Glenn Frey Music Video Survivor

[Peekaboo]

Geeze!! I have really missed out on playing this game. I've finally gotten caught up on reading all of the posts up to this round. It was fun reading about everyone's opinions about each of the videos. I'm sad that i missed out on the discussions. I have only myself to blame.

I made a list when i first started reading all of the posts and marked off the videos accordingly. I realize i'm coming into this game when the decisions are getting more and more difficult for everybody and they are definitely not any easier for me. I've taken into consideration how much i like the song as well as the quality of the video and how much the video relates to the song. I think the remaining videos definitely do a good job of all of that but as much as I like this song, the video has never appealed to me much (with the exception of Glenn's hotness of course). My vote is for YBTTC.

[Koala]

I cast my vote for You Belong to the City

[Ive always been a dreamer]

OMG - It looks like it's time to try to form a coalition to save You Belong To the City. Now, maybe it's not as romantic as Soul Searchin' or River of Dreams, but it is an exceptionally well done video. IMO this is the most artsy, sophisticated, original, and creative of all of Glenn's videos in the way it tells its story and does not deserve to go down this early. And if I haven't convinced you yet, then take another look at Mr. Frey's hotness ...





So please hear my plea - Save You Belong To the City and ...

Vote for Soul Searchin'!!!

P.S. I can't believe I just wrote this because I love the Soul Searchin' video, too. It's just not as creative and well done as YBTTC, IMO.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

And OBTW thanks for the well wishes on my 5,000 posts. I'm going to carry my celebration over to Frey Fever. That is what I had planned to do originally, but the other night when I was posting the results of the last round, I was having issues with my pc and messed up the immunity question. I had to "waste" a post to explain that so I hit 5,000 earlier than I had planned.

[Prettymaid]

I agree 100% with everything Dreamer has said about YBTTC. This video, although it doesn't have the literal storyline like Smugglers Blues, packs a punch when it comes to visuals. The camera pans past the sax player to show the city skyline at night, then through the window into an apartment where Glenn sits alone with his Siamese cat, all the while with the slow sax intro of the song playing. Then comes the steady, driving beat of the song, and Glenn is on the move, walking through the city. Not since the beginning of the movie Saturday Night Fever with John Travolta has the image of someone walking to the beat of a song been so explicit. The constant motion of people out on the streets is haunting, as is the music, as Glenn continues to walk restlessly through the city. I won't go on with my analysis of the plot, as Soda does an excellent job here.
http://www.glennfreyonline.com/solo/moviestv/ybttc.htm

YBTTC is a clever, artistic video and does a great job of matching the images on the screen to the mood of the song. It certainly deserves to stay around longer than Soul Searchin' and The One You Love. PLease consider our arguments as you vote.

I cast my vote for Soul Searchin'.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Thank you, PM - yeah ... that's what I was trying to say!

[Glennsallnighter]

I'm voting off 'Soul Searchin' this round, not for any deep, profound reason or anything but simply when given a choice of the final 4 videos its the one I like least. I mean I DO like it, but I just prefer the others. Ironic, as I've just and FINALLY managed to buy/win the SS song book on ebay.

Rebecca, Belated Happy Birthday......

And Dreamer! Congrats on your 5000th post. I'll do it 'properly' in Frey Fever later!

[sodascouts]

I love You Belong to the City - as PM and Dreamer have already said, the urgency of motion, the striking visuals contrasted against Glenn as he goes through the city, moving with that relentless throbbing beat, driven by the city, driven by his need to be immersed in it. (And yes, he's hot - don't hold it against him that he makes smoking look so cool in it. )

I like romantic videos too, but this one is something different and unique - something more sophisticated. Something is missing in his life and he's desperately trying to fill the void by losing himself in the culture of the city, in the music, the scents, the life... ironically, the fury that surrounds him soothes him. It's like his cigarettes - both stimulating and relaxing, always addicting. And like an addiction, he can't step outside of it. It's driving him, controlling him in a way. He's moving to a relentless beat and he can't help responding to it. He immerses himself to the degree where it's sliding over his consciousness until he just isn't thinking anymore - it's just like a dream. He can feel safe in the midst of the people who don't pay any attention to him, free to attempt to deal with his own demons, to try and get away from thinking about the things he's done... if he can.

I also find the interaction between Glenn and the woman intriguing in its nontraditional approach - she pursues him, at one point actually grabbing his wrist to keep him from getting away. Perhaps she symbolizes the inescapable lure of the city to a man who "belongs" to it. He may try to stay away, to get away, to resist, but in the end he is seduced by the city and surrenders to its power over him. Once he's let himself become immersed again, he revels in it. It's a hunger to him, and I think his psychological need is being symbolized by physical need. Even in the song that happens, with his driving desperation being described in terms like "You can feel it. You can taste it." The desire for whatever he's getting nearer, and I don't think he even knows what that is, drives him onward.. all the while to that beat, that ever-pounding beat that just gets more intense as the sax builds. He welcomes the intensity of it all. He can make it; he can take it. He craves it.

And in the morning, he wakes up and gets ready for it to "start all over again."

Obviously, this is all just my interp! I'm sure the video comes across differently to others. I, however, find its representation of the psychological addiction to city life fascinating.

[AmarilloByMorning]

To behave in a manner befitting a completely petulant five-year-old, I cannot believe you people are attempting to vote off my absolute favorite music video of all time. This is not merely a superlative employed to win an argument - it was the very first video I hunted down on youtube, the video I keep trying to purchase on iTunes, the video that evokes beautiful imagery in my mind every time I notice something teal. Is it dated? Perhaps the Miami Vice clips are, and the horrid dress and teased hair the Femme is trapped in. Is Glenn's acting a bit forced? I suppose, but I still adore '80s teen movies regardless. Deleting all the screencaps I've saved for the sheer joy of flipping through them or creating livejournal usericons would completely negate the necessity of an external hard drive for my laptop. The song is always in the Top 25 of my iPod because listening to it invariably calls the video to mind, and I meander into a hazy, smoke-filled daydream about wandering through the streets of Milwaukee with my high school boyfriend after seeing Phantom of the Opera for the first time (not that this means anything to you, but...). Anyway.

So... The Top Fifteen Things I Adore about "You Belong to the City"; or, Why You Shouldn't Vote It Off.

15. The image of the guy playing a sax against a steel blue sky pricked with lights of unknown origin is rather fantastic.


14. Glenn turning off the telly before departing through revolving doors. Yes, I’m childish, but I’d love to hop in and run circles with him. It’s good sport, really. And he has a very nice meander, I might add.


13. The smoke-interrupted-by-taxi image from :43-46, coinciding with the first low swoop of the sax after the beat arrives. What symbolism: nope, the city doesn’t give a hoot about you or anything you’re attempting to do with your life.

12. Easter Egg for Monty Python fans: doesn’t Glenn’s silhouette against a store window conjure images of John Cleese robbing a lingere shop? I can almost picture Glenn in a striped suit: “Well… Just a pair of knickers, then!”


11. I love that the girl actually follows him out of the bar and hails him as he’s attempting to hail a cab. (Didn’t you learn anything from It Happened One Night, Glenn? Gotta show some leg.) Kudos to the casting department, too; she’s gorgeous but high-class enough to make the obvious one night stand seem inevitable as opposed to sleazy. The video leaves you invigorated instead of laced with a fervent desire to shower.


10. The two beats before the first chorus (1:45-46), when the camera swings around in a blur to convey the fast pace of a downtown area. I remember almost squealing with glee the first time I saw this video, perceiving it as an indication that the video fully intended to proceed on all cylinders.


9. The look on Glenn’s face as he watches the girl snub another guy at the bar beneath the vocals “…still just a face in the crowd.” Anybody else feel like bounding up behind him for a hug?


8. Glenn gazing out the window despondently, restless to the core. Welcome to my Wednesday nights as a teenager. Adored this one so much I used it to make the Glenn panel of my avatar.


7. The indisputably fabulous sequence starting at :35 with striding strides purposefully to the beat of the song. This could have comprised Exhibit A for criminal charges of “Hokey to the Extreme” but, as Prettymaid stated, instead manages to highlight the song's inevasible backbone.

6. Instead of employing some coy imagery or acting out the song at its zenith, the video features a rather peculiar fellow folding himself into… a pretzel? Who knows. Welcome to the city – don’t ask, just keep walking.


5. The pensive, quasi-Sophocles moment at the end. The video actually tells a story – a young fellow who followed his restlessness onto the streets, experienced an evening, and marched back into the harsh morning to start all over again (to echo soda's sentiment).


4. The girl’s little hop at 4:09, as though she’s indulging in the preschool game of avoiding cracks, and the way Glenn kind of pauses to watch without interfering.


3. As someone reared in the heart of a Midwestern city, this video so adeptly depicts urban life words cannot even describe. One must navigate a street in the manner of a video game, deftly circumventing breakbeat dancers, Vespas helmed by people who may or may not actually know how to steer, bike riders who assiduously ignore traffic of any sort, agonizingly slow tourists, haughty businessmen bustling along with their noses elevated…


2. The Look. The jacket with jeans and sneakers. Carelessly open shirt. Yeah, he’s cool; and he’d like that tooled on something in gold, please.


1. The phenomenal cityscapes – my favorite part of cities! Cruising around at night or perching atop a high altitude to survey the illuminated who-knows-whats, wondering what each prick of light represents, what’s happening in that window, where those red dots are going. This video always seemed a loving tribute to his city of origin, and succeeds with exemplary style.


All right... clearly, I'm a bit out of control. All apologies. To summarize: I adore "You Belong to the City" and (not quite politely) plead that it not receive premature termination. [Insert audio of knuckles cracking menacingly.]

I also cast my vote for Soul Searchin'.

[Prettymaid]

6. Instead of employing some coy imagery or acting out the song at its zenith, the video features a rather peculiar fellow folding himself into… a pretzel? Who knows. Welcome to the city – don’t ask, just keep walking.

I almost brought up this shot too, but didn't really know what to say about it, except for the fact that the camera angle is great. Thanks for reading my mind.