Tuesday , March 9, 2010
All-Time Top 5 Reasons Why "Hello Goodbye" by The Beatles is the Best Video Ever Made
I. THE DANCE SEQUENCE, THE WAVING-AT-THE-CAMERA BITS, AND EVERYTHING BEFORE, AFTER & IN-BETWEEN
What I mean is: If you've never seen the "Hello Goodbye" video before, you should probably watch it now, as it's maybe the most happy-making thing you'd could possibly do right this instant. What I also mean is: Imagine what a more beautiful world it would be if everybody took "Hello Goodbye" Video Breaks instead of coffee breaks or cigarette breaks? If that was the way you "recharged your batteries"? Like, in the middle of some shitty-hectic day at the office, your pal Susie from accounts receivable would buzz you for a quick chat and you'd be all, "Yeah, cool, just come with me while I watch the 'Hello Goodbye' video" - and then you'd do just that, and afterward you'd both feel totally refreshed and ready to take on the day! And after work you'd probably still feel amazing enough to plant pink daisies in a community garden or calculate an algorithm for world peace. Try it for a week and see what happens. You can probably drink your coffee and/or smoke your cigarette while you watch, even. (Liz)
II. THREE MINUTES AND THIRTY-THREE SECONDS OF RINGO STARR BEING MY FAVOURITE BEATLE
For a long time, I claimed that Ringo looks like a "robot mouse" in the "Hello Goodbye" video, but I have since changed my opinion, because 1) I think it's dumb to write about robots, and 2) I think "mice" is a really pedestrian choice of rodent to say a Beatle, or anybody, bears resemblance to. The truth is, Ringo looks like a gopher in the "Hello Goodbye" video. Actually, he looks like a "tot gopher", which is a term I just invented to describe Ringo Starr's physical appearance in the "Hello Goodbye" video, especially at 1:47, when he shakes his head and smiles. I mean this as an extreme compliment. Also, on "Hello Goodbye" day, Ringo Starr was having the greatest hair day of his entire life.
Richie's such a champ for being the Beatle who agreed to wear the pink Sgt. Pepper suit. He works it. Dudes should take sartorial cues from "Hello Goodbye" Ringo more often, and wear tons of pink. Once, I was on a drug, and I was hallucinating in my head, and I imagined the Ringo album cover came to life, only instead of "RINGO", it said "RINGO IS PINK." It only now occurs to me what my subconscious was going for. Neat! (Laura Jane)
"Ringo, I Love You", by Bonnie Jo Mason, AKA Cherilyn Sarkisian, AKA CHER
III. PAUL'S INCESSANT CAMERA-FLIRTING
Remember when I said Paul's only sexy when he's got a beard? I LIED TO YOU! Turns out Paul's also kinda sexy when he wears his blue satin suit and bounces his knees while pointing at himself. And he's really sexy when being filmed from the right and making major bedroom eyes at the camera. (Seriously, those shots give me a tummy ache kind of, 'cause I feel like he's going to ask me out on a date or something.). And the part at 1:32 when he widens his eyes and then makes that "I'm deflating!" face? Kills me! Sexy comedy is so sexy! And comical! (Liz)
IV. THE GEORGE HARRISON SHOULDER-SHIMMY
Probably the weirdest thing about George Harrison in the Beatles is that he always looks like he is about five years older than he actually is. For instance, George Harrison in the "Hello Goodbye" video is twenty-four years old. That's my age! Ridiculous, George. I know what twenty-four year old dudes look like: five years younger than you. I once mentioned this wild George Harrison Age Phenomenon to my Mother, who posited that perhaps George is old-looking due to his being "spiritually advanced," but I believe my Mother is giving George Harrison too much credit here. My take on the George Harrison Age Phenomenon is that George looks old because he is dour. That's why they invented the word "dour"- to describe George Harrison's dour personality. Similarly, I would venture to guess that this is why they came up with the word "sexy", too.
