We Need to Talk About the 'Danzig - Mother 93 Live' Music Video
Three minutes in heaven
Though old music videos persist online, and new ones are still coming out today, the form’s cultural cachet waxed and waned with that of the network formed to broadcast them. Pulling up whatever you want on YouTube is just not the same as enduring 2 hours of “Steal My Sunshine” and “Who Let the Dogs Out” because you’re hoping to see “November Rain” or “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” MTV was great but sometimes it played Russian roulette with your soul.
The medium has now crossed 3 generations1, but music videos remain a uniquely Gen X and elder Millennial construct. Weird amalgamations of art house films starring non-actors and commercials selling sex. The marketing strategy was to get kids horny, I guess, so we’d buy albums.
It worked.
We grew up watching 22-minute commercials disguised as cartoons that were created by toy companies; as teenagers, we graduated to the same formula on a different channel. I actually look back fondly on the commercials that aired at the time (“Is that freedom rock, man?”) because they were almost indistinguishable from the content. We were always being sold to.
I feel no shame in admitting I’d never heard of Danzig until one fateful, forgotten day in the 90s. At the time, I was only really interested in rap. Music videos legitimately expanded my interests by exposing me to new stuff.
So maybe it’s not considered cool to like Danzig or “Mother”—I posted on Notes about writing this piece and someone called Danzig ‘poseurs’2—but whatever. This song rocks. But it was the music video that made me put down my Big Gulp.
The “Danzig - Mother 93 Live” video uses a remixed version of the original 1988 release. It’s also the song’s second music video. That’s right—“Mother” is so awesome it merited two videos. The first features quasi-satanic rituals interspersed with extreme close-ups of frontman Glenn Danzig’s face.3 Same song, terrible video. Which is partly why “Mother” didn’t enter the charts until 5 years after its debut, when “Danzig - Mother 93 Live” propelled it there.
Okay, that’s enough backstory. Let’s get into it.
Here’s the video in question. I’d recommend watching it first, and then reading the rest of this. But you do you.
0:00: We open with a black screen and two seconds of silence. I feel compelled to wonder why. What is Danzig trying to say to us, by saying nothing at all?
Are they symbolizing the emptiness of life, or perhaps commenting on the vapid nature of celebrity? Is it an abridged moment of silence for the original “Mother” music video?
Only Danzig knows.
0:02: That guitar riff kicks in. If you know “Mother,” you know the one I’m referring to. It’s the same chord I hear when I accelerate to 6 mph over the speed limit.
The guitar plays over a senseless blur of visuals: a crowd gathered in a hazy arena; Glenn Danzig’s silhouette; teenagers in blue face paint; headbangers, and more headbangers.
0:17: Our first lyric: “Mother,” which doubles as the song’s title and can also be read as a personal plea by Glenn to his own mother. Maybe he wants to ask her about the kids who keep showing up at his gigs with blue faces.4
We get fleeting glimpses of Glenn as he sings the opening stanza. The music video is playing coy, keeping our protagonist partly screened by smoke and mirrors. What we see grounds us for what’s to come, but is also not enough to prepare us.
Shirtless, whipping his hair about as though he’s in a shampoo commercial, Glenn asks the eponymous mother not to let her children walk his way. I agree—we don’t want an epidemic of shirtless children hip-thrusting the air; COVID was bad enough.
He makes another request: don’t let the children hear his words. Glenn understands the power he wields, and doesn’t do so lightly.
0:28: The first real look at our hero is startling.
He’s built like a brick shit house.
Granted, Glenn is only 5’3”. He probably weighs 150. I haven’t been that small since the 5th grade. He projects much taller in the video because most of it is shot looking up, as though from the crowd. It’s the same way Peter Jackson used forced perspective to make The Lord of the Rings, except this time Frodo is taller than Gandalf, and also a shirtless piece of beef.5
I don’t make a habit of looking at the physiques of male rockstars.6 Just not my bag, baby. But Glenn forces you to reckon with his body. He’s not the first rockstar to prowl around shirtless, but he is the first to look like he accidentally ripped through his shirt by flexing too hard.
0:35: The music is superimposed over concert footage, which makes the sound too crisp but also perfect. Most live concert songs are not as good as the studio cut. They just aren’t, if for no other reason than crowd noise is a detriment. Here we get the best of both worlds: A clean studio recording and the visceral thrill of a live crowd.
One weird side effect: Because the sound doesn’t exactly match up with the video, it often looks like Glenn is lip-syncing.
0:43: Glenn glistening, his hair a soppy mess.
