Because we love ‘em all. Here’s your 90’s Video of the Day
L7 - Pretend We’re Dead
“Pretend We’re Dead” seemed to be a battle hymn thick with the air of apathy in the early to mid 90’s that’s all over grunge and alternative music, but the actual inspiration for the song had been a recent breakup suffered by singer/guitarist Donita Sparks. The original line was “I just pretend that you’re dead,” which did not indicate any real desire to harm her former lover as much as it was her way of “pretending” as a means to get through the breakup. Thinking the line was too macabre, she changed it to “We pretend that we’re dead,” which shifted the meaning of the song to embrace the concept of playing dead as a child, blending in, and losing your individuality. It resonated with the masses for their highest charting song.
Donita felt creatively stifled by the producers for the video who didn’t share her vision. It’s still a cool video obviously, but as a fan of the band and the way Donita’s mind works, I would have loved to see what she had in mind. This video shoot had other problems as well when a crane failure ended up causing injury to guitarist Suzi Gardner.
There’s a full L7 documentary called Pretend We’re Dead that’s easy to find online and bit too raunchy for me to embed here, which is one of a million reasons I’ve always loved them.
Hit me up with 90’s Video’s you wanna see featured at abby@wxdx.com