In today’s music video of the day, the Albanian rapper Mozzik goes to prison and it turns out that prison in Albania is just as tedious and soul-destroying as prison in America. Fortunately, he can always escape to his dreams.
Or, at least, that’s what I assume is happening in this video. I don’t speak a word of Albanian. But one of the great things about both music and the visual arts is that sometimes, you don’t have to speak the language. You just have to open up your mind to the emotions and the images.
This video was directed by Mozzik himself and he did quite a good job! I especially like the surreal scenes of Mozzik thinking about being free.
I remember, when I was like 14, I got up early in the morning and I woke up my sisters by shouting, “It’s Ash Wednesday, bitches!” My mom was not amused. That said, Ash Wednesday is one of my favorite days. I just love the ritual of it all. Of course, I also usually wash my forehead fairly early in the day. That’s allowed, by the way.
Now, before anyone leaves any snarky comments, I fully understand that David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes is not actually about Ash Wednesday nor are the ashes mentioned in the song literal ashes. I understand that but hey, this is a good song and David Bowie certainly does look happy in this clip. Around the two minute mark, he takes the time to praise the backup singers, which is a pretty classy move.
I like to think that this song was directed at whoever it was who convinced her to appear in New Year’s Eve.
I’m happy to say that no one in my life sucks right now. In fact, I’m about to go on a two week vacation with my favorite person in the whole wide world. Fear not, though. I may be gone but I have a lot of posts written out and scheduled to publish until I get back. So, I’ll be on vacation and yet, I’ll still be posting reviews. I often think about this because it’s actually a pretty common occurrence for me to write out a review and then schedule it to publish way later in the year. So, if — God Forbid — I were to die over the next two weeks, I would still be posting reviews all the way through 2021. It would be like my ghost telling you what movies to see …. FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE! That’s kind of neat.
I watched this entire video waiting for a zombie attack or something similar but it didn’t happen. That came as a shock to me because I guess the movies have just preconditioned me to expect any happy day at the beach to end with either zombies or, if it’s a Jean Rollin film, vampires.
Anyway, even though this video doesn’t end with the carnage that I was expecting, the shots of the beach are still nicely atmospheric. The beach shots reminded me a bit of the incredibly depressing scene in Under the Skin where a couple is drowning in the ocean and the only person who around who is capable of saving them is killed by Scarlett Johansson. (Seriously, that scene gave me nightmares.) Don’t ask me where this video was filmed because I don’t know. I’m not an expert on beaches. The closest that I regularly get to the beach is when I go up to my cousin’s house at Lake Texoma. To be honest, most beaches kind of look the same to me. It’s like water, sand, and a bunch of rocks. Sometimes, you might see a jelly fish wash up on the beach. Just the thought of that freaks me out.
One thing I like about this video is that you can read the lyrics while listening to them. As someone who is notorious for mishearing lyrics, I appreciate that. Seriously, I used to try to sing along to songs and people would give me such a hard time because I always ended up getting the lyrics wrong. It was really upsetting and it made me associate many great songs with tears and injured feelings. What’s especially annoying is that my misheard lyrics were often a hundred times better than the actual lyrics.
Of course, to be honest, I’ve never been one of those, “You must listen to the lyrics and ponder what they’re saying about life!” type of music fans. When it comes to music, my main concern is whether or not you can dance to it. I used to have a friend who would force people to listen to songs from certain artists and, while you were listening, you weren’t allowed to speak or dream or anything else. Instead, you were expected to listen to the lyrics so you could discuss what they meant. After a while, it got to be pretty annoying. There’s only so many times that you can say, “This song is about the futility of war and institutionalized misogyny,” before you get bored with it. The last straw, for both me and many of the members of our social circle, came when she got involved with the Occupy Wall Street people and she expected everyone to start listening to folk music. I was like, “Unless there’s a big beat remix of If I Had A Hammer, count me out.” There’s only so many times that you can listen to that Turn, Turn, Turn song before you just want to go off and become the most committed capitalist ever.
I’m still in my disco mood from hosting last Saturday’s #ILikeToWatch live tweet so here’s Yvonne Elliman singing If I Can’t Have You. Technically, this is less a music video and more of a guest appearance on a TV show but, in the 70s, that’s as close as many songs got to getting a music video.
Yvonne Elliman also played Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.If I Can’t Have You was originally written for the Bee Gees but was given to Yvonne after the band decided that they couldn’t make the song work. She did a great job with it because this is one of those songs that you could just listen to a hundred times a day.
I have to admit that, as much as I love this song, I find myself thinking about South Park whenever I hear the lyrics. “Kick the baby!” “Don’t kick the baby.”
I also have to admit that the main reason why I’m sharing this video today is because, earlier on Saturday night, I hosted a Punk v Disco party. It’s hard to say which one won. Punk started out strong but disco rallied quite a comeback during the final 30 minutes. In the end, I’d have to call it a draw.
Anyway, Rock The Boat was reportedly the first disco song to ever make it to number one on the charts in the United States. It holds up pretty well, doesn’t it? I’ve always like the fact that you’ve got that chorus demanding that the boat by rocked and there’s that one, lonely voice saying, “Hey, let’s not do that. Let’s not tip the boat over just yet, okay?” If I ever find myself in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean with a bunch of other people, this is the song that I’m going to sing to cheer everyone up.
As for this video, I assume it was done for television. Don’t ask me what show they were appearing on. I just like the song and the dancing.
It’s a great video for a great song performed by my current favorite band, Saint Motel! The video was directed by A/J Jackson, who is also the lead singer. (I nearly called him the “adorable lead singer” but, to be honest, the entire band is pretty damn adorable.) Saint Motel has always been as much about the visual arts as it’s been about the music. I saw Saint Motel live just a few weeks ago and seriously, they’re great. It was a fun show and if you ever get a chance to see them, take it!
I should also note that this song was apparently inspired by a night that the band spent in the town of Van Horn, Texas. I’ve actually been to Van Horn and this video does a pretty good job of capturing the place. I get the feeling that I may like the town a little bit more than the members of Saint Motel but no matter. It’s a good song and a good video and the dog is cute.
Through the Shattered Lens 