You're lucky to be here for today's video. It's Good Fortune by PJ Harvey. Count your blessings for the next three and a half minutes.
I'm wondering why I never heard of this woman before. She should have had more mainstream fame.
The entire video is about PJ walking down the street at night. She wears black clothing and starts the video wearing anti-tabloid sunglasses before she takes them off. The song is cheerful and she occasionally does stuff like throw her hands in the air and swing her purse. Heck, I bet if someone poined a knife at her she would cheerfully mace them.
Her song starts with her declaring that she threw away her bad fortune. See, cheerful, because you have to be in control of your life before you're happy. Unless you're dumb. Actually, I think you could fill books on this subject, and that has nothing to do with the song. Anyway, her only regret is not throwing away her bad fortune with her guy. She really likes his boyish smile and they had an interesting conversation early in the morning. She knew she loved the guy. She then mentions a drunken incident in Chinatown, which I'm sure it TMI.
PJ recalls more conversations about mostly hypothetical stuff. The guy must have a great personality for not boring her. Their conversations lifted her spirits and she feels like her life is open to new things. Blah blah blah, she starts getting real lovey dovey by talking about how she can see her reflection in his eyes and she paints stuff to remember him, and you get the picture. PJ dreams of running away with her guy. The song ends with her comparing the couple to Bonnie and Clyde. Of course, she means the romanticized story about them, because otherwise she's in love with a cop killer. That would spoil the song.
The song may get a little sappy, but this woman can really sell it. She has a lot of energy in the simple video and she has a nice voice. Good song.
The awesome thing is the first purse twirl. I defy you to find something better in the video.
3 comments:
I liked the purse twirl, too. My only objection to this video is that this rip of it is a bit dark (lighting wise, not the theme). I couldn't find a lighter version.
I read an interview with PJ Harvey about this album where they noted there sure are a lot of songs about her in New York. Her response was (to paraphrase), "No! It's not my New York album! THIS IS NOT MY NEW YORK ALBUM!" I found that kind of funny.
PJ Harvey has been around for a while, but always just under the mainstream. People who pay attention to music know who she is.
Next up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vd34vJohGXc
Enough with the PJ Harvey already!
Also, for those of you who don't want to have to sit through this song to get to the awesome purse twirl, it occurs at about 1:23 in.
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