rafelson wrote. "But he was a fan of Five Easy Pieces and dramas I had made. He called me. I was not a fan of his, but I went down to the studio where he was finishing up the record of ‘All Night Long’. I heard it and loved it. I said ‘Give me ten minutes,’ and walked around the block. I returned with the concept, but said to him that I had been, for years, shooting street kids dancing on the east side of L.A., this with a Sony Portapack Video Recorder. Next day, I showed him the footage and made a condition of the video that I use these kids.”
Rafelson said that it wasn't all smooth sailing during the project's on set production.
"We shot non stop, I think, for 25-30 hours. I personally story boarded the whole 'musical'. The only difficulty came when there was a dispute about a moment of black politics in this thing. It had to do with a rich black girl in the limousine, and whether Lionel should favor her. They knew nothing of my relationship to the Black Panther Party, they were wrong about the point, and after an hour or two of wrangling I reminded them that this dispute could cost them more than the video. I had insisted on final cut. They eventually saw my point of view. Lionel supported me throughout. We gave him a new hair style, he practiced his dance moves for hours. I liked the man. Still do."
Since there is no "rich black girl" getting out of a limousine in the video, we'll have to speculate as to the conflict Rafelson was mentioning. In the meantime, check out "All Night Long".
