Essential obscure music video, #3

Our third trip down False Memory Lane. About once/week I'm going to post a few music videos you've never seen nor heard but should. And you? You'll watch and enjoy.

Yma Sumac - "Tumpa" from Secret of the Incas



This is a scene from the 1954 musical/adventure film from which Spielberg cribbed an awful lot of Raiders of the Lost Ark (to the point I'm surprised no one sued). The movie seems to be a pastiche of footage shot on site and on sound stages; the link to a scene of Sumac clearly entirely singing at the site I had here originally appears broken right now, so I've linked to this startling track (she's credited with an extraordinary 4 1/2 -5 octave vocal range). What's especially cool for me in this is that I've been to Machu Picchu and stood very precisely where this was filmed. In fact, here's a couple of photos I took at the site a few years ago:

















Reesa & the Rooters - "Vix Bidet Party"

This was a Philadelphia New Wave band circa 1980. You can read and see more about the band here. How great is this?! I'm proud to hail from the city that brought you both the cheesesteak and Reesa & the Rooters.


Captain Beefheart & the Magic Band - "Sure 'nuff 'n' Yes I Do"

This piece from 1967 provides further proof that the promotional video was born long before MTV.