Perhaps you've heard of The Beatles, a well-known musical group from the 1960s. The Beatles were innovators in a lot of areas, of course, and they are sometimes identified as pioneers of the first modern music videos for the clips they made starting in 1966 with "Paperback Writer" and "Rain".
While a lot has been said about the Beatles foray into music videos in the 1960s, I feel like sometimes people forget that the Beatles stepped into the video world, decades later, in the height of the MTV era - and made it out unscathed. So today we're watching the video for "Free As a Bird" from 1995, directed by Joe Pytka.
"Free As A Bird" is a single off of The Beatles Anthology
Director Joe Pytka had a huge challenge ahead of him. This was a song by the most famous band in the world and only three of the members were alive. The existence of the song in the first place was controversial, so the video would definitely be scrutinized. His solution was pretty clever: the entire video is from the perspective of a bird (who is presumably, ahem, free as a bird), as he swoops in and around scenes that are teeming with Beatles references both very clear and some that are deeper.
My favorite story about this video is that we never see the bird because nobody coud agree what type of bird it should be. That seems like par for the course when you have three music legends (and one Yoko Ono, who was involved creatively) working their first project together in decades, and this video is a really clever defensive move because of the simple fact that the concept is designed to be extremely flexible. So if George Harrison wants a sitar in the video, he gets a sitar. If Ringo wants and elephant, there is plenty of room for one.
This video coud have very, very easily been a complete disaster with three ex-Beatles and Yoko Ono all phoning in their demands. If the concept hinged on one or two key details, like what type of bird it is, there might have been a gridlock.
The video itself definitely works as a Beatles nostalgia piece. It has a collage feel, with film from the 1960s mixed in with new footage taken at authentic Beatles locations, and I'm pretty confident the decision not toshow any living Beatles as they were in 1995 (besides George Harrison, who plays the ukulele with his back turned to the camea at the end) was the right choice. It doesn't really hold a candle to their 1960s videos, but it fit the situation very well.
The references in the video are beyond the scope of Music Video Relapse, but someone's list from 1995 still exists on the internet here. Helpfully, the references are broken down into obvious, open to interpretatin, and long shots. Also, this list is compiled from watching a VHS tape of the video, which is my favorite part.
