Loved the song, loved the video. It was also nice to see Robert Palmer finally hit the top after a decade or so in the business. I always liked him - the guy had a lot of great songs - “Every Kinda People;” “Bad Case of Loving You;” “Johnny and Mary;” “Looking for Clues,” the Power Station hits, etc.
Addicted to Love - One of my favorite hits from this era, although I always loved to hate the video. Even as a 13 year old boy, I was learning a lot about objectification of women - in fact, I'm tempted to say it was because I was a 13 year old boy. The way the other boys at school talked about women and girls, it was hard to miss. I do recall a fair bit of controversy about the video, but that probably just helped propel the song up the charts! Of course, I've never been a big MTV fan and I've always found it pretty easy to separate a song from its video. The song itself is fantastic, the kind of hard-driving yet melodic number I wish all '80s top 40 had been. Not my favorite Robert Palmer song (that would be his last US top ten single), but fantastic all the same.
I've always thought the video was so completely over-the-top in its objectification of women that it - intentionally or unintentionally - served to parody the whole phenomena. The fact the ladies all look completely bored by the whole thing just adds to that feeling.
Great tune to crank. I think Palmer was trying to make two points with the fembots in the video. One, how some people act when they are in love mindlessly, and the other about we treat women as objects instead of real humans. That's my take on it, anyway. When I first got the "Riptide" CD, I was surprised that Chic bassist Bernard Edwards produced it, and fellow Chic drummer Tony Thompson played on it. Another plus!
We conducted one of Robert’s final interviews on my old radio show in the summer of ‘03 and he was a peach of a guy. We actually led into it with the aforementioned with ‘Sneaking Sally through the Alley’ and he was putty in our hands after that. Heartbreaking to hear of his passing shortly thereafter
Robert Palmer - Addicted To Love. Love it. Having always liked his singles and buying The Power Station album the previous year...this was right down my street. Think I'll spin Riptide tonight. Love the video too...and make zero apologies for it. 5/5
I really do not care for this song at all, Palmer always rubbed me the wrong way, and I find it had to enjoy anything that he ever did.
"Addicted to Love" MTV played the heck out of this. It seemed like a novelty at the time--the guy in a suit singing to a track that was almost metal. It wasn't my favorite song but I definitely never changed the channel when the video came on.
I loved it. And, the image of a very conservative, straight-laced business suit-wearing English man rocking out to essentially metal music is almost hilarious. He does come off like a novelty act, but he had been making hit singles singles the mid-70s.
An iconic song and video. It had elements of pop, new wave and even a hint of metal. I know that many on this forum tend to look down on 80s production myself included but "Addicted To Love" is one instance where those recording techniques are employed creatively to enhance the vibe of the song.
In a sense, given Mr. Edwards' work with The Power Station, that he would produce this was a logical extension.
Loved the song. I have said in this thread many times I generally do not like pop music from the last half of the '80s -- but this is one of the exceptions. Did not see the video until much much later (the 21st century). As a result I do not associate the song with the video. I did not have access to MTV at all in the '80s, and at this point I am glad, it is nice not to associate songs with videos. I know this is different from many of your experiences; all I'll say about that is --- from my perspective it is interesting to see comments, from almost everyone, on both the song and the associated video, when all I know in many cases is the song.
Crazy thing is that "Addicted" might not even be the most iconic music video of 1986! We can debate that when we get to "Sledgehammer"!
