The Psychedelic Furs - Here Come Cowboys

JUL 01 1984 · 12:00

The Psychedelic Furs - Here Come Cowboys (1984) Director: Tim Pope Era: MTV New Wave Golden Age (1984) - Mid-period post-punk transitioning toward polished new wave, coinciding with the Mirror Moves album era and peak MTV rotation culture in the US and UK. High curatorial value as a well-documented Tim Pope-directed artifact from the peak MTV new wave era, featuring rare star wipe transitions, explicit political commentary on Reagan-era America, and a distinctive documentary-performance hybrid structure. The video's confirmed 1984 provenance and dual cultural address (British band critiquing American iconography) make it a richly layered research object for media history, political iconography, and 1980s music video aesthetics. Context: Released in 1984 as the US single from Mirror Moves, 'Here Come Cowboys' represents a pointed satirical collision between British post-punk sensibility and Reagan-era American mythology. Written by Richard and Tim Butler, who had by then relocated to America, the song targets President Reagan and the law-and-order iconography of the American cowboy as a political archetype. Tim Pope's video amplifies this critique by weaving together band performance footage with authentic documentary images of rural American life, creating an ironic juxtaposition that comments on both the appeal and the danger of the cowboy mythos. The single was released during the height of MTV's cultural dominance, when the channel served as the primary vehicle for British new wave acts to penetrate the US market. Director notes: Confirmed directed by Tim Pope per IMDb (tt12008088) and Songfacts. The video employs Pope's characteristic intercutting strategy, alternating band performance footage with vérité documentary sequences shot in rural America, featuring sheriffs, rodeos, and cowboys, to reinforce the song's satirical commentary on Reagan-era Americana. The video is also documented as a rare example of star wipe transitions in an MTV-era promo clip. The song was the US single from the Mirror Moves album (Columbia Records, May 1984), chosen over 'The Ghost in You' for the American market. Pope had been introduced to American locations the prior year (1983) when Neil Young invited him to film in Los Angeles, providing relevant context for his comfort shooting documentary-style footage in the US.