(Or, at the very least, we all like to think that we’re a mess. Being a mess always makes for a more interesting story than being relatively unmessy and satisfied with life. Just consider, for instance, the current freak-out of Twitter, a site that basically found popularity as a place for people to brag about being a mess.)
I’m a fan of any video that features people who are emotionally lost in London. While Avril contemplates in the sunlight, Yungblud wanders through the city.
Actually, this video feels even more appropriate today than it did when it was first released in 2011. This video was meant to symbolize not only Britney’s career (up to that point) but also the Britney herself had returned to reclaim her superstar status. Today, of course, it feels more like Britney has returned to reclaim her life.
I’m just going to say it. The Lenny Kravitz version of American Woman is a hundred times better than the Guess Who version. I know that some people have criticized Kravitz for stripping away the film’s political subtext but I’ve listened to the original song and the politics were dumb.
As for the video, I want Heather Graham’s car. I also like this video because it reminds me of my cousins. The Bowman family reunion in Arkansas is always home to a lot of motorcycles and a lot of American flags.
Another Day In Paradise is one of two songs that Phil Collins has recorded about the homeless. (The other was Man On The Corner.) When this song first came out, Collins was accused of being a wealthy and condescending rock star who was more interested in singing about a problem than actually doing anything to solve it. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Collins responded to the criticism with, “When I drive down the street, I see the same things everyone else sees. It’s a misconception that if you have a lot of money you’re somehow out of touch with reality.”
The video, which juxtaposes Phil singing with images of the homeless, was directed by Jim Yukich, who did the majority of Phil Collins’s and Genesis’s videos in the 80s and the 90s. The scenes of Collins singing were filmed in New York City and were completed in under an hour.
I am fairly certain that I’ve heard a version of this song in which George H.W. Bush is heard giving a speech about the homeless. I cannot find any official online confirmation that it exists but I know it’s out there somewhere.
When this music video first came out, it was one of the most expensive music videos ever made. It was also one of the longest. Axl Rose plays a singer who marries a model (who is played by real-life model Stephanie Seymour, who was dating Axl at the time.) Their marriage ends tragically. This video is often described as being a sequel to Don’t Crybut I think that, even though they’re based on the same short story and are thematically connected, Rose and Seymour are playing different characters here than in the first previous video. Seymour and Rose split up after making this video, which meant that the concept for the third video in the projected trilogy, Estranged.
Slash’s signature guitar solo was filmed in New Mexico. The scenes inside the church were filmed in Los Angeles’s St. Brendan Catholic Church.
This is a video that I used to laugh at but, as I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to better appreciate its themes of loss and regret.
This is the video where Slash murders his girlfriend and then laughs about it.
Sure, there’s a lot of things that could be said about this video. It’s the first part of an unofficial trilogy of videos in which Axl Rose struggles to come to terms with the loss of his girlfriend (who, in the video, is played by Stephanie Seymour). Axl said that the scene with the gun was inspired by something that actually occurred between him and his ex-wife, Erin Everly. Everyone remembers the scene where the three Axls confront each other and also the epic girl fight at the piano bar. This video is also remembered for the sign reading, “Where’s Izzy?” Izzy Stradlin felt that the music videos were a waste of money and declined to show up on the day of filming. He would soon leave Guns N’ Roses.
But, in the end, this will always be the video where Slash drives over a cliff. As the guitar solo proves, Slash managed to get out of the car but apparently, his girlfriend wasn’t so lucky. It’s a weird scene but it’s also a fair portrayal as to how many people viewed Slash and Axl Rose within the context of Guns N’ Roses. Axl was the frontman who could sing everything but who also wore his vulnerability and instability on his sleeve for all the world to see. Slash was rock ‘n’ roll. Nothing got to him as long as he could keep on playing.
The older I get, the more I appreciate Guns N’ Roses. Say what you will about the self-indulgent nature of some of their albums and videos, Axl can sing and Slash can sure as Hell play.
This is the second video for the Pet Shop Boys’s West End Girls, updated for the age of lockdowns. In 2020, you could still sing about the girls in the West End. You just couldn’t leave your house and go down there to see them.
Through the Shattered Lens 