I Can't Wait video
 

Stevie admitted she used drugs in all over her pop single videos. I got a kick out of what she said about the I Cant Wait video. She said she cant even watch the video and wanted to stab herself watching it because of how drugged out she was. She said "why could I have not laid off the coke, pot, and tequila for 3 days before the shoot. Of all her videos, she does look really high at times but her eye make up is done differently too. Both the Talk To Me and I Cant Wait videos were s***ty videos even for the mid 80s. Putting Mick on the stairs and her brother pretending to play sax was just pointless and stupid. When she does that dance with her hands, it was stupid even for 1986. As a teen I used to think the same thing when I would see her recorded in concert. Why when you know its being filmed would you not clean yourself up for at least one day. But when you are an addict and you pay people around you, they become your biggest enablers.
Its really scary because if you rewind time, there was no Talk To Me video until Talk to me was already well on the charts. The video shoot was delayed because Stevie was too "ill."
This is the woman who failed herself and record company for not having a big video release of a new song then abandoned promoting the album to run away to Australia to party while her band tried to practice and carry on. It was always my hunch her record company released HAEWAFY purposely to kill the album. They did not want a hit third single that would require a video. They forced her into rehab after the tour.

I have always thought, and not only about Stevie but about in addicted singers in general, that the record company, the managers, the staff around are somehow a bit responsible. Not that I blame exclusively on them, cause Stevie (or any other) was already an adult, but It seems that they don’t actually care about them becoming addicted, and they only want to squeeze them like oranges until there is no juice left, that is, til they no longer have creativity, success, they do not generate sales, etc.

Yes, I read they forced her into rehab… but after years of watching her becoming more and more addict? Come on. If they really wanted to protect their investment long-term (let’s face it, the motivation is never a good deed), they could prevent the person to fall that way and not wait for an embarrassing situation.

Yes, Stevie being addicted meant she couldn’t quit drugs even for 3 days.

I think she looks incredible in Talk to Me, stunning, even. She’s wearing different color and style dresses, different hairstyles, I think it was a great video. I Can’t Wait is dismal, I definitely agree.

Her record company did not release a single that was designed to kill the album. If they didn’t want to shoot a third video, that doesn’t mean they didn’t want another hit single. If they had released No Spoken Word instead, whether it had a video or not, there’s no guarantee it would have charted any higher than HAEWAFY. Talk to Me and I Can’t Wait were the most the most commercial songs on the album, as proven by their performance on the charts.

We can agree to disagree but I dont think many esp at a record company expected HAEWAFY to chart. Its anything but a pop single for radio.
I had similar thoughts about Nightbird. I dont care for the song but if I could pick the next single from RAL it would be If I Were You....even with no video.

I Cant Wait was the first time we saw Stevie's weight gain and not as glam as she used to be or could have been. This was the beginning of her hairstyle of the mid/late 80s that I always hated. It was puffy on top and straight on the sides. She stuck with that look through the Big Love video.

There are parts of the Talk To Me video that are fine. But I hate the blank room dance with her brother appearing on the wall playing sax. I wanted to see more of her at the mic instead of those far away shots. It seemed they tried to hide somethings with only close face shots and far away shots.
Now for my 80s flashback. We did not have MTV in 1986 and I would tape the TBS Night tracks and hope to catch Talk To Me and I finally did one Friday night. And guess what, I could fast forward the VCR with a remote control that had a long wire attached to it. Ha ha.

Yep, I remember thinking the same thing. First time I saw Stevie not looking "so good" in a video.

I think that's why she said she wants to stab herself when she sees that video. Because of her good looks, she was always able to get away with her outrageous drug use. When RAL was released, she really started to look bad. Her lifestyle caught up with her and people noticed her behavior more.

She looks ok in the video If Anyone Falls but there are certain shots you can see she is under the influence with a giant swollen nose and just looks coked out.

I think when you’re younger you can get away with abusing your body and still look “good. But when you’re closing in on 40, as Stevie was at this time, the years of continued abuse really start to catch up to you. And quickly. The change in Stevie throughout the 80’s is very jarring. Her looks, her voice, her personality, the whole package. She looked and sounded better at 50 than she did at 37 IMO.

The biggest visual surprise to me was seeing Stevie in person in September 1985 at the Mulholland concert in LA. On the audio, you can hear my girlfriend Kelly say, “Didn’t she put a little weight on?” I recall being really surprised that Stevie did not look “like a dancer” anymore. She had on a trench coat and a top hat and looked very indie-hip but very un-Stevie-like. Even the way she walked across the stage changed. Jerome Kern’s great “Yesterdays” flitted through my mind. People aren’t machinery. Whaddya gonna do?

The thing is, if she continued to use cocaine there probably wouldn’t have been any weight gain. So she had to battle both ego and addiction to stop using cocaine. She must’ve really believed that her life was in danger to do that.