This is without a doubt one of the best music videos that I’ve seen in a while.
Through a series of images that seem still but aren’t, this video tells a story that …. well, I’m not going to ruin the story. When it begins, you might think it’s just going to be another dramatic lover’s quarrel in a parking lot but it instead turns into something far different. What do the video’s final images mean? I’m not sure that there is a definitive answer. Perhaps it’s all in the eye of the beholder.
I like the mix of glitz and ennui that’s present in this video. When I first saw this video, I have to admit that I mistakenly thought the video had been filmed in several cities in the United States, one of which was I was sure was Las Vegas. I’m really glad that I actually bothered to google “Where was Spector’s Half-Life video filmed” before I wrote up this post because it turns out that I was 100% incorrect.
(See? Everyone complains about Google but, sometimes, it can be your best friend.)
It turns out that this video was shot in East London. Fred Macpherson is sitting in the back of an Uber and having a minor existential crisis as he watches the world pass him by. According to the linked article, this video was very much a bit of a do it yourself project with Fred just riding around with a camera crew who recorded whatever it was that they saw during the drive. That takes a certain amount of courage because, seriously, what would you do if you saw absolutely nothing while you were driving around?
(Myself, I’d probably wonder how I suddenly found myself in Vermont …. I’m joking! I swear, it’s just a joke….)
Anyway, as I said, I like the mix of glamour and insecurity that’s present in this video. Anyone who has ever felt isolated while surrounded by hundreds of people will be able to relate to this video’s theme. This video is for everyone who has felt like they were lost even though they knew exactly where they were. And yet, I don’t necessarily feel that this is a pessimistic video. As long as the journey’s continuing, there’s always something new on the horizon.
From the minute I saw those red curtains, I started thinking about Twin Peaks and the Black Lodge. I don’t know if that was the video’s intention or not. Still, I’m always happy to find David Lynch references anywhere that I look. And, just because you’re in the Black Lodge, that doesn’t mean you can’t be entertained.
I mean, everyone loves music, right?
Myself, I always wished I could play bass. Of course, another part of me wishes that I could play drums. I think I’d be a kickass red-haired drummer.
Continuing yesterday’s Dirty Dancing theme, today’s music video of the day is for Michael Spaulding’s cover of She’s Like The Wind. She’s Like The Wind was written and originally performed by Patrick Swayze and, while there’s official video for the original on YouTube, I think Spaulding’s cover serves as an acceptable substitute.
Today’s music video of the day is a tribute to dead artists, remembered dreams, past memories, and lost love. That really is the way the think about music, isn’t it? We don’t think about what a song has to say or any of that stuff. Instead, we think about what we happening the first, second, or hundredth time that we heard it. Music is all about emotion and that emotion is what runs through this video.
To be honest, when I first heard this song, I assumed that “ride my bike” was a metaphor for something else and a part of my still suspects that it is. I think it can be argued that a song ultimately means whatever the listener chooses it to mean. That’s the collaboration between the artist and the consumer. However, according to an interview that I just read, Maude Latour actually is singing about riding her bike in this song.
Well, okay. That’s fine. I have some issues with bicyclists, mostly because they always seem to get in front of me whenever I’m at a red light and I’m always worried that, when the light turns green, I’m going slam down on the accelerator and run them over before they have a chance to get out of the way. That said, I do like to run and whenever I’m running, I feel the type of exhilaration that this song describes.
The music video, of course, leaves no doubt that the song is actually about a bike. What I like about this video is that LaTour never stop riding and really, what better way is there to survive the end of the world? Keep moving and don’t ask for directions. Instead, draw your own map. Create your own path. That’s what I did and now, I’m very happy to say that it doesn’t even matter that I lost the map a few weeks ago. I’m just going wherever.
This song and video are so optimistic that they almost feel like they should be played at a Marianne Williamson campaign rally.
Listen, we’ve all got a difficult week ahead of us and Monday is always the worst day. So, my hope is that this music video and this song will help you get off to a good start!
Since it’s the 50th anniversary of Woodstock right now, it seems appropriate to share this music video.
This is a cover of a song that Joni Mitchell wrote about the festival. It’s a song that’s been covered by many different groups and, as is typical of the boomer folk music of the late 60s and early 70s, it’s a bit too self-serious for my taste. That said, it’s definitely better than that Big Yellow Taxi song and Miya Folick brings a dream-like edge to her version of the song. When you hear Folick’s version, it sounds like it’s possible that she’s being sarcastic when she sings about meeting a “child of God,” and that alone makes it better than most other versions of this song.
Today is the 50th anniversary of the first day of the famous (or infamous, depending on how you feel about hippies, nudity, mud, and Crosby Stills Nash) 1969 musical festival, Woodstock. Today’s music video of the day is taken from Michael Wadleigh’s 1970 documentary about that event.
Arlo Guthrie was the son of folk singer, Woody Guthrie. He’s best known for the Thanksgiving anthem, Alice’s Restaurant. I enjoy his performance here because Arlo is both playing up to the crowd while, at the same time, remaining rather detached from them as well. He understands the audience and allows them to think that he’s one of them while remaining a bit above it all. (And if you have any doubt, just look at him flying over Woodstock in a helicopter.) It’s the same feeling that one gets from watching Arlo in the film version of Alice’s Restaurant and it makes him a more intriguing figure than the artists who unambiguously embraced the counter culture.
Wadleigh, of course, uses Guthrie’s song as a way to acknowledge that, believe it or not, a lot of weed was smoked at Woodstock.
Finally, it’s a pretty good song. Rhyming “Los Angeles” with “a couple of keys” guarantees that.
Through the Shattered Lens