Watching “Mother,” you innately understand that this music video smells like sweat, burnt ozone, stale cigarettes, and Right Guard.
0:45: The song has been slowly building this whole time. It’s the sensation at the beginning of a roller coaster, when the steady clink-clink of the lift chain becomes both background noise and a countdown to the ride’s true beginning.
We are here now, ratcheting ever higher.
0:48: Still building.
You can just tell the crescendo is gonna kill. I hope the album came with cautionary warnings for the elderly, pregnant, and people with heart conditions.
This song is a force of nature. Not even Glenn, the song’s creator and the artist through whom we experience the storm, is immune. He violently double fist pumps as the intro nears its apex.
Clearly the legion of guards are there to protect the crowd from Glenn’s contortions.
1:00: We’ve arrived. The song has crested and is hurtling us forward, possibly toward our own destruction, if Glenn’s cautionary lyrics are to be taken for truth.
We don’t care. “Mother” has us in its grip.
Glenn is now punching the air with his hands and his crotch simultaneously. We haven’t seen such innovative use of a dancing crotch since “Beat It.”
This moment is so nuts, I’ve recorded it for posterity via the magic of GIF technology.
1:03: LMAO. A dude gets absolutely yeeted off the stage.
Given everything Glenn is throwing around, it’s clearly for the kid’s own safety. He’s better off being cast into a crowd of headbangers than spend another second on stage with Glenn.
1:15: Shout out to Silhouette Boy.
Anybody can headbang and throw horns. This guy took it to the next level. Imagine asking your friends to hold you up by the hip so you can also thrash with your feet.
It’s a good thing Glenn doesn’t see this kid. He doesn’t need any ideas.
1:25: Glenn is now wearing two boxing gloves, and it looks like he’s got a mouthguard in too. I have no idea how to read this or react to it, which sums up the experience of watching the music video. It’s a blur of images and sensations that leave you reeling, senseless, as though you’re being pummeled.
Maybe the boxing gear makes sense after all. It’s a metaphor, for those willing to look. Danzig out here playing 4D chess.
1:26: I call this section, “The guards earn their keep.” Kids are carried off stage and thrown back into the crowd. Some get close enough to high-five Glenn. Others jump back into the crowd of their own volition, probably out of fear after getting too close to Glenn’s thrusting hips.
I imagine working security at one of these concerts has gotta be nuts. There’s somewhere between 8-12 guards on stage, a thin yellow line in front of all that boisterous humanity. It seems like both too many guards and not nearly enough as “Mother” ignites the masses.
1:39: Glenn has on a mesh tank top, which somehow feels like less clothes than being shirtless.
Btw, now’s as good a time as any to talk about his belt buckle, which is obscene in every sense of the word. Massive, horned, demonic, it makes Glenn’s air-humping even more violent. It reminds me of Randall Flagg from The Stand, a demon whose penis is hooked or has teeth or something; the point is—it’s a weapon, and it hurts.
That buckle has gotta add several pounds to the belt, which makes all that hip movement even more impressive. No wonder Glenn is so ripped! He’s constantly working out just walking around with that thing on.
1:42: Shots of the non-Danzig members of Danzig. They look like every other 90s era rocker you’ve ever seen: long hair, facial hair, black leather. They are rock star cliches brought to life.7
The video hasn’t even been playing for two minutes and already Glenn Danzig has reoriented our idea of what a rock star should look like: chiseled gods with a faint whiff of Eastern European gangster.
You know what would’ve been awesome? If it was revealed that Glenn was actually all the other band members in disguise. Impossible, obviously. But it’d be hilarious, and underscore the premise that Glenn is operating on another level.
2:06: Glenn starts high-fiving the front row. He also throws a punch. The camera cuts away before the punch lands.
People dying of drug overdoses is part of the music business; people dying after taking a right cross from the lead singer is not.
2:16: Obligatory guitar solo. It’s short but very sweet.
Since he plays no instrument—you could correctly say he is an instrument—Glenn pulls out all his tricks during the solo: whipping his hair, punching the air, and mingling with the crowd, before ending with a patented move where he flings back an elbow as though he’s starting a lawn mower. Explaining it makes it sound dumb, but man, it looks fucking cool.
If you asked Glenn about his moves, I doubt he’d be able to explain what or why. He’s seized by the music. Who hasn’t been there.
2:40: Glenn lifting his arms in triumph.
Though the song isn’t yet done, his work is. He’s inspired a crowd of young men to give themselves over to his message. They’ve stormed the stage and been thrown back, and yet they still keep coming.
2:56: A final montage to send us on our way. Somehow, incredibly, Glenn still has something left in the tank. Lot of great headbanging, including one moment where he stands at the edge of the stage and bangs with both heads.
3:08: A fleeting glimpse of a teenager in the crowd. He’s looking directly into the camera—into my soul—as he gives horns. Meanwhile, Glenn is screaming, “Mommmaaaaa,” but it sounds like “Momwawwww,” which incredibly makes it even better. Paired with the kid reaching towards the camera, it's a great moment of synchronicity. It feels like an elemental yearning for something indescribable.8
3:17: With at least three different backward flips of his head, Glenn ushers the song to its conclusion. It’s a strange motion, abrupt and violent.
I just realized what it looks like: When wrestlers stomp on a downed opponent and theatrically throw back their upper body to sell the myth that they’re really bringing the hurt. The difference—Glenn actually brought the fire.
3:23: In a mirror of the song’s beginning, the end is complete silence. The final image is of one last kid getting tossed back into the crowd, which feels appropriate.
The song is over and we, too, are cast back to lives that suddenly feel dull.
Even though I’ve put over 2500 words into this, I’m having a hard time describing the sum of the “Mother 93 Live” experience in its wake.
It’s a blistering tour of the senses that transcends words. A journey best taken by viewing Glenn Danzig as an avatar. I’ve never double fist pumped while thrusting my crotch toward a crowd, but watching Glenn do it, I feel like I have. And I guess that’s why I first gravitated to this video, why it’s stuck in my brain for 30+ years, and why I periodically come back.
Watching Glenn lose his shit is aspirational. He’s communing with music in a way I admire because his investment is complete. He doesn’t care that he looks goofy. And because he doesn’t care, he doesn’t look goofy.
The video pulses with chaotic energy. Everything Glenn’s doing. The crowd in a feeding frenzy. The no-nonsense guards literally throwing people off the stage. Bodies in motion everywhere: flying, thrashing, thrusting, headbanging. It’s crazy, harmless fun. The kind we used to have without realizing what a privilege it was.
Several times during the song, Glenn asks if we want to bang heads with him.
Yes, Glenn. We obviously do.
Just point that crotch someplace else.
Music video generations: Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z, though I think the latter group is defaulted in because they’re eternally online and bound to see music videos, somehow, somewhere. Boomers were too busy hating on MTV.
I briefly felt like Obi-Wan when that dude called Danzig ‘poseurs’: “Now that’s a name I have not heard in a long time.” Never change, Gen X.
Shameful admission time: When I was younger, I typically assigned the band’s name to the lead singer, unless I knew better. Steven Tyler was Aerosmith for an embarrassingly long time. It could also get confusing. (“No, Eric—that’s not Van Halen. That’s David Lee Roth.”) I’m guessing this is a carryover from following rap, where most performers are usually solo artists. Danzig is the rare case where calling the lead singer by the band’s name is accurate.
“I’m trying to be edgy and shit, Mom, but these damn Blue Man Group groupies keep harshin’ my gig.”
I’m now imagining Glenn Danzig as a Hobbit. Puts the line, “Looks like meat’s back on the menu, boys,” in a startling new light.
Apart from Glenn Danzig, I’ve only ever been scandalized by one other male rock star: Axl Rose in the “You Could Be Mine” music video. Featuring footage from Terminator 2: Judgement Day, as well as a cameo by Arnold himself, the video was on heavy replay leading up to the film’s release. I watched it religiously, which is unfortunately why I have an image seared into my brain of Rose gyrating, serpentine-like, in very thin white biker shorts. I didn’t need to know he’s circumcised, but here we are.
Someone super plugged into rock or Danzig, or both, is gonna be offended with this sweeping characterization. “Dude—that’s John Christ. Put some respect on his name.” To which I say: 1) I’d never heard of him until I started writing this; and 2) He calls himself John Christ. He clearly wants to be made fun of.
Whenever we got to this part of the video, my brother and I mimicked this kid, reaching towards each other from opposite couches, just because we thought it was hilarious.
When you primed us for this one I was going to say I hope you wore a mesh tank top while writing it. I don’t know you like that. But after reading, I’ll say that I wouldn’t think any less of you if you did.
Glenn Danzig is only 5’3”?! How is that possible?! That’s like going to the ballpark and seeing Aaron Judge is built like Hack Wilson. That is wild!
Outstanding breakdown of this video. This reminded me, in all the best ways, of Good Movie by Shea Serrano. That’s not a comp I throw around lightly. Great work! 👊
I am 99% sure I saw an album of Danzig singing Sinatra songs when I was out record shopping once.