First, let me say that I really like the song itself.  Yes, I like power ballads.  But I also like good, solid hard rock songs too, and this one has got about as much hard rock edge as it’s possible to get in a declaration of love.  I guess that’s one of the measures of what makes a good metal/hard rock band–can they take love as a topic and really rock out?  Whitesnake certainly does exactly that on this song.

It’s not a terribly complicated video, but the Vegas theme works.  Combining that with the extra filter that gave the video a desaturated color palette could have been too much, but it works well with the casino setting.  It gives the video an almost vintage feel.

A visually pretty video combined with a great song?  Well, that’s about all I ask from a music video, and this one delivers.

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I do remember actually seeing this video for the first time on TV back when it was released.  I had left the TV tuned to VH1 Classic, and went into the kitchen to get breakfast.  When I first heard it, I really wondered why it sounded like Ozzy–and then I realized what it was when I came back in and saw the TV, and saw the actual video.

Speaking as someone who is a fan of both Ozzy and John Lennon, I really liked this video.  It really felt like a tribute to me.   I really liked the way that Ozzy handled the song–he did it straight, but with real feeling behind it.

The video itself is one of the best music videos that I’ve seen in quite some time.  The production is so simple, but yet it manages to tell a complete story.   The song itself is a great tribute, but it’s not complete without the video.  The images of the walk through New York City to Strawberry Fields in Central Park are what really makes the video for me.

I have to say, out of the many tributes to Lennon last year, this was one of the few that actually moved me.

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‘Let Me Hear You Scream’ was the song that originally prompted me to buy the CD, but I hadn’t actually watched the video.  This was one song that I heard about the old way–on the radio in my father’s truck.

The pacing in this video is really good–it matches up with the flow of the song almost perfectly.

And the imagery used in the video is pretty cool.  Unlike ‘Let It Die’ this one is more elaborate and includes   This kind of thing is part of the reason why I still enjoy watching music videos for heavy metal songs.  This is still one genre where the music videos are still creative in terms of their content.

I also really enjoy the way they included a ‘making of’ clip for this video, which is also worth a watch, especially with a video like this one that’s so heavy on computer-generated effects.

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The visual effects on the video make it look like part of a horror movie to me.  And I think that really works well with the hard and heavy sound of the song.   I especially like the juxtaposition of the more organic video effects with the high-tech, distorted sound of the lyrics in the song itself.  The two distortions, visual and audio, play off each other and link the video to the song itself.

The subject matter here is pretty basic; it’s a classic performance/studio video.  However, they throw in just enough of those distortion effects on the video, especially in the beginning, to make it stand out as a music video.

And sometimes, a simpler video is better. In this case, the song itself is really strong, dynamic, and aggressive.  It doesn’t need a fancy video.  The song carries itself, and the video just illustrates it.

I especially like the shot of Ozzy framed by fire right around 1:30 into the video. Now that’s rock ‘n’ roll.

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I actually like this one better than the last couple of videos that Bon Jovi has put out.   It’s a definite improvement over the last major video that the band did; the video for ‘Superman Tonight’ really just didn’t work for me.  I mean, I understand the point that Jon was trying to make, but I thought that it just kind of clashed with the song itself.

This time out, the video stayed on-topic and worked together with the song, and I think the effect was much better.

Ordinarily, I’m not a fan of the all-black look; I think I complained about that back when Bon Jovi performed at the Grammys.  You tend to lose the band members, especially if the background is dark as well.  However, they made good use of lighting effects here, which really kept the band from fading into the background.

Keeping the color palette muted during the segments that show the band puts the focus on the band members’ faces and on the segments of the video which actually tell the story.  In this case, I think the all-black look really helps reinforce the narrative elements of the video, and it actually works very well.

This is probably the best video that Bon Jovi has released since ‘Make a Memory’.

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First off, it’s not in black and white, which is a relief. Bon Jovi has a tendency to over-use black and white as an effect in their videos. This is just a straight-up concert video (which shouldn’t be a surprise, seeing as how it was recorded at the show in Dallas about a month ago).

The visuals are mostly what I’d expect to see on the big screen at a show, actually–just shots of the guys, blending in and out. There’s an occasional shot of the audience mixed in, which is a good move; it really reinforces the live feel of the video.

