MMV: You’re My Best Friend

This week’s Monday Music Video selection is “You’re My Best Friend”, the 1975 song (and 1976 video) by Queen. Off of the legendary A Night at the Opera album, there really isn’t much for me to say about the video. It’s Queen, so you know it’s great. And chances are everybody’s familiar with the song (at least, everybody over the age of, say, 30.) And the video, as with most of Queen’s videos from that era, is a simple but elegant performance piece. It’s beautiful, it’s well done, but there just isn’t a lot for me to discuss.

There is, however, a bit for me to say about how this week’s video was chosen. So watch Freddie Mercury sing, and then we’ll talk a bit about a certain list that I’ve been working on for a while.

MMV: Dreams

“I paid my four bits t’see the Freep… and I’mma gonna sees the Freep.” — Yosemite Sam

Leading off with a Van Halen reference yesterday led Bruce (Spikor) to paraphrase the above classic cartoon quote, so as a form of appeasement, this week’s Monday Music Video is a 1986 selection from 5150. I know, I could have gone with 1984′s “Jump”, as it’s a better known song, but I like throwing in a surprise now and then. And “Dreams” is certainly a good song to go with as well.

MMV: Manic Monday

It’s the beginning of the week, time for the Monday Music Video. Now, I’ll grant that even though I just plain missed last week’s, I’m still not really “ahead” on these. In fact, my recent period of sleeping things off has left me with a lot to catch up on. Some reviews to write, movies to watch, and of course a lot of blog posts to read. Not to mention some non-blogging stuff I need to be doing. So there’s a lot to be done.

But isn’t there always? It’s just another manic Monday.

MMV: Jailbreak

This week on MMV, we’re dialing the Wayback Machine just a bit further back than usual… all the way to 1976. Yes, well before MTV debuted in the United States. Another piece of music video history is covered, this time with a familiar bit of hard rock from a well-known group of Aussies: AC/DC’s “Jailbreak”.

MMV: Never Gonna Give You Up

Today is April 1st, also known as April Fool’s Day, the day of the year when absolutely nothing on the internet can be trusted — as opposed to every other day of the year, when a whopping 3% of the internet can be trusted. It’s a day for pranksters and tricksters, where practical jokes abound. Last year I waxed poetical about Hercules in New York, but this year April 1 falls on a Monday, so it’s time to talk about a particular music video related prank.

I could, of course, segue into a video of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” here. But what kind of person would do that?

MMV: Do the Bartman

This week’s MMV selection was made due to a simple time constraint; it’s near to midnight, and I need to be up early in the morning, so I wanted something easy to talk about. That doesn’t mean I’ll be giving it short shrift, though; merely that, as a musical performance, “Do the Bartman” is rather easy to research.

I’ve also got a bit to say about the random selection list, which took up most of my weekend prep time and isn’t quite finished yet. But more on that after the video.

MMV: Land of Confusion

Now here’s a song that just turned up on my radio and reminded me of a very distinctive music video. Technically, it reminded me of two; the song was eventually covered by Disturbed, and released as a single with a music video animated by Todd MaFarlane. But for today’s MMV, I’ll be going with the version I heard on the radio, the one I remember from my youth: the original “Land of Confusion”, by Genesis, from the Phil Collins era.

MMV: Don’t Worry, Be Happy

I’m still working on compiling some lists of top songs and videos to use as random fodder for the Monday Music Video, and I was a bit stuck on inspiration for today. (This is probably something I’ll get better at as time goes on.) So I thought I’d take a page from radio stations, and see what was important in “this day in music history”. As it turns out, March 11 was apparently a pretty quiet day all around. Except that in 1950, a certain sound-effect-making singer was born: Bobby McFerrin. I apologize in advance to all of you who are going to get this stuck in your heads all day, especially those who don’t want it there. But you know, there’s probably a saying that applies to that.

MMV: Don’t Come Around Here No More

The selection process for the Monday Music Video will vary from week to week. Sometimes it’ll be pure whim, whatever catches my fancy, or just a random roll of the dice. And sometimes it’ll be suggested by something. Maybe something relevant, or just an off-hand comment. This week, an offhand comment by Fogs at Fogs’ Movie Reviews got me to thinking about Hollywood and fantasy — or rather, Hollywood and fairy tales. He was talking about the upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful, and how he hoped it was better than the recent Alice in Wonderland, also by Disney. Now, that had its fans, but I stayed away from it… I’m not a big Tim Burton fan. But the comment got me thinking about another take on Alice in Wonderland, one that is arguably even more surreal than Burton ever got. So here are Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, with “Don’t Come Around Here No More”.

News Bites: Pilots and Planes

It’s Friday morning, and time for another weekly dose of entertainment news. This week’s news bites include a healthy dose of mighty Marvel Movie news, a little speculation on Green Lantern, some other sequel news, and a little bit of talk about television and music. So while the movie talk may be pretty fantasy-centric, overall it’s a pretty well-rounded batch.