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Friday, February 20, 2009

Friday Morning Videos: "Beat It"

Well, if I'm going to tip my hat to the big, famous, popular videos, how can I ignore Michael Jackson's masterpiece, arguably the most influential music video of all time? I can't; it's just that simple. Look at it today: it's camp, it's narcissistic, it's silly. But man, it rocks. Remember all those crazy rumors we all used to share with each other about this video, some true, most false? That Eddie Van Halen performed his guitar solo for free because he was honored that Quincy Jones gave him a call? That the choreographer had gone out on the streets of LA, and rounded up actual gang thugs for the story-line? Heh. For a short while there in the early 80s, it was all Michael Jackson's post-racial world; we were just living in it.

2 comments:

The Modesto Kid said...

most influential

And let us not ignore "Beat It"'s offspring "Eat It", maybe Weird Al's finest hour.

Russell Arben Fox said...

Well, insofar as his music goes, I would disagree; "Eat It" is very good, but he's come up with some musical parodies both before and since that I think have it beat. But as a video? Oh yeah, "Eat It" is probably Weird Al's magnum opus.