“I had an art band that I was a member of called Martini Ranch in the late ’80s, but I wasn’t a musician. I was more into making the videos.”
– Bill Paxton
He rides into town on a motorcycle, in leathers and shades. Greeting his favorite bar girl, he heads into the cantina. But wait! the Posse of Amazon Cowboy Women is in pursuit! Outlaw Bill is roped and branded and hauled away tied to the back of a pickup truck in his long johns.
This oddball little Western vignette was directed by Bill’s buddy, James Cameron, and features cameos by stars like Judge Reinhold, Paul Reiser, Jenette Goldstein, and Kathryn Bigelow. It’s a total hoot. As for the song, it’s 80’s New Wave with a country twang, pleasant and quirky but unremarkable. There’s a reason Martini Ranch never became a household name.
Bill does vocals, plays maracas, and hams it up like crazy. One gets the impression he wasn’t quite done being Severen yet….
The guy looks good in dirt. He looks good in leather. He also looks good hogtied on the ground with big tough women looming over him.
Three stars for the video, two for the song. The Martini Ranch album, Holy Cow, is long out of print, but it shows up on eBay now and then. I got my copy for 89 cents in the cutout bin of the local used record store. Worth every penny.
And if you want to see the video in its entirety, here it is!