According to the band, the music video for Numb was meant to be an homage to Russian constructivist cinema and the video does have the look of the old propaganda films that were put into production during the early days of the Soviet Union. The video also begins with what appears to be the sinking of the Titanic before moving onto all of the other tragedies that occurred around the same time. It may not be a “Halloween song” but the video does have a horror aesthetic.
Numb, itself, is a song that was often played whenever the UK was dealing with a tragedy, like being eliminated from the World Cup.
For today’s music video of the day, we break down the video that the New Musical Express named as being the 16th worst video of all time. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to get … Numb!
0:06 — Drip drip drip. Someone’s in for an unpleasant shock when they get the water bill.
0:30 — Numb is one of the few U2 songs to feature lead vocals from The Edge. The Edge’s real name is David Howell Evans.
0:35 — That’s U2’s bassist, Adam Clayton, blowing smoke in the Edge’s face. Clayton is the only member of U2 not to sing on this track but he still plays an important role in the video, as we’ll soon see.
0:50 — Who doesn’t love a good massage?
1:00 — The Edge is learning that singing lead has its advantages.
1:17 — “You’re not Bono!”
1:23 — Holding the rope in the background is, once again, Adam Clayton.
1:45 — As Clayton ties up The Edge, drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. makes an appearance. It was actually Mullen’s idea to start the band that would eventually become U2.
1:53 — However, Mullen has obviously been overshadowed by Bono.
2:11 — Oh no, they killed the Edge!
2:13 — Hello?
2:15 — Is anyone there?
2:20 — With the Edge apparently dead, now seems like a good time to tell you that Numb was the first single released off of U2’s 1993 album Zooropa, which many consider to be the moment that U2 went from being an energetic group of rockers to the most pretentious band on the planet. Numb, like the rest of the album, is about sensory overload.
2:23 — Numb was originally recorded for Achtung Baby and was called Down All The Days. No one in the band liked the song but they still reworked it for Zooropa.
2:27 — Edge, can you hear me?
2:33 — Larry Mullen, Jr. is the new Edge.
2:41 — Adam considers tying Larry up but realizes that he wasted all of his rope on The Edge.
3:00 — The Edge lives!
3:18 — But with those feet in his face, The Edge might wish that he was dead.
3:36 — The Edge catches the bouquet.
3:51 — That is Morleigh Steinberg dancing in front of the Edge. Nine years after the release of this video, the Edge and Steinberg got married.
4:12 — Just the fact that the fans are using cameras instead of phones proves this video was made in the early 90s.
4:17 — “Excuse me, Mr. Edge, but we have a wedding party coming in so if you and your friends could please vacate the room…”
4:25 — The Edge ain’t going nowhere.
Numb was originally release as a video single, so if you wanted to listen to it outside of Zoorupa, you had to buy it on VHS. Also included on the tape was a video for Love is Blindness.
Today’s music video of the day is the deeply unsettling video for Meg Myers’s Numb.
For the first minute or so, this video reminds me of Office Space. It then goes on to make me think about last year’s controversial Mother! And then, at the end, I can’t help but think about the 2011 Brit Marling film, Sound Of My Voice.
I’ll admit that I’m not very experienced in writing about The Hottie of the Day. The things that move me about women may not be what moves everyone else. Along with that, you have to find something really cool and interesting to say about the subject, when in fact, you’re taking the phrase “Wow, she’s hot.” and expanding on that. Maybe if I get better, I’ll do more.
This may be a tough one, though.
My last entry in this part of the Shattered Lens was Olive Oyl. On seeing John Carter this past Friday, though, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Lynn Collins on the scenes she was in. Playing a princess with a warriors spirit (and an awesome tan), Collins quit smoking and went through a bit of training for the fight sequences. For this, and a number of other example, she becomes the Shattered Lens’ Hottie of the Day for March 11, 2012.
If she looks at all familiar, it’s probably because she’s had a number of films under her belt. Although she had a small part in Joel Schumacher’s “The Number 23” some years ago, Collins may be remembered best as Wolverine’s former love in X-Men Origins: Wolverine. In that film, she played Kayla Silverfox, a mutant with the ability to sway people’s minds via touch. She was later featured in Alan Ball’s Towelhead, as the girlfriend of the protagonist’s father. Ball would later go on to feature Collins in the first few episodes of HBO’s True Blood as Dawn, one of the barmaids at Merlotte’s who had a tryst with Jason Stackhouse. Though her character didn’t last through too many episodes, she made her short stay a memorable one.
Lynn has been in a number of independent films, such as Numb with Matthew Perry, where she had to deal with Perry’s penchant for Kleptomania. She also starred in Uncertainty with Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Collins, a mix of Irish and Native American backgrounds, is married to fellow actor Steven Strait, who was in The Covenant (also with John Carter’s Taylor Kitsch) and Roland Emmerich’s 10,000 B.C.
Here’s hoping that we see a lot more of Collins in the years to come.
On a side note, I wouldn’t mind if it’s her face behind Tali’Zorah’s Quarian mask in Mass Effect 3. That’s just me. 🙂
Through the Shattered Lens 