The clip for U2′s “Window In The Skies”–a.k.a. “Coldplay In The Chorus”–strings together archival footage of pop stars like the Beatles, Frank Sinatra, and Elvis Presley, sometimes matching their performance with the song. It’s like an issue of Uncut come to life, and a reminder that no matter how many MySpacers and FaceBookers may be infiltrating the zeitgeist, the boomers will never stop with their history-reminding nostalgia trips. We get it, sixtysomethings: Your music was better, your drugs were stronger, your politicians were hotter. Now could you please shut the hell up and go back to greedily dismantling our social-security system?
U2 – Window In The Skies [YouTube]
ok gotta admit that was a pretty clever video. liked the little video flourishes added to the old clips too. also idolator misleading! i was surprised to see all the contempo clips in there.
Wow that actually didn’t suck at all. Ok, the song was pretty awful, but the video was pretty neat. Very clever.
Yeah, there are some perfectly contemporary musicians in it but it still feels like a commercial for the Rock & Roll hall of fame. And LOL at Vladimir Horowitz as the one token classical dude.
Hoo boy.
AND we didn’t do prescription drugs, made for crazy people, for recreation!!
My reading of POPism: The Warhol Sixties (among other books) totally suggests otherwise.
Also, honestly, speaking as a good liberal who opposes the Iraq war, I think the draft being off the table is hardly an unalloyed good for a whole variety of reasons.
“the boomers will never stop with their history-reminding nostalgia trips.”
Did you miss Morrissey, Beck, Kanye West, Beyonce and the White Stripes?
What I find funny, is this is the video that can only be made by either the richest band in the world that can afford to buy the footage or an indie band (Negativland?) that doesn’t have a record company getting on their back about getting sued.
I’m surprised — it was pretty clever. And really, anytime you’ve got a U2 video void of Bono endlessly mugging for the camera is a good, good thing.
Based on the evidence of this video (and his Sinatra and Marley tributes, and that Elvis song, and that Billie Holliday song, etc.), I’d say Bono really gets off on the totemic power and iconicity of musicians — isn’t it strange for a (quasi-?)Christian to engage in such idol worship?
They couldn’t get 40-odd famous people to dress in black and lip sync?
Maybe it was outside of Danzig’s touring radius…
There is a clip of Wilco in there
I would be interested to hear what Negativeland has to say about the whole thing
So which cell phone company is going to rip that song for its Super Bowl ad campain first? Verizon? My vote is AT&T. They were kings of this during the long distance carrier wars of the mid to late ’90′s.
Also, when did Bono and Robin Williams start looking alike? Probably around the same time Kevin Costner started to look like Jon Lovitz.
Gods, they’re unbearable.
The music was great NOT better, the drugs were less expensive (because self centered, greedy pukes DIDN’T run the drug business! AND we didn’t do prescription drugs, made for crazy people, for recreation!!) and the politicians sucked just like todays – they even had the same cronies working for them back then! AND it’s because we DIDN’T “shut the fuck up” that you haven’t been drafted and shipped off to Iraq or Afganistan!!! Sooooo, STFU!!!
well the choreographed dancing was certainly better