The words she knows, the tune she hums

June 3, 2017 3:28 PM

"To celebrate the 50th anniversary of their songwriting partnership, Elton John and Bernie Taupin gave new filmmakers the chance to create the official music videos for three iconic Elton hits. A panel of industry renowned judges selected three winning filmmakers who went on to receive support from YouTube and top production studios to bring their ideas to life." Choosing from ideas from both around the world and across the creative spectrum, official videos have been released for Rocket Man (animation), Tiny Dancer (live action), and Bennie and the Jets (Choreography).
posted by XQUZYPHYR (22 comments total)

The first two videos were fine, but pretty much standard issue stuff, but that Bennie and the Jets video is something else indeed. That video is a knockout.
posted by gusottertrout at 4:11 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Thanks for these! I watched them in reverse order, Bennie first. Before watching, I was disappointed to see these three songs as their selection when there are so many superb, albeit lesser known tracks from their early oeuvre. After watching: no complaints. The Bennie video is a 21stC re-imagining of 20thC imagining of a future game show [nb: strobing]. It took me a little while to get into the Tiny Dancer vid, but once I connected, I was hooked. Who are these people and are they ok? Then Rocket Man touched me with the simple animations by Iranian illustrator and ex-Calais 'jungle' resident Majid Adin who lived the song as his own metaphor.

I hope more are produced.
posted by Thella at 4:43 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Rocket Man shredded me. Tiny Dancer felt neither here nor there, though it was beautifully shot. Agree that Bennie and The Jets was...something else. Totally mesmerising, and made an old song vividly new to me.
posted by freya_lamb at 4:50 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

After watching: no complaints. The film makers of the first two have reinterpreted each in cultural contexts external to the songs, and the Bennie video is a 21stC re-imagining of 20thC imagining of the future tracked to the song itself [nb: strobing].

Hmmm … that's pretty much what I thought was wrong with 2 of them. I felt Rocket Man was generic 80's video, as well as being simultaneously too literal and yet having little cultural connection to the actual song. Benny & The Jets could've been an outcut from Xanadu for all its (lack of) connection and impact.

I thought, though, that Tiny Dancer was surprisingly good. Madman Across The Water is basically a very "outsider looking in" take on some aspects of Americana, and Tiny Dancer is specifically a Bernie take on bits of California culture.
posted by Pinback at 5:03 PM on June 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was actually distressed how violently I hated the Bennie and the Jets video, with the exception of the strobe effect at the end. I agreed with Pinback's take on Tiny Dancer and was personally engaged enough to be hoping for a happy ending for some of the characters as the song drew to a close. But Rocket Man was my favorite; for me, the animation perfectly matched the emotional tone of the song while evoking contemporary worries about the perils of crossing borders and enduring separation from loved ones.

I guess there's no accounting for taste.
posted by layceepee at 5:27 PM on June 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Rocket Man just gutted me. A powerful interpretation.
posted by gnutron at 5:35 PM on June 3, 2017 [6 favorites]

I went straight for "Bennie," as it's my favorite of the three and liked it a lot. Loved seeing Buzz Berkeley's influence 80 years on. The imagery EJ and BT originally played with, taking off from the glam that was au courant at the time, needed more than literal depiction for a video today, so this interpretation of gender-switching is both of our time and of theirs.
posted by the sobsister at 5:38 PM on June 3, 2017

Not to be the contrarian but Tiny Dancer is spot-on LA...
posted by jim in austin at 5:46 PM on June 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Wow, I'm really glad I watched those. I almost didn't because I'm kinda eh on Elton John, but those were great!

(Did the mom with the baby whose car broke down get picked up later in the video? I AM ANXIOUS.)

Rocket Man almost knocked me over, was not prepared.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 6:21 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Not to be the contrarian but Tiny Dancer is spot-on LA...

I know, and I kept thinking "God, LA is depressing and I'm glad I'm gone".

I love this whole concept, didn't love the videos, but they were interesting. So hats off to that.

Rocket Man was pretty darn good, and beautiful, but maybe a little too literal. But I can't hate it. BatJ just seemed too "Here's a cool video I made before and I'm going to play your song in the background." It was a pretty cool video, but you could put any one of a thousand songs behind it.
Tiny Dancer was good too, but again didn't have much connection to the music for me.

I almost didn't because I'm kinda eh on Elton John

I'm sorry, I don't understand your words. They can't possibly mean what they appear. Did you have the sound turned up?
posted by bongo_x at 7:43 PM on June 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Rocket Man was pretty darn good, and beautiful, but maybe a little too literal. But I can't hate it. BatJ just seemed too "Here's a cool video I made before and I'm going to play your song in the background."

I think it is the opposite. In the 'making of' video, the artist says in broken English:

I have a connection with Rocket Man. I have very the feeling that I miss the land, country, people... Here... life for us... like another planet. Like Mars because we don't know language we can't make connection with the people here. Drawing about, thinking about that, I just... I crying. I don't know why his music give me this strong feeling. I am sure when Elton John wrote this song he has a very strong and correct 'missness' about this something.

posted by Thella at 7:53 PM on June 3, 2017 [2 favorites]

Not to be the contrarian but Tiny Dancer is spot-on LA...

I know, and I kept thinking "God, LA is depressing and I'm glad I'm gone".

