Video: Amanda Palmer & Jherek Bischoff – “Mother”
From the “In Harm’s Way” 7″, out now.
“This song and music video are dedicated to the current administration. You will not build walls in our children’s hearts.”
Seems like the actor who plays our orange fuhrer could’ve shaved his Chuck Todd goatee, but who asked me?
Warning for those viewing at work or offended by the human body: there’s brief nudity.
“Mother” is the least subtle song on The Wall and establishes its central metaphor. I can remember the stoners in high school talking about the movie and saying you “had to be high to understand it.” That might be true if you have a half a brain cell to work with but the plot is pretty fucking obvious, and as a guy who was raised by an overprotective mom after his dad died young, I feel qualified and obligated to mock Roger Waters about it. Boo hoo. Poor you.
Of course, as with everything terrible, the current political climate puts a new spin on it. And things that seemed dopey and juvenile now appear insightful and heavy. Being forced to re-evaluate The Wall might not be the absolute worst outcome of the events of 2017, but jeez, it’s certainly the most unexpected.
Amanda Palmer: web, twitter, amazon, apple, spotify, wiki.
Amanda explains: “The lyrics to ‘Mother’ haunted me during the inauguration. There’s a surge in female power right now: Trump and co. can prattle on about how they’re going to build a big, beautiful wall, but the mothers of this nation have a different agenda. We don’t want our children to grow up in a world of fear, separation, and scarcity.
I’ve made over a dozen big-production videos with massive casts and crews, but I’ve never felt this way on a set before. Ever since having a baby I’ve been continuing to work on producing content, and I often bring my baby to recording studios and video sets where it is cheerfully tolerated. But this time it wasn’t just tolerated, it was celebrated.
Everybody on the set – from the film crew to the dancers – stood by the spirit of the script. All of the children cast are children of friends of mine. Chris Wells, who plays “The President”, is an openly gay actor and peace activist and it meant a lot to me to be able to cast him in this role.”
Wells is involved in the video’s shocking final moments, of which Palmer says: “That finale-scene could not have happened if it weren’t for our deep respect for one another; I couldn’t have done it with just any actor and it took a massive amount of trust. Melissa Auf der Maur and Zoë Keating have both been