Most modern music videos have large budgets, catered food, back-up dancers, costume changes and a camera cut about once every .5 seconds. Some of them allegedly have plots, but they tend to be difficult to follow with all the distractions. This is a tribute to five videos that are ridiculously simple in premise, but are more memorable than most videos made in the last 10 years, that had much bigger budgets.
The Rolling Stones’ “Waiting on a Friend” has a pretty basic plot – Mick Jagger waits on some steps, Keith Richards meets him there, and they walk down the street to the corner bar where Ronnie Wood is waiting. That’s it.
In Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Looking Out my Back Door”, the band sit around and play the song…and smile….a lot. That’s it.
In the Beatles’ “Something,” the four lads goof around in a park with their respective ladies. That’s it.
In the Clash’s “Rock the Casbah,” the band sings and bounces around in an oil field while an Arab hitchhikes with a Jew and goes to a Burger King. There’s an armadillo in there for some reason too.
In Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You,” the lad dances in front of a couple cool lights in a ridiculous sequined suit. I’m guessing MJ’s wardrobe constituted 86 percent of the budget on this one.