Being dour and all, George Harrison is a very unfunny man. But something cool about unfunny people is that when they do anything which is remotely funny at all, it becomes hilarious. George Harrison proves my point at 3:21 into "Hello Goodbye", when he shimmies the paisley silk jacket off his shoulders while looking dour in the face. It's the only time over the entire course of the Beatles when George Harrison is funny/non-sexy, as opposed to sexy/unfunny. Another cool point about Hello Goodbye George is that at around 1:11, you get a really sweet close-up of his acne, which proves that he was not lying about being twenty-four after all. (Laura Jane)
V. JOHN'S ACE DANCING SKILLS
For instance: That move at 3:02 is almost exactly the same as the stupid thing I do whenever anyone commands me to dance. And I get really happy when John does The Twist, 'cause it's probably the same as when I dance like Ally Sheedy in the "We Are Not Alone" scene from The Breakfast Club: It's us dancing the first dance we ever thought was cool, and it's beautiful. I also swoon a little when John points to the camera all dramatical-like at 1:37 (even though I guess that doesn't really qualify as a dance move) and when he and Paul do their slapstick-y holding-hands-and-spinning-around thing toward the end. In short, the "Hello Goodbye" video is The Most I'll Ever Relate To John, except for those hungover November mornings where I walk down the street playing "Gimme Some Truth" on repeat and feeling so hotly combative/self-righteous. (Liz)
VI. A SHINING MOMENT OF JOHN/PAUL SYNCHRONICITY
Sometimes (every second of my life), I wish that Elizabeth Barker and I could travel back in time to Twickenham Studios in early 1969, where we would encounter the Beatles dourly filming Let It Be. Barker and I would then entice John and Paul into leaving that bullshit hell situation for a couple of hours, and the four of us would travel to Paul McCartney's apartment, where we would drink fifty billion bottles of wine, and have a little "conference."
"Look, boys," we'd say, "We are here to teach you that it is perfectly easy to have an entirely functional John/Paul relationship. It's time for you to realign yourselves with the obvious truth that you both think almost everyone on the planet sucks compared to you except the other one, so why don't you just STOP being such bitches to each other, and own up to the fact that your Lennon/McCartney-esque synergy is a thing of great, great beauty?"
And then they'd GET IT, and hug probably, and such is the story of how Laura Jane and Liz saved Let It Be from being, in the words of the late, great John Lennon, "the shittiest load of badly-recorded shit with a lousy feeling to it ever." But my real point here is that the best part of the entire "Hello Goodbye" video (IT EVEN TRUMPS THE SHOULDER-SHIMMY!!!!) occurs at 2:36 in, when Paul starts stomping his left foot in the John Lennon Clap Your Hands/Stomp Your Feet way, and then John notices and stomps his right foot in time with Paul's, and it reminds you that they are BFF pally-pals who loved each other more than anything, except themselves. Which is something we all need to be reminded of, from time to time. (Laura Jane)
Tags: Barker loves the Beatles, dourness, George Harrison, hallucinating, Hello Goodbye, Hello Goodbye Video Breaks, John Lennon, Laura loves the Beatles, Paul McCartney, pink daisies, Ringo Starr, sexy comedy, time travel, tot gophers, world peace
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Posted by Liz in The Young Person's Guide to the Beatles |
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7 Comments!!
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Got something to say? We'd love to hear it! Name, email and "type in the weirdo drunken text" thingie are all required to comment; don't worry, we won't email you or anything, we just want to make sure you're not an evil spambot. Keeping in mind the good-times mentality we like to keep going here, we've worked hard to keep NOGOODFORME.COM as fun as possible. We welcome all kinds of comments, but insults/abuse/general bitchery are not tolerated. In other words, we put the smackdown on evil troll posts. If you want to be a hater, please go elsewhere. Now, as Salt 'N Pepa say, "Only the sexy people..."
Oh my god! 1:32 was my LIFE for the longest time. That's initially the first thing that ever made me fall in love with Paul McCartney.. and I haven't looked back.
By s on November 6, 2009 6:38 PM
Hey, now. George had a lot of funny lines in Hard Day's Night. Admittedly, it was all funny-dour, but still...
By Monty on November 7, 2009 1:00 AM
I don't know if I'm OK with George being called dour. Watch this video and tell me George doesn't have a sense of humor. Come on now.
By Kristen on November 7, 2009 4:17 PM
To each his own Beatles opinions!
By Laura
on November 8, 2009 12:22 PM
I think the pointing at the camera thing was a very brief Elvis impersonation.
By missjulied on November 8, 2009 8:32 PM
ah! neat.
By Liz
on November 8, 2009 10:52 PM
its goood good pts....like on the airplane you can smooze for 8 hours they can t go nowhere unless they jump out..................................
By cheap jerseys on February 5, 2010 3:45 AM