Phil Maq

I’m going to pick up where I left off in my last posting. I was ranting about video shows that don’t show complete videos and I want to start out talking about a video that usually gets edited on either the front end, back end, or both. I’m referring to “Walk” by Foo Fighters, easily their best and funniest video since “Learn to Fly” when they dressed up as stewardesses and used a fat suit among other things, and absolutely better than their last one, “Rope.”

The cuts really don’t affect the video, but I think they are the best parts. It starts out with Dave Grohl, wearing a white shirt and tie, looking totally frustrated while sitting stuck in his car in the middle of a major traffic jam. So he starts to look around and read some of the bumper stickers on the cars surrounding him. The camera shows you “Justin Bieber is my copilot,” (ODWITS!) “Thank you President Bush,” (Double ODWITS!!) and “Coldplay.” (Triple ODWITS!!! Man, that last one really hurt.)

Not believing what he sees, he starts to look at the passengers in the cars. Of course, this gives some of the other band members the opportunity to act stupid. He sees somebody picking his nose, an obnoxious couple just continuously giggling with each other, a band member in drag putting on his makeup in a mirror, and the little kid in front of him constantly giving him the finger. He starts to yell and honk his horn. Just when he thinks he can’t stand it any longer, he looks up and sees on one of the steel beams “Punk Is Dead.” That’s it! The ultimate insult! So, he grabs his guitar, leaves his car, and starts to walk. This is where the short version starts.

A series of weird misadventures begins: Dave has trouble with his cell phone reception so he finally throws it in the river, has to confront a party store owner with a toilet plunger because he won’t make change for him, has to protect his guitar from two thugs who want to steal it when he is distracted because he is cleaning dog poop from his shoe (He defends it successfully, by shoving one guy’s face in the poop while the other attacker urinates on himself and then runs away. Yeah, that’s the good stuff!!) and gets hit in the head by a golf ball while taking a shortcut across a public golf course in a spoof of that “free credit commercial.” He goes crazy by taking the golfer’s cart and running him over with it and killing him. (Oh, yeah. Like they really move that fast!)

Now the police are hunting him down while he scrambles to make the band practice that he’s been trying to get to throughout the video. He finally gets there, loosens his tie, and finishes singing the song before the cops finally catch up. After breaking into the building, the police quickly taser Grohl under the chin until he collapses. (Ouch!) He makes some great faces while he is falling down. I love the look on a couple of the band members faces who are laughing at Dave getting tasered. (That is absolutely what real band members would do if it really happened.) This is where the short video usually ends.

The full version has a couple of short sequences where the cops interact with the band. One has one of the officers imitating Grohl getting tasered. The other one has the police trying to take a picture of the band after they have given them their weapons so it looks like the band is pulling guns on the cops. The funny part is because they’re not used to holding them and accidentally juggle one of the guns while trying to gain control of it again.

It is a GREAT song. It’s nice to hear a song with power chords used so efficiently again!  And it’s an even better video! It is the best one of the year so far, and I don’t think anything is going to be able to beat it. If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out.

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Until next time, take care of yourself, and take care of each other!

Peace!

Q