That’s my favourite joke in the video. Though it is a very Chevy Chase thing to do.
It’s about a middle-aged man having a one-night stand. His father just died (Who’ll be my role-model now that my role-model is gone) and he’s looking back at his own life and wondering if he’s made the right choice to get married and settle down (Where’s my wife and family? What if I die here?) or if he should try to break out and start over (I need a photo-opportunity, I want a shot at redemption, Don’t want to end up a cartoon in a cartoon graveyard). So he visits a singles bar where he’s unfamiliar with the scene (He doesn’t speak the language, He holds no currency, He is a foreign man, He is surrounded by the sound) but he meets a woman and they spend the night together but don’t reveal their real names (I can call you Betty and Betty when you call me, you can call me Al). The next morning, he goes to church for his father’s funeral and finds the redemption he was seeking (He sees angels in the architecture, spinning in infinity. He says Amen! and Hallelujah!).
And, yes, I just made all this up.
I noticed that. I thought the thing was shot in one take, but obviously they had time to remove the glass top from the table.
It’s not a table, it’s a stand for the drum.
Yeah, there’s a pretty clear cut at 1:47.
GuanoLad, he sets a glass of water on the “table” made from the stand, then later the whistle flute(?) falls through it.
After taking a drink, Chevy sets his water glass on it. There must have been a top in that shot.
The glass falls through the “table” too.
I’ve been listening to Graceland pretty often recently, and came to the conclusion that the album is a coherent story.
The Boy in the Bubble–opens with a general feel-good-about-life tone
Graceland–the marriage has just ended, and singer is taking a soul-searching trip to Graceland, pondering on where the marriage has left him and what might be waiting for him in his new life alone
I Know What I Know–back to ordinary New York life, where he feels lost and depressed. Tries to get back into the dating scene, doesn’t do very well.
Gumboots–depression while dealing with everyday life
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes–having little romantic fantasies; reading romance novels; dreaming about the good things that are possible
You Can Call me Al–desperation sets in and singer tries a one night stand or a hooker; the names are the false ones they give each other
Under African Skies–begins the real soul searching part of the album. maybe the singer actually goes to Africa to “find” himself or maybe he just gets inspired by Africa, the origin of man, the ancient stripped-down human before the constructs of civilization changed him
Homeless–more of that
Crazy Love–Author has made peace with the failure of the marriage and with going on with whatever life hands to him. He’s still cynical and still angry about the divorce, but not worried about what will happen to him as a person, an identity
That Was Your Mother–omg he’s in love again! Life gets a new chance!
All Around the World/The Myth of Fingerprints–back to the wonder and spectacle of life. Midlife crises over.
Hmm, I guess I’m not seeing that. It looks like he sets the glass down, then it goes to a close-up as Paul does his pennywhistle–as I now realize it’s called–solo, and then in the next take the glass is no longer there. Maybe it’s on the floor and I’m just not seeing it…
I don’t really see it hit the ground, but as he lets it go, you can see that it is falling. Also, well, it’s a drum stand, so the glass wouldn’t have anything to sit on anyway.
What is You Can Call me Al about?
Oh, it’s about four and a half minutes.
I almost completely agree with you, except on this one. I think that if the narrative you outline holds up, you need to take a deeper account of what’s happening in this song. It is not in the lease a “feel-good-about-life” tune. It’s more about the growing alienation between people, the distancing of humanity due to technology.
“The bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio/These are the days of miracle and wonder/This is the long distance call.” The song goes on to reference death overtaking life, then the way people are looking into the distance as one boy is put out of touching distance (in a bubble) and the other child is so far removed from humanity, he doesn’t even have a human heart anymore. Then he immediately contrasts the images of lasers and the jungle–one thing that couldn’t be more artificial with an image that is nothing but organic.
The repeated refrain of “don’t cry, don’t cry” indicates that there is something we should be crying over. Something frightening.
So the album begins with a meditation on alienation and distance going hand in hand with progress, then moves on to the much more personal dissolution of a marriage.
Not bad, except that his role model, “ducked back down the alley with a roly poly little bad-faced girl,” I think…
He picks up the glass from the floor, then without looking he sets it on what looks like a table, but it’s not a table so it smashes on the ground. It’s a throwaway, a very Chevy Chase kind of joke.
bat-faced, I thought it was
And I agree, both the glass and the pennywhistle fall through. At least I remember it that way from MTV, and thinking it was funny at the time. Hard to see it at YouTube resolution.
I didn’t get into the part of how his father had been cheating on his mother (All along along there were incidents and accidents, there were hints and allegations) thus fueling his own consideration of the possibility of cheating on his wife.
I don’t see the glass fall. It’s a very quick cut, but it looks to me like that glass stays up; as if there’s a transparent table top in that shot, but it’s gone later.
Does anybody have an e-mail address for Chevy Chase? There’s ignorance to be fought!
I think the glass gets lost in the fuzziness of the video. If you watch the flute when Chevy puts it down, it clearly falls to the ground.
I’m pretty sure I remember the glass falling through when I saw it on TV.
Yeah, I found a higher resolution video and it looks like the glass falls.
Must have been projecting my own sense of humor on it. I think it’s funnier if there is a tabletop, and then there isn’t.