Lenny Flies Away
by
Steven Hunley
Someone should say something about this video so I’m the one who’s gonna say it.
It’s a picture of a party, the most cleverly contrived party on the face of the earth. It’s Lenny Kravitz doing “Fly Away.” PBS uses its music for its promos but not the image. After you see it you’ll know why. So take a gander and gander it good.
The song is superb and like all songs superb it can be listened to over and over, even if you’re still no longer sixteen. And the image? The image is even better.
“I wish that I could fly
So very high
Just like a dragonfly”
It’s a party. Not a snob party in Beverly Hills mind you, a real party without a champagne bottle in sight. The room is tore up, the people are tore up, and not one snob in sight. The girls dance with reckless abandon. Where on earth do they learn to shake like that? There ought to be a law, and if there was, I’d be the first one to help break it. Girls like this deserve to be partners in somebody’s crime. There’s so much partying going on here it should be the Lenny Bruce not Lenny Kravitz, story.
Hey, did that girl just take off her top? I believe she did.
Did that guy just slide his hand over that woman’s shapely rear end? I believe he did.
“I’d fly above the trees
Over the seas in all degrees
To anywhere I please”
That’s what’s so disturbing. These folks are doing just what they please! Is this the American Dream at work? It’s pretty obvious that the people in this video are having too much fun for their own good. Is that a girl running towards a sink to barf her guts out, because she’s used and abused some unidentified ‘controlled substance’? I believe it is.
So realistic is this party and so cleverly contrived you find it hard to tell what’s staged and what’s not. Mostly because you’re so distracted by either the music or the fact you just want to get your butt down there and join in.
“I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” (Thank you Beatles)
Where’s my magic carpet? Where did I leave it parked? That's what happens when your parking valet's name is Aladdin. When nobody's looking he rides it around the block.
To be objective about the musician himself one might mention that Lenny is the handsomest of fellows and knows how to move both his axe and his bottom. That’s always a plus in rock and roll. And it also helps his Hendrixed image that one of his side men looks like Noel Redding.
So next time you want to party or fly away, (same thing) head over to you-tube and viddie this. They’ll let you in. Just tell ‘em I sent you.
This video is suggestive, not subtle, suggestive in the same way a bugle-call suggests a battle.
So it this a story? Not really a story. But you already knew that.
©Steven Hunley 2010
http://youtu.be/EvuL5jyCHOw Fly Away