Synopsis

The Stranglers perform in a shadowy, dreamlike setting as the song's nocturnal story unfolds around an enigmatic older man. Rain, sleeplessness, drinking and fragments of conversation give the video a haunted, reflective atmosphere. The band's performance is interwoven with imagery that suggests the narrator is moving between waking life and a vivid hallucination, while the old man's observations about beauty, ugliness, mistakes and morality give the piece an unexpectedly philosophical edge. By the end, the mysterious encounter feels less like a literal meeting than a memory that has changed the narrator.

Factoids & Trivia

• "Midnight Summer Dream" was released as the second single from The Stranglers' 1983 album "Feline." The single reached No. 35 on the UK Singles Chart.

• The video was made during the band's major stylistic transition from their earlier punk and post-punk attack toward the more atmospheric, European sound of "Feline."

• According to the band's official history, the record company invested heavily in the videos for both "European Female" and "Midnight Summer Dream." The group regarded both productions as unusually expensive by their standards.

• The track's arrangement combines programmed electronic percussion, acoustic guitar, prominent keyboards and Hugh Cornwell's restrained spoken-sung vocal. The video's slow, nocturnal mood mirrors that unusual combination rather than presenting the song as a conventional performance piece.

• The album version runs for more than six minutes, while the single used a substantially shorter remix. The promotional video is commonly associated with the longer album-style presentation.

• "Midnight Summer Dream" became one of the best-known examples of the gentler, more experimental side of The Stranglers, even though its chart performance was modest compared with "Golden Brown" and "European Female."