I would actually have liked to see Richie get a little more face time during the solo. (Usually during live shows they show Richie or a closeup of his hands during the solo. Great for the Richie girls, but it does tend to deprive the girls in the back from seeing some of the dance moves that Jon does during the solos.) In this case, with Jon dominating the screen during the verses, it would have been nice to see Richie during the solo.

That being said, Jon was hot. That sweaty slice of chest on display was just plain gorgeous.

All told, I thought that this was a decent video. A bit of a back-to-basics approach. Performance videos have usually worked out well for Bon Jovi in the past. This one shouldn’t be any different from the others.

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I know it’s been out for some time, but it just didn’t seem to be a priority for me to get around to watching it. That’s actually kind of odd now that I think about it, since Superman Tonight was one of my favorite songs on The Circle.

I watched the version of the video over at bonjovi.com. I initially had some trouble with the video loading. However when I played it a second time it worked fine.

All told, I found it to be a rather unremarkable video. Most of the background imagery with the tunnel and the lens flares echo the cover art from the album.

The video explores the wealth of small-scale heroes in everyday life. Whoever came up with the concept of the video (and the person who directed it) did a nice job of paying tribute to all of the heroes of everyday life. I’m sure that the concept originator was most likely Jon–this seems like one of the many ongoing influences from his charitable work to carry over into the band’s music. It’s good to see at least some musicians drawing inspiration from positive sources rather than purely negative.

Jon’s hair on the other hand, not so good. It’s better than it had been, but I stand by my assessment from the Grammys–it’s starting to look like politician hair. Richie did look great though, keeping up the streak started with the video for ‘We Weren’t Born to Follow’. If Richie keeps it up, he might be able to steal me away from Jon completely…

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Fortunately, the video includes the new solo, and with Richie’s rework it seems to have been cleaned up quite nicely. Even with an actual solo, though, I still think Jon’s yell of “Guitar!” right before is kind of ridiculous, and it still strikes me as being something more suited to a Poison song.

At least this time the primary video of the band is in color, and the black and white is restricted primarily to the marginal images. Since many of the chosen images of “nonfollowers” are only available in black and white, this was more of a necessity than an artistic decision. However, the inclusion and use of the black and white video footage seems to have been carefully considered and is well-balanced. (I’d still like to see Bon Jovi go for a whole album without using black and white for any of the videos.)

Jon and Richie are both looking good in the video. Richie had been looking rounder again, but he seems to have slimmed back down. Also, being happier seems to work for him; his face doesn’t look anywhere near as drawn as it had for awhile. That alone makes Richie look much younger. Jon’s hair in this video is better than the poofy thing he had going on in the TBS ad. It could still be longer, though, but that’s my personal preference.

Also, does anyone else find it ironic that they titled the song “We Weren’t Born to Follow” and then set up the video like a rooftop concert, which is only one of the biggest cliches in rock that I know of? Couldn’t they have come up with a setting for the video that was slightly more original? I realize that by now somebody has filmed a music video in almost every conceivable location, but there has to have been somewhere more original where they could have filmed this.

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Interestingly enough, the second paragraph of the article is quite complimentary, praising Jon’s ability to fit his music to what’s currently popular. I don’t think I’d call It’s My Life ‘computer rock’ though. It’s more of a pop/rock influenced song. (Now, One Wild Night 2001, on the other hand, is definitely dance or technica influenced–but that’s not the song that they referenced.)

Unfortunately, they blow it in the third paragraph. I’m not sure how they can claim that the video for Midnight in Chelsea is remotely relevant to the beginning of Jon’s career. Destination Anywhere isn’t anywhere close to the beginning of Jon’s career. It isn’t even his first solo album!

All that being said, it doesn’t detract from enjoying the video. If anyone still goes to MTV for music, this should introduce a few new people to what Jon can really do when given the chance.

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When I saw that the video was animated, my first thought was “what is this? This is not metal!”

But I gave it a chance, and as it turned out, the video does get more metal as it goes on. Also, the song itself rules. The lyrics are classic Sabbath/Dio, and it rules. Also, unlike a lot of music videos, at least they bother to make the video look like it belongs with the song.

I’ll be interested to hear the rest of the album when it comes out. This is starting to sound more and more like a must-have for my music collection.

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