Here's what happened: My brain had gone from thinking about The Lady From Shanghai to remembering the existence of Shanghai Surprise – that Madonna and Sean Penn film nobody saw – so I decided to look up a trailer for it, and found out that George Harrison the Beatle had written the film's score and that there was a music video for it, so I decided to start watching that, and I say start watching because it was... well, it was subtitled for a start, so I can give you a taste:
It was here, just as Harrison sang "hot for me like tofu" that I paused the video to check how much more was left. Guess...
Three minutes.
I'd already watched two.
This was a five minute long song. My sweet lord. Isn't it a pity? I'm not going to post the whole thing but if you want you can find it here. (There is one good bit where Vicki Brown sings "You must be crazy. And you got no money. And you're a liar." I like that lyric.) Anyway, next to that video was a thumbnail for something called Crackerbox Palace courtesy of George Harrison's own youtube channel...
(Does anyone know who owns Dummy Princess Margaret these days – not that I fancy her?)
I'd never heard of Crackerbox Palace, and it turns out I don't really know Harrison's solo stuff as well as I thought, so I decided to check the channel out, beginning with this sketchy, star-studded (not filled, just studded) phantasmagoria...
I'd assumed any video would come as a relief after Shanghai Surprise, but uninterrupted peace did not descend upon me as I watched this. I definitely wanted to share it though: It's shorter than Magical Mystery Tour, and grittier than Zardoz. And doesn't George smile like David Byrne? But now I wanted to find a video I could genuinely love, I wanted that peace. (Why not just listen to the songs, Simon? Shush.)
So, next up I watched the video to This Song which had a similarly Carollian and unironed look, but was set in a courtroom, here, and I began to be reminded of early Madness videos, which made me realise what I'd been missing: fun. I wasn't sharing the fun.
Next up... Of course! I'd completely forgotten about the seven-minute long video put out to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of My Sweet Lord!
Rewatching it I remembered why. Yes, it has Fred Armisen in it. And John Hamm! And Nate's Natalie Palamides! (Oh man, I keep meaning to post about Nate.) But all these celebrities and clowns, they don't... they're just in it... they don't... It was like Crackerbox Palace all over again, except the video had nothing to with the song. Was this for charity?
It really looked like George Harrison's music videos and I were just never going to be friends. There is a happy ending however. A video had also been put out to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Isn't It A Pity? and that's what I watched next, and last. I love cartoons. Peace descended. Journey's end. Hot tofu forgot. This is really lovely. Thank you, George.
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