Continuing our series (click to view all in the series), we’re ranking the music videos of artists or bands that were created during the height of the MTV music video era. Today we’re focusing on Blind Melon, who rose to popularity in 1993 after being together for a few years. The band released two studio albums from 1992-1995, but sadly, shortly after the band went on tour for their second album in 1995, lead singer Shannon Hoon died from a drug overdose on their tour bus. The band tried to find a replacement for him, but it took them about a decade to do so, and even though they’ve recorded new music, it has never been quite the same as when they had their original lineup.
We could go on, but let’s get to what you came here for — our ranking of all of Blind Melon’s ‘90s music videos.
9. Dear Ol’ Dad
This video features shots of the band playing the song in color interspersed with sepia-toned, old-looking footage of them driving around and hanging out in various places, including sledding down a snowy hill. It’s not terrible, but it’s not super interesting either.
8. Soul One
Here we basically have home video of the band playing and hanging out throughout the years, mixed with them in a recording studio filming and playing the song. It’s kind of a bland video compared to most of their other ones.
7. Mouthful of Cavities
This video features an intro talking about guest singer Jena Kraus, and then transitions to a simple video of them playing together in a room with a candelabra, shot in black and white. There are also some random shots of a porcelain angel in color throughout, along with some home video type shots of the band on a boat. Eventually the black and white video of them singing together turns to color. The video ends kind of abruptly, and goes back to the band talking about making their next record. Kind of an odd video, to be honest.
6. I Wonder
Here we have lots of shots of young people’s faces covered in dirt and mud interspersed with the band singing at the camera in various locations, such as in front of a mobile home, in the dirt, and in front of some random outdoor locations. Most of the video is the band and a bunch of fans going crazy in some mud in a kind of literal interpretation of the “let’s get down and dirty” saying.
5. Galaxie
The video opens on a Frankenstein-type lab with a creature child doing experiments in test tubes and such, looking creepy with wide eyes. These shots of the kid continue throughout, mixed with shots of the band in a car with various screen backgrounds. By the end of the video an adult wizard shows up to the Frankenstein-style lab and kicks the creature kid out. What is it supposed to represent? Who knows.
4. Tones of Home
This video features shots of the band playing to an audience in a theater interspersed with shots of an older woman receiving a letter that delights her. The letter seems to maybe be the lyrics of the song as she starts dancing around and singing along to the lyrics. But wait! This will all make sense — by the end of the video, the woman pulls out a yellow outfit reminiscent of the Bee Girl’s outfit in their most famous music video (we’ll get to it!) — so she is supposed to represent an older version of that character who gets to reminisce about her childhood times dancing as the Bee Girl.
3. Toes Across the Floor
The video is mainly shot in slow motion and begins with a man sleeping in a bed in a studio apartment, who wakes up and sees a towel is on fire on his stovetop. He grabs a nearby vase of flowers, gets rid of the flowers, and begins to run over to the stove, but starts encountering a bunch of different obstacles in order to get there, including a lamp cord that trips him, a couch he has to jump over, and some random people coming into the apartment he has to get past. He finally makes it to the stove and is able to dump the water on the fire and put it out, but then just as the video is ending, a new fire starts on his bed. It never ends! The band, meanwhile, plays the song in the background of the apartment.
2. Change
There’s a lot going on in this video — it starts with a butcher holding a piggy bank. Shannon, covered in gold paint, sings in a red chair, petting a porcelain dog. Next, there are some shots of women painted in different colors, doing some kaleidoscopic-type movements. At this point, you’ll notice that this video is very much about the three primary colors: red, blue, and yellow — they are strongly featured throughout. Midway through the video, the butcher breaks the piggy bank, and then a giant mechanical pig-like thing comes out, as well as some other circus-looking performers. At the end of the video, the butcher is shown lying down with some flowers on him, maybe to represent that he died? It’s not 100% clear, but the lyrics are all about change, so it would seem to represent that you have to change in order to survive sometimes?
1. No Rain
Of course, their most famous and iconic music video (and song) has to be in our number one spot. This video features “Bee Girl” in all of her glory — a young girl dressed up in a bee costume who tap dances on a stage, and gets laughed at. She runs off, crying, and starts walking around a city, where she performs for various other adults who don’t really appreciate her. Eventually, she finds her way to a field where others (still all adults) are also dressed up in bee outfits and, having finally found people who appreciate her, she dances around with them. Interspersed throughout the footage of the Bee Girl, the band plays in a very colorful field of yellow flowers, which is likely the same field the girl finds with the other bee people, but the band and the girl never cross paths in the video.
Which is your favorite music video from Blind Melon? Let us know in the comments!
- The Bee Girl in the “No Rain” music video was Heather DeLoach. She also reprised her full Bee Girl routine in the music video for Weird Al Yankovic’s “Bedrock Anthem,” and also appeared at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards.
- The picture of the Bee Girl featured on the Blind Melon album cover in 1992 is not of DeLoach, but rather features a family picture of Georgia Graham, the younger sister of drummer Glen Graham.
- The name “Blind Melon” came from a term that bassist Brad Smith’s father would call his “hippie” neighbors.
- Lead singer Shannon Hoon provided backing vocals on two Guns-N-Roses songs: “Don’t Cry” and “The Garden.” He also appears in the “Don’t Cry” music video.
- Technically the “Tones of Home” video featured above is the second version of the video — the first came out before “No Rain” and mainly consisted of live concert footage. After the success of the “No Rain” video, the new video for “Tones of Home” was filmed.
- The Bee Girl in the “No Rain” music video was Heather DeLoach. She also reprised her full Bee Girl routine in the music video for Weird Al Yankovic’s “Bedrock Anthem,” and also appeared at the 1993 MTV Video Music Awards.
- The picture of the Bee Girl featured on the Blind Melon album cover in 1992 is not of DeLoach, but rather features a family picture of Georgia Graham, the younger sister of drummer Glen Graham.
- The name “Blind Melon” came from a term that bassist Brad Smith’s father would call his “hippie” neighbors.
- Lead singer Shannon Hoon provided backing vocals on two Guns-N-Roses songs: “Don’t Cry” and “The Garden.” He also appears in the “Don’t Cry” music video.
- Technically the “Tones of Home” video featured above is the second version of the video — the first came out before “No Rain” and mainly consisted of live concert footage. After the success of the “No Rain” video, the new video for “Tones of Home” was filmed.
