The official (and my first) video from my new album Beautiful Sounds.
What’s It All About, JC?
A few people have had the audacity to ask about the ‘plot’ of the video. Having seen the dawn of MTV (you know… back when they actually played ‘videos’) this puzzles me. Plot? We don’t need to show you no steenkin’ plot. We need chicks wearing only enough clothing to cause a massive yeast infection. And maybe some cars. Or leather jackets. And mousse. Lots o’ mousse.
The storyboard (such as it is) — is concerned with the hypocrisy of the war; as well as various other things in our culture. While the war goes on (the battle footage) one guy just sits and calmly reads his paper; another guy barbecues; and still another dances because, well the beat is pretty groovy. Two guys with guitars play in the background — they’re ‘the band’.
The guy dancing just appreciates the groove. This is like so many ‘protest’ songs I’ve heard over the years that people just pumped their fists to. It’s no better or worse than some idiot listening to Travis Tritt song extolling the virtues of America after 9/11 or Jimi Hendrix doing the Star Spangled Banner. People get all worked up viscerally whether it has any real ‘meaning’ for them or not. They just like the way it makes them ‘feel’.
The guy reading is like so many of us who don’t feel at all. We read the paper every day and see another story about another 1,000 people who died somewhere, of something and just move on. For most of us? I think that’s been the war. It just didn’t hurt enough.
The guy at the BBQ? He’s one of my Talk Radio pals. Or maybe he listens to NPR and Air America. Doesn’t matter. He’s outraged! Throw the bums out! On the other hand, he’s just cynical enough to believe that nothing he does can possibly make a difference. But not so cynical that he can stop himself from ranting. So he does nothing much more than keep on a grillin’. Or shopping. Or watching another terribly interesting speaker on the horrors of what’s going on ‘over there’ before we get in our car and go home. I think that’s most of us.
So long as no one actually ‘does’ anything? No matter how indignant you are? You’re no better than the guy who dances. Or the ‘insensitive’ guy who reads his paper. And that’s why I think this song is relevant–even though the war is old news. It’s apparently only ‘important’ if it’s news. My guess is that, no matter what crimes you may think have occurred in Iraq? By whomever? The real scamming is going on now. Now that the spotlight is off, imagine what can be gotten away with. And that’s why they (whoever ‘they’ are) keep getting away with it.
About The Look
I had very few resources to work with but I didn’t want to have some one shot of me lip synching to the song against a green screen. I wanted this to stick out from what people usually see on YouTube. So I came upon the idea to use the cartoon effects to make each character a 2-d caricature. Only the war footage is real and therefore three dimensional.