I kept thinking "God, LA is beautiful, even when depressing, and I miss my home I wish I didn't have to leave".
posted by Tentacle of Trust at 8:00 PM on June 3, 2017 [3 favorites]

Like Eyebrows McGee, I'm worried about the mom and baby in Tiny Dancer, but more worried about the woman clutching her [AA chip? Patron saint medal?] thing and crying. The video made me very anxious -- I've watched too much TV/movie stuff not to fear terrifying things happening when cameras are following people in cars doing dangerous things. Rocket Man was magnificent and compelling.

But I'm afraid the video for Bennie did nothing for me. In fact, the flashing annoyed me and I had to look away near the end so it wouldn't trigger a migraine. But oh, I think I'll watch Rocket Man again.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 8:11 PM on June 3, 2017

I think it is the opposite. In the 'making of yt ' video, the artist says in broken English:

I had an ill advised acronym in there; BatJ was referring to the Bennie and the Jets video.
posted by bongo_x at 9:05 PM on June 3, 2017

I have never been to Los Angeles, but the Tiny Dancer video seems to evoke everything about it I have ever learned about it from movies, television, and friends who live there.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 9:50 PM on June 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thinking about the videos some more, I think I should have offered a bit more detail in my post since it sounds more cursory than I meant it in regards to the first two videos as I didn't want to give any details away for those who hadn't seen them yet.

I think all three videos are quite accomplished and worth seeing. (And it's an excellent idea of John and Taupin to allow filmmakers to revisit the songs. I'd love to see more in this vein from them and other songwriters.)

The Rocket Man video features some really lovely animation and a compelling reimagining of the context of the song, using an analogy to the lyric in place of a precise literalism. My enthusiasm was only lessened by it rendering the lyrics concrete, aligning the video so closely with the song, which, for me, makes it lovely to watch, but also somewhat erodes the gestalt of the song/video due to how tightly the two work together towards a single meaning, which, while still affecting, makes it a bit easy to digest as a whole with little formal tension.

The Tiny Dancer video goes more with the tone of the song, using LA as its backdrop for its possibilities. The situations chosen are filmed well and redolent with emotion as the viewer is offered glimpses of stories only shown at moments of climax, which lets the viewer come to the own conclusions on connections between them episodes and possible backstories and resolutions. It's the video equivalent of something like an Altman film. It is, again, well done for what it is, but, to me felt too familiar both in setting and concept to really provide an extra spark that raises the sum of both elements to something greater than in basic addition of one to the other.

For me though the Bennie and the Jets video though is something else entirely. First off its so beautifully queer in its presentation without posturing about it needing to provide context for doing so beyond the self evident pleasure provided. The hints of "story" are enough to link the video to the song, and provided me with a pure squee moment when they actually literalized the title in the creation of the duplicates, and again in the spelling out of the names. The story, such as it is, gives just enough information to allow the viewer to individualize the otherwise potentially depersonalizing effect of the Berkleyesque ending, giving Jet a hint of story that then, through example, can be read into the other dancers as well with their movements acting as summary of who they might be.

In that, the variety of different movements, or personalities, the dancers embodied was stunning in their expressiveness in such small doses. It made each dancer feel entirely unique and made me want to see more of all of them. Even the choice of Bennie and the Jets as a choreography piece worked surprisingly well in that way. With a strong slow metronomic beat that plays throughout the song, it wouldn't seem the first choice for a dance driven piece, but it worked beautifully as the dance was choreographed to the image and then the images cut to the beats of the song in timing that sometimes emphasized that major regular beat, while others more to secondary beats, off beats, or musical flow to provide continual variation instead of strict synchronization.

Anyway, I didn't mean to either slight those other two videos as much as praise the last, and, of course, I don't mean this as an argument against those who have other preferences, just an explanation of my own.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:51 PM on June 3, 2017 [1 favorite]

Loved the Tiny Dancer because it was so LA. And rather than depressing, it made me yearn for my own days there, now three decades past -- should never have left. As a benchmark, here's Elton.71 playing Tiny Dancer solo.
posted by Rash at 3:31 PM on June 4, 2017

I can't tell why that L.A. video is so moving, but my goodness! I grew up here and left here and moved back here and recognize every bit of the city and the situations.
posted by goofyfoot at 7:12 PM on June 4, 2017

more worried about the woman clutching her [AA chip? Patron saint medal?] thing and crying.

AA chip. She's fighting hard to keep herself out of the liquor store. The song gives her strength.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 2:30 AM on June 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'm an Angeleno. And Tiny Dancer was fucking splendid. I love this city.

But I suspect were it set in, Philadelphia, say, or any other city that isn't my own; I'd not be taken with it.
posted by persona au gratin at 3:18 AM on June 5, 2017 [1 favorite]

I loved Bennie, felt meh about Tiny Dancer. I had to watch Rocket Man twice and almost cried second time. Powerful!
posted by drunkonthemoon at 12:52 PM on June 6, 2017

Yes, I agree. But as a once and future Angeleno the Tiny Dancer stays with me, and reminds me of other films, these People In LA movies with several protagonists whose stories turn out to be linked. What's missing from my list?

• Welcome to LA (1976)
• Echo Park (1986)
• Grand Canyon (1991)
• The Player (1992)
• Short Cuts (1993)
• The Big Lebowski (1998)
• Go (1999)
• Magnolia (1999)
• Crash (2004)
• Me and You and Everything We Do (2005)

... but not LA Story or La La Land.
posted by Rash at 4:46 PM on June 6, 2017 [1 favorite]