The boyfriend in Til Tuesday's "Voices Carry" Video

I love this song & video. So what's the subtext? Does he beat her or is he just an unsupportive asshole?

R1 - Good question. I can see it either way.

I think the guy killed himself.

Have loved this song since it came out and still have the CD which is played often.

Cully Holland has to be one of the biggest enigmas of music video history. IIRC he did one film and that is all you can find on the guy, he just literally vanished. Common noise on the Internet is he died but of how varies; some say of complications due to HIV/Aids, others via suicide. Even so there isn't even an obituary or anything else besides this video and the aforementioned film about him on the Internet.

On a side note *LOVE* the block of townhouses shown in this video. Think it is Back Bay area of Boston but not sure.

R1

*He wants me but only part of the time* * He wants me only if he can keep me in line*

Draw your own conclusions.

The BF is a controlling AH who probably beats the girlfriend. That and or otherwise mentally abuses her because she won't fit into his *image* of what she should be.

IIRC from the time the original lyrics had "she" instead of "he" but the suits in 1980's music world didn't think lesbian references would sell the song.

Still remember seeing this video on MTV, back when that station was a big thing.

LOVE this song ! Boy,she sure didn't age well ! Terri Nunn still looks damn good !

You're joking, right, R6?

That's Aimee Mann, not Terri Nunn.

After 40 it's your ass or your face, R6.

I meant Terri Nunn from "Berlin" still looks hot. I sorta veered as I was typing. Im stoned. Very stoned.Aimee looks okay but not as good as Terri. For an 80s rock star.

I imagine Aimee Mann knows what happened to him. She's still touring - someone should ask her.

Second best wife beater in an 80s MTV video...

First prize goes to "Love is a Battlefield" escalator man:-)

This song and video were HUGE at the time. Like the other poster said, this was when MTV was at its peak and everybody and their brother watched it.

A hundred years from now, people will still say that the 1980s had the best music.

The last time I saw Aimee Mann in concert while she was still good was The Acoustic Vaudeville tour with her husband Michael Penn and Patton Oswald as emcee. It was after the Magnolia smash. The show was a lot of fun, during Penn's big hit "Romeo in Black Jeans" Aimee sang a chorus in the voice of Ethel Merman. When Aimee did "Voices Carry' Michael Penn did a perfect impression of the guy in the video. "What did practice run late…"

He was nowhere near as hot as the god in the video though.

After I watched the great "Voices Carry" video I checked out "What About Love" where she tantrum-danced badly in loud fabric looking like the cocaine buffet got devoured that night. I always thought the drummer was a cutie. Love "Coming Up Close" too. Okay I'm done.

R14 Not so much for you, as I immediately knew the song you were talking about, but the actual title of Michael Penn's one hit that you mention is "No Myth", for anyone not familiar with it that might want to check it out on YouTube or Vevo.

For Cully Holland fans he can be seen in Warbirds from 1989 on YouTube. It's horrible and only watchable because he spends most of the movie shirtless and checks all the fetish boxes.Shirtless and in tight white pants. Tied up and tortured shirtless.Gets tickled. At the end shows off his sexy legs and feet!

Aimee Mann did a shot-by-shot remake of the Voices Carry video a couple of years ago for her song "Labrador". The guy playing the abusive boyfriend in the remake must have had a ball.

They stole my sound

Cully Holland must either be dead, in prison, or simply didn't exist. *LOL* The man seems to have dropped off the face of the earth.

Just checked is IMB profile and it lists two films and one television show.

Besides War Lords CH did Dirty Love (1988) which also includes ginger Playgirl stud Reid Hutchins.

Not one comment on his discussion IMB profile, nothing, zip. Perhaps "Cully Holland" wasn't the guy's real name which would make running him to ground difficult.

The video was strange. Aimee didn't seem like his type.

Yes, it was filmed in Boston as that is where the band started out.

Way back on Pop Up Videos, it stated that Aimee Mann felt the casting for the video was off as this was totally not the kind of guy she went for.

I found him hot though in his 80s yuppie way.

IIRC, she was involved with the red-headed guitarist for a while as well, which is more her type.

If this is Reid Hutchins (warning: NSFW) then wow, he's hung like an ingrown toenail.

R24 Surely Robert, the red-headed guitarist, is gay. I thought Aimee had been involved with one of the other band members - but not Robert. Maybe that handsome drummer?

I remember being amazed this song was a hit. Nothing to do with the lyrics, on a musical level, I thought it was so lame, certainly including the singer.

R26: no, I know people who knew them and Robert is definitely straight.

She wasn't involved with the keyboard player. Don't know about the drummer. I dimly remember hearing she dated Robert for a while, but I could be wrong.

the keyboard player in this band is so hot, I think he's a furniture maker or sculptor now.

R30: yes, both. Very nice guy.

Intelius.com shows there is a 57-year-old Cully Holland in Santa Monica, CA. He apparently also went by Kevin Joseph Gallery.

Aimee looks great now.

The thing is, 80s videos like this were shot on film with high production values. They're like mini-movies. They sort of demanded attention that way.

It wasn't until I was much older that I learned that the one I thought was the other female in the group was actually a guy.

Mann herself did a hilarious parody of the video years later.

R35, meet R18.

R21

That was one of if not the point. Miss. Mann wasn't Mr. Holland's "type" and he tries to change her (the brunette wig, buying her nice jewelry, etc...) and then resorting to bullying and the rest when she wouldn't toe the line.

Regarding MTV don't think persons who weren't around for the 1980's realize how *huge* it once was.

Any place with young persons/adults such as bars, clubs, dorm room, apartments, etc... you'd hear that station blasting from televisions. Most bars would have it on video screens (with or without sound), ditto for clubs.

The first few "Vee Jays" were sensations was the new format of music videos. Yea, some things were cheesy but quite a lot has stood up over time. Oh and you had the first several seasons of "Real World".

Agreed R37

This song was everywhere, my roommates and I just loved the video. "What an asshole", shake our heads like it was real.

The 80's were great; music was good, drugs were good, sex was good. Ah, walking down Westheimer in Houston...hitting all the clubs, buying tapes at Infinity Records, dancing to The Cure. Good times! :)

Smash Hits referred to the guitarist as "Girl Robert," LOL.

Not a fan of her voice but this live version is pretty good.

I wouldn't have expected when this song came out that Aimee Mann would become a respected, Oscar-nominated, bohemian singer-songwriter.

I thought she might go the way of Jane Child or Stacey Q, and never be heard from again.

"Coming Up Close" is another great song from that era that I've probably played hundreds of times.

There was more blatant assholery in the '80s, for some reason. Many of the most popular '80s films had such blatant assholes. I suppose it was some time during the '90s when people started becoming more passive-aggressive, subtle, and pretentious with their assholery.

Great song

I loved Aimee Mann for over 30 years. I listen to an Aimee song everyday. She started 'Til Tuesday with her then boyfriend, drummer Michael Hausman. Not sure if I spelled his name exactly right but .... He is her manager today. You can seem him drumming in the Voices Carry video and the Labrador video. I heard that Voices Carry was really a gay song that she was made to change. I did find a copy of She Said Voices Carry.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5CI4rBzIsA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5CI4rBzIsA

There's someone in Santa Monica with the name Cully Holland as of 2012

OP, I always assumed that he was cheating on someone with her, and was embarrassed by her, or "couldn't be seen with her" for some reason. He didn't want anyone over-hearing them talking in public. That sort of thing.

I kind of identified it after having dated a closet case briefly (and never again).

I'm in the biz. I've interviewed Aimee Mann and Terri Nunn. Terri is bisexual. Great interview with her. She was talkative and fun. Aimee was super super shy. Hard to get her to talk. Polar opposites.

So did Holland kill himself or what?

This is one of my favorite 80s songs. "Coming Up Close" was a great song too; shame it wasn't a big hit.

Also, I was in high school when this came out, and a couple of the "cool" girls got their hair cut like Aimee Mann, complete with the "rat tail" braid.

He’s alive and well.

The video was so dumb. When he picks up the rat-tail and tosses it disdainfully, like he just now noticed it. And when she jumps up and starts shrieking that he told her to shut up - yeah, we all want you to shut up too, lady.

According to google, Cully Holland died in 1991.

I always loved the ending of the "Voices Carry' video, I can imagine myself looking at her then seeing his overwrought embarrassment staring at HIM.

Finally after years of nothing concrete, someone put up a page on Cully Holland, and yes he died of HIV/AIDs in 1991.

There had been rumors and gossip that Mr. Holland had died, but nothing concrete in support of statements could be found.

Key thing missing was his real name; Kevin Joseph Gallery.

More.....

Mr. Holland would have had his 63rd birthday coming up in October.

Summer song. 80s style. Good times. Liked the song, but felt like then, and seems true now, that they were trying to fit Aimee into a sex kitten role and she just wanted to sing and play her music.

I remember falling in love with this song (and the video) in the 9th grade.