By jesus, it's finally back! I hope I am pleasing the four of you who anxiously waited for this moment.

Onwards with the top ten. One by one, I will proclaim my love for, at least to me, the ten best videos of all time. We start with #10 and one legend's final video.


10) Johnny Cash - Hurt
Video

Before his recordings with Rick Rubin and American Records, The Man In Black was almost completely forgotten by the public. His primary focus was not music anymore: It was preaching to the world about God and the ways of God, as well and settling down and spending time with his wife, June Carter, and his kids. But, as we all know, Johnny still had the music bug in him and spent quite a bit of time with the music maestro himself in Rubin and started recording the music that would effectively return him to the spotlight. The "American Recordings" are up there with Cash's best work, a heartfelt collection of covers, hymns and songs he himself wrote that feel truly authentic when coming out of Johnny's voice. His biggest hit from those recordings broke through from the 4th installment of those recordings, "The Man Comes Around". By this time, everyone knew that Cash was not going to be around much longer. This video, "Hurt", is the culmination of the career of the greatest country singer of all time, bar none. Weaving in clips of his past with symbolic shots of an obviously weak Cash, Mark Romanek made a video for the ages. It also takes a very depressing song, Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt", and makes it into something completely different. Even though it is still the same song. Crazy. What makes this video so special is that it, in a way, declares that Johnny has come to terms with the fact that he is going to die. The imagery and the shots of an old, beaten-down, frail Johnny Cash playing the piano are enough to make even the toughest man shed a tear. I don't think i'm wrong to think and say that there will never be another video quite like it.

One more note: The shot of June Carter standing on the stairway, looking down at her husband, is a shot that means even more now than it did when the video was released because June was, in essence, the thing keeping Johnny going and making music and feeling like he has a reason to live. When June died in 2003, Johnny was left without his sole reason of living. He died just a few short months later, after recording many more songs that will appear on the final American Recordings album, titled "A Hundred Highways". If you have any interest in good music whatsoever, you should take it upon yourself to listen to it when it is released on July 4th of this year. You won't regret it. *end of cheap plug*

#9 will be coming later.

Hurt ^____^

At #9 comes the scary german band. No, not Dschinghis Khan, silly, i'm talking about Rammstein!


9) Rammstein - Du Hast
Video

Part of what makes "Du Hast" so special is that it plays out like a a tale of deception. Another part is that the video features a scary german band. Rammstein, as you guys know, is the one band above all else I try to push down people's throats these days. For those who can get around the non-english barrier, I think you'll find some truly amazing musicians here. This was the song(and video) that effectively made them stars in the US. This is one video that truly defies description because I really don't know what the HELL is going on. One moment, it appears the main guy in the video is friends with the boys, the next moment, it appears otherwise. And then it gets COMPLETELY turned on its ass at the end with one of the most stunning endings i've ever seen in any music video. It's not really evil, like most of their future videos would be..it just has very creepy undertones and stunning imagery. Musicially, it's not their finest point, but visually, they haven't done anything better. Yet.

#8 is coming soon. I'm pumping these babies out at a crazy rate now. I might actually have the whole Top Ten up tonight.

(...Nah...)

So far, the top 10 is awesomeness...

Onward with the #8 video, which features three men dressing up and playing cops and robbers...sort of.


8) Beastie Boys - Sabotage
Video

This, my pupils and friends, is the funniest video of all time. Why is that, you may ask? Well, lets see...first off, it has the Beastie Boys playing three old school detectives, looking absolutely marvelous. Secondly, the names. This video is why I like to call quite a few people "Cochese" or, in my own twisted way, "Cocheese". It also features "Bobby, 'The Rookie'", "The Chief" and, in just about the funniest moment in the video, "Fred Jones as 'Bunny'". It also features some hilarious chase scenes and things that cops do. Hell, they even eat donuts! The last shot in the video is iconic, with "Cochese", "The Rookie" and "The Chief" all walking down the sidewalk in Resevoir Dog-like fashion, just calmly walking with their sunglasses on. Try to name one video possibly funnier than this and I will take you down quicker than these three rough and crazy detectives take down their men in the world of "Sabotage".

Alright, I promise, that's the last one for now. #7 will be up sometime. Trust me, it's a doozy.

waiting the next videos
maybe sledgehammer?
anyway, sabotage is so freak

I'm just going to post the next two videos with a few scant comments on what I think. I needed to get to the Top 5 sooner or later.


7) Queens Of The Stone Age - Go With The Flow
Video

A technical marvel. I really haven't seen a video quite like it. And it's so fun to watch too, something you really do not see in videos these days.


6) Pearl Jam - Jeremy
Video

All I can say is that this is arguably the most powerful video of all time. I am still stunned into silence after seeing it, over ten years later. That is staying power.

Trust me, the Top 5 will begin tonight. And I hope you enjoy how much work will go into that Top 5. Until then...start guessing away!

5) a-Ha - Take On Me
Video

Nevermind the fact that a-Ha was really just a one hit wonder here in the States. The video for "Take On Me" is one of a select few that has the right to be called "revolutionary" and "groundbreaking". Many artists have tried to duplicate what the "Take On Me" video pulled off but, for the most part, they failed miserably. What they failed at was trying to recapture the magic. There's only going to be one "Take On Me". It seamlessly blends pencil drawings with live-action shots, including a masterful shot of vocalist Morten Harket and his squeeze in the video, with the pencil drawings and live-action shots coming together like a chain reaction. The ending is also fitting for such a classic video: A happy ending for all. The funny thing is, what brought back my love for this video was the Family Guy parody where Chris gets sucked in. It looks so much like the real thing that I think Seth McFarlane is really a-Ha's fourth member. As the old saying goes, they just do not make videos like this one anymore.

Okay, there's #5 for you ravenous wolves. The Top 4 will be posted by this weekend. Guaranteed. And trust me, this top 4 will NOT disappoint you.

4) Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
Video

We reach #4 and the outright best stop motion video of all time. There are no other contenders, just a HELL of a lot of duplicaters. This year is the twentieth anniversary of the release of "Sledgehammer" and it looks just as good today as it did twenty years ago. This video was also directed by the guy who gave the world Wallace & Gromit, Nick Park. The beginning and ending alone make this worthy of a Top 5 position. If you don't know what i'm talking about, why are you waiting on me to tell you to watch this video? Go watch it, damnit! If you don't find yourself tapping your foot to at least the song, then I declare that you have no soul whatsoever and are the son of the devil. Seriously, it's that good.

EDIT: If anything else, I beg you, like the clay sequence. Sheer bliss.

Top 3 is coming! And believe me when I say that there is a mini-shocker...

I wonder what the top 3 shall consist of...

I know all the videos in the top 3, but if the 1 im thinking of is top 2, i will be shocked

Go With The Flow, Take on me and Sledgehammer are truly brilliant. I dare call them masterpieces, specially GWTF.

10) Johnny Cash - Hurt
9) Rammstein - Du Hast
6) Pearl Jam - Jeremy
4) Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer


greatness

I'm finally back. I'm bored. I'm crazy. My thoughts are going to be a little bit scrambled along at times. And yes, that is normal. Oh, and by the way, here is that mini-shocker...


3) Korn - Freak On A Leash
Video

This is the video that made it possible for this kind of list to happen to begin with. Had it not been for Korn, had it not been for "Freak On A Leash" and had it not been for the video of this song, I might have went in a COMPLETELY different direction than the one I am currently at. Hell, i'd probably be liking Beyonce and Kelly Clarkson just as much as some of you guys. I shudder to think how that would have turned out. But anyway, the video. If you don't know what this video is and what it is about by now, I have not talked about it enough. The imagery is amazing, the small little bit of animation rules(guess who?) and the song that comes with it is completely awesome. And my favorite part about this video? It completely builds up to another video on this list("Falling Away From Me"). That, in and of itself, is amazing.

#2 is coming right up, daddio.

2) Michael Jackson - Thriller
Video(THE COMPLETE ****ING THING.)

What can you say? This is the most influentual video of all time. It made the music video an art form. It made Michael Jackson a LEGEND overnight. This video is so important that most of the videos on this list might not have happened had it not been for "Thriller". The dance sequence with Michael and the zombies is THE most important sequence in music video history. Vincent Price's creepy vocals from the actual song make the video even cooler and the MJ reveal at the "end" are both incredibly awesome(especially the latter with Vincent's laugh), but make no mistake: The dance sequence is the reason that everyone talks about that video being awesome even to this day. And, of course, the plot surrounding the story doesn't hurt either. If you don't like this video, I don't want to know you because you have no soul.

#1 is coming up...and if you don't know what it is by now...well, keep reading anyway.

And here we are, finally. Numero Uno. #1. And it should come as no surprise to the people who know me what my #1 is.


1) Pearl Jam - Do The Evolution
Video

This is the only video I have ever seen that has made me laugh, has put me near tears, has made me look at the video in awe and has made me think in a span of sixty seconds. It is, at the same time, the most gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, in your ****ing FACE video I have ever seen. It is, as the song title suggests, about the evolution of man and how the evolution is not quite flawless. There are so many great scenes and memorable moments in this video that there is no way I can pinpoint just a few. And not only that, but every single scene has some point to it. They don't just throw out awesome visuals for the sake of the animation, they go the full monty and put a reason into EVERY SINGLE SHOT IN THE VIDEO. That is dedication and THAT is why this is the best video ever made. Every shot has a point. Every sequence has a reason. And everything connects in the end. Absolutely flawless in every sense of the word. And, I have to say, the fall of man has never looked so cool.

And that's that. That's the list, it's all posted and I can stop having to worry about people wanting to see the top 3. Another list might be coming soon, so be on the lookout for it. Until then, stay classy.

Glad to see this list finally being finished...spectaular Top 3. BRAVO BRAVO

That "Hurt" video sucks dick and so does that Korn video but the rest of the top 10 is genius!

Huzzah!

Excellent.