The other version features Alexis Denisof, trying to win the heart of a young woman at an arcade by winning her a toy ballerina. George and the band appear in a hand-cranked movie viewer.
Like the other version, this video was directed by filmmaker Gary Weis. Along with the videos for Got My Mind Set On You and several short films for Saturday Night Live, Gary Weis also directed the videos of Paul Simon’s You Can Call Me Aland Walk Like An Egyptian by the Bangles.
Got My Mind Set On You was the first single to be released off of George Harrison’s 1987 solo album, Cloud Nine. It went on to become the last of George Harrison’s three number one singles in the United States and the last number one single (to date) to be released by a former Beatle. By a nice twist of fate, it was number one the week that the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Got My Mind Set On You was actually a cover of I’ve Got My Mind Set On You, which was recorded in 1962 by James Ray. “Weird Al” Yankovic later parodied this song as (This Song’s) Just Six Words Long.
The video above features George Harrison’s performing the song in a study while the furniture dances along to the music. Just as that’s not actually George doing a backflip, the video wasn’t shot in George Harrison’s actual study. Admit it, though. If you ever heard someone say, “George Harrison was in his study,” you’d imagine the room looking just like the one in this video.
This video was directed by Gary Weis, who is probably best known for the short films that he directed for the first five seasons of Saturday Night Live, including the famous short where an elderly John Belushi visits the graves of all the other Not Ready For Prime Time Players and marvels at the fact that he outlived them all.
Beatle fans will have a blast watching THE BEATLES: EIGHT DAYS A WEEK – THE TOURING YEARS, director Ron Howard’s 2016 rock doc covering the Fab Four’s career from their earliest club days through the height of Beatlemania, until they stopped touring for good in 1966. The film features rare and classic footage of The Beatles live in concert around the globe, juxtaposing their rise with news events of the day and interviews with all four members.
Howard conducted brand-new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and included archival interviews with the late John Lennon and George Harrison. Through these and behind the scenes clips and press conferences, we get a sense of what it was like to be at the center of all the Beatlemania madness. Ringo says it best: “We just wanted to play… playing was the only thing” far as these talented musicians were concerned, but…
June 2, 1967. The beginning of the so-called “Summer of Love”. The underground hippie culture was grooving toward the mainstream. And those four loveable mop tops, The Beatles , released their eighth album, “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”, on America’s shores, ushering in the concept of “concept albums” that still reverberates in music today. The Fab Four were Fab no more, but genuine artists, with a little help from their friend, producer George Martin.
The Beatles had stopped touring the previous year, tired of the grind and the hysterical screaming that drowned their music out. They had done some experimenting in the studio with “Revolver”, their previous LP, but “Sgt. Pepper” was something different. Martin and the band members, influenced by both The Beach Boys’ “Pet Sounds” and Frank Zappa’s “Freak Out!” discs, utilized then cutting edge studio techniques (tape loops, sound effects, varying speeds) and instrumentations (sitar, harmonium, Mellotron, tubular bells, even…
I have never seen Mommie Dearest (1981), so I can’t speak to the tie-ins with that film. Wikipedia does assure me that the music video is inspired by both the book and the film. That’s actually kind of interesting. I say that because the song can only be inspired by the book since the album this was on came out two months prior to the release of Mommie Dearest. The music video was released at the same time as the film. That means the song and music video were only inspired by the book. This is according to Billboard magazine, circa September 19th, 1981
Going purely off of the music video, it seems to be doing several things. The first being that Joan Crawford was a force to be reckoned with that should strike fear into people’s hearts if she were to suddenly come back to life. I wouldn’t say that part is explicitly directed at her daughter Christina, but people in general. The second thing would appear to be a commentary on stable studio actors who are all waiting to be stars or struggling to hold on to stardom (Crawford and Davis), and having no problem killing off anyone who got in their way. That part being represented by the Catholic schoolgirls who act like vampires. However, that could also all be part of the way Christina was raised by Joan Crawford. That’s what some sites imply. The music video also seems to be saying that the greatest horror is that she lived so much under the watchful eye of her mother that she became her until we see her broken free to be left silently wiping the makeup off her face by the pool. It could be that the entire video is supposed to be one of Christina Crawford’s nightmares. Of course it’s all speculation based on the music video. I have not seen the movie, nor read the book. I just couldn’t resist spotlighting this during October.
The music video was filmed at Beulyland in Los Angeles that was allegedly the former home of silent film star Mabel Normand, also according to the aforementioned release of Billboard Magazine.
Richard Casey directed it, and appears to have only done a handful of music videos before going on to do other work in film.
Though I won’t spoil the movie, I will say that, when this Regina Spektor cover of George Harrison’s classic song started to play, there was not a dry eye to be found in the Alamo Drafthouse.
If you haven’t already, be sure to see Kubo this weekend! Let’s make it the number one film in the country!
(It’s a Sunday night, February 9, 1964. Everybody’s watching THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW to get a peek at this new phenomenon called Beatlemania. The adults in the room are disgusted, saying things like “They look like a bunch of girls!”, “They must be sissies!”, and “Yeah yeah yeah? What the hell kind of song is that??” They just don’t get it. But the six-year-old kid watching along does, and a lifelong obsession with rock’n’roll is born…)
From the opening shot of the Fab 4 being chased down the street by screaming teenyboppers to the final clanging guitar notes of the title tune, A HARD DAY’S NIGHT makes a joyful noise introducing The Beatles to the silver screen. John, Paul, George, and Ringo come off as a mod version of the Marx Brothers with their anarchic antics, guided by the deft hand of director Richard Lester. Shot in cinema verite style, this zany, practically…
4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
In 1978, George Harrison co-founded HandMade Films to finance Monty Python’s The Life of Brian. The company continued to produce films through the 80s and helped to reinvigorate the British film industry. All of the shots below come from HandMade films and credit George Harrison as executive producer.
4 Shots From 4 Films
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979, directed by Terry Jones)
Today would have been George Harrison’s 73rd birthday. In honor of his memory and in tribute to an artist who was taken from us far too young, here he is performing While My Guitar Gently Weeps with Eric Clapton.
My parents used to have some strange movies growing up. Time Bandits is one of those films that I kind of stumbled on, but grew to be one of my favorite British films. It was my gateway drug to all things Monty Python.
Produced by former Beatle George Harrison and his company, Hand Made Films and running off the success of Monty Python’s Life of Brian, Time Bandits runs off of a simple premise. The Supreme Being once had a map of all the points in time on Earth. A group of his servants steal this map in order to travel through time and use it to plunder various historical figures of their loot. Granted, it’s a strange story, but if you’ve watched anything Gilliam’s done, this film actually works (or did for me when I saw it).
Our story opens with a boy named Kevin (Craig Warnock), who dreams of a more interesting life than the one he shares with his parents while watching tv. One night, a set of little people dressed in steampunk attire climb out of his closet and threaten him bodily harm unless he tells them how to escape his dimension. They manage to locate an exit, only to be pursued by The Supreme Being, who warns them to return the map they’ve stolen from him. If I remember nothing else from this film, that one scene will always stay with me.
The crew, led by Randall (David Rappaport) arrive during Napoleon’s time (played quite convincingly by Ian Holm) and manage to become generals in his army after impressing him with a rendition of “Me and My Shadow”. This, coupled with their size helped out, I’m sure. As thanks for being part of his army, they get Napoleon drunk until he passes out and collect most of his loot before finding another time portal and leaping into Robin Hood’s time. Unfortunately for the Time Bandits, Robin Hood (John Cleese) assumes they’ve arrived to give their ill begotten goods to the poor and promptly gives it all away to them.
In the midst of figuring out their next step, the Bandits run into The Supreme Being again and distract him, giving Kevin a chance to escape on his own. However, when two portals open before him, he chooses the wrong one and ends up in Ancient Greece with King Agememnon (Sean Connery), who adopts Kevin as a Prince. Before he can fully enjoy it, however, the Bandits show up and “free” from the time period he doesn’t belong in.
There’s more to the tale, but let’s just say that the Evil Genius (one of David Warner’s best roles in my opinion – he had a knack for playing bad guys) gets wind of the Map and hatches his own plan to acquire it and use it for nefarious deeds.
The beauty of Time Bandits is the world it creates. Though grounded in real time periods, the fantasy elements are pretty interesting, much like Brazil was. Giants who wear ships on their heads, Ogres and creates with cow skulls for heads make up some of the strange visions Terry Gilliam brings to this story. Overall, it’s a fun and unique tale that’s good for at least a late night viewing, and one that I return to from time to time.
Through the Shattered Lens 