Life of Illusion
Life of Illusion
Space Age Whiz Kids
"They will never forget you 'till somebody new comes along"
1948-2016 Gone but not forgotten
Life of Illusion
Wow - I came here and saw all these votes for Life of Illusion and realized I'd better try to make my best case argument for it now. I don't know if some of these votes are strategic or not, but I'll do my darndest to try to convince folks that this video is more than just footage of a junkyard.
Life of Illusion is one of my favorite songs and videos. I love how they expanded on the album cover’s theme to make the video. It seems very appropriate to the song for me. At first it may come across as just another one of Joe’s silly videos, but there is a lot more to it. In fact, I believe this is Joe’s most clever and artistic video even if the backdrop isn’t a beautiful, sophisticated fine arts museum. To me, it was wise decision to have the backdrop of the junkyard to propel the song's message of how confusing real life can be. I also love how this 'wall of confusion' (i.e. the junkyard} is used as a contrast to all of 'nature's little surprises' symbolized by the effective use of illusions in the video. Or to quote the song's lyrics ...
"Oh, how nature loves her little surprises
Wow! It all seems so logical now
It's just one of her better disguises"
IMO, all of the imagery and illusions that are going on are very well done. I particularly like all of the ‘bird’ imagery. At the beginning of the video there is a whole flock of birds in the ‘neighborhood’, but you see the birds eventually all fly away - perhaps a desire to migrate to a more suitable environment. Then, throughout the video, you see several ‘bird’ illusions until at the end, there is a single bird flying around that also turns out to be another illusion - maybe just another one of “nature’s little surprises”. Another part I really like is how they show 'the director' directing where to place things. I love the irony of trying to organize the chaotic 'wall of confusion' especially when Joe steps up to the camera to check things out.
Now, I appreciate that some folks may disagree on how effectively the video represents the message of the song, but I simply can't buy the argument that the video doesn't carry a message at all. So, I'm hoping that, at least, I've given folks something worthwhile to consider here.
"People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016
Thank you for the nice analysis, Dreamer. I evaluate the videos at face value - production values, images, effort by the artist and director, creativity, originality - basically how much I'm enjoying what I'm watching on the screen and how it shows off our guy. I don't know why "the message" of the video is unimportant to me. I'm sort of viewing them in a vacuum, separate from the song lyrics or the song itself, even with the sound turned off sometimes.
I don't know why I don't ascribe more importance to what the video is "trying to say." I care more about how it looks. Does this make sense?
This makes perfect sense to me, MC. Each of us has our own criteria for how we rate songs, videos, etc. and most all of them are valid. I want to stress that my post wasn't meant as a criticism or judgment on those who don't like the video, and I hope it wasn't perceived as such. It's all subjective and we each like what we like. My argument was designed to persuade those who hadn't really given it much thought or who haven't made up their minds. As I said in my post, I totally understand if someone wants to debate the merits of the video, but I do take issue with the notion that it has no message and is nothing more than a thoughtless and effortless extension of the album cover photo shoot.
"People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016
I see what you're saying, Dreamer, and it's really cool that you can get all of that out of the video. I think you might be putting more thought into it than the actual video makers, though. While there are moments where the way the footage was edited does work with the song, the footage itself still looks thrown together to me. Obviously, I'm missing something!
I vote Space Age Whiz Kids. It,s just too "busy" for me, although I like the comparison of the old & "new" games.
"People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016
My vote goes to Space Age Whiz Kids.