For a couple of years I had Journey's "Seperate Ways" set as the ring tone on my Blackberry. Full Disclosure: I blatantly stole the idea from Jim Carrey's movie "Yes Man". The song is a catchy 80's power ballad, but it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I first saw the music video. Hoo boy....
It's not like I expected a Journey music video from 1983 to be a Scorsese directed epic - but this video may have been directed by a retarded monkey. The brilliance comes from the blatant overacting, and their attempt to create some sort of story out of the lyrics. Have a look, and then let's break it down - shall we?
0:04 - Air Fingering
0:10 - 0:20 - Dramatic walking (multiple angles)
0:26 - 0:33 - Steve Perry Facial (multiple angles + mullet)
0:49 - Aggressive air drumming in the back
0:54 - Bear Claws and tweed sport coat
0:56 - Where is this lady going? Someone get her a map. Clearly she's lost
1:08 - Journey Mob / Mullet convention. Watch the drummer on the far right - he clearly doesn't know the words.
1:26 - Wall keyboard. Normal. Nothing to see here.
1:38 - Now our mysterious walking woman is David Copperfield - dissapearing behind vans? Let's move along.
1:54 - Easy Steve. No need to start punching the building.
2:14 - Slow motion Zoolander
2:17 - Holy shit. Extreme close up on Steve's mole. Wasn't ready for that.
2:19 - Backwards wood pallet maze? Can't miss.
2:30 - 2:38 - Dramatic people jumping into frame.
2:46 - Nightmares are made of group shots like this
2:59 - She's still lost, but walking with a greater sense of purpose. Basically she's spent the last 3 minutes walking aimlessly back and forth along a single strip of this pier.
3:04 - Oil drum drumbs. Why not.
3:50 - More wall keyboard. Why?
3:56 - I just realized, the drummer's shirt says, "FOOSBALL - Where the action is". Par for the course really.
4:20 - Wait. So at the end, this was all her dream? Her dreams are walking in high heels amongst mulleted men playing their slow motion instruments attached to brightly colored walls? Yeah, I get that one too.
Remember how they always talked about how Michael Jackson spent a Million dollars making Thriller? With a costume crew of 20, semi-famous director, etc? Journey decided to do the opposite. I think it would have been fascinating to be at the planning meeting for this shoot:
"So what's our budget?"
"$40, and free hair spray."
"Have we scouted a location?"
"No, but I bet if we show up behind those abandoned warehouses by the bay...we could get some shots in."
"Great. I have only two requests: 1.) Walking. 2.) Musical instruments are so much classier when affixed to a wall.
"Done and Done."
Rumor has it that the same guy also directed this video:
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