Tuesday 9 October 2007

I'm Just A Poor Boy, Nobody Loves Me

There is only one song that i can think of that references Scaramouch, the fandango, Galileo, Figaro and Bismillah and it has just been voted as the best video ever in an O2 poll.
For it's time it was a cracker with the famous image of the four upturned faces of the band members singing along to the Faustian plot line of the song.
Almost a third of those quizzed in the survey said the video for the rock opera-style song was their top choice.
Michael Jackson's Thriller came second with 13% of the vote, just pipping Justin Timberlake's Cry Me A River, which received 12%.
Now i don't want to knock Bohemian Rhapsody and i know it was groundbreaking and ushered in the age of music video's but was it the greatest ever?
The song is definitely worthy of topping any best song list but apart from the Scaramouch section, it is mostly the band on stage with Freddie at the piano.
My personal top choice for best music video would be REM's Caravaggio inspired video to 'Losing My Religion' based on a novel about an angel who falls down from heaven and how his finders lock him up and display him as a freak show.
AS Freddie himself said, magnifico-ooo-ooo-ooo.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm not a huge fan of videos, but I like the ones Peter Gabriel has done.

Paula said...

I haven't seen enough music videos to opine, but I LOVE Bohemian Rhapsody!

Kos said...

As much as I can't stand the song, Aha's "Take on Me" was a crazy good video. Same with Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing."

Falling on a bruise said...

Sledgehammer by Gabriel and the Aha video with it's mix of live and animation were both very good but i can't remember the Dire Straits video but it does remind me of Live Aid and Sting singing the 'I want my MTV' bit at the start.

Cheezy said...

The 'Losing My Religion' video was absolutely superb... I always picked you for a 'November Rain' girl though, Lucy! :D

Some of my favourites span the surreal ('True Faith' by New Order) to the surprising ('Smack My Bitch Up' by The Prodigy) to the scary ('Come to Daddy' by the Aphex Twin).

I think common consensus is that the music video - as an 'art form' - hasn't really progressed from its 80s/90s peak, so that might explain the preference for those oldies. Plus, that Thriller one was pretty cool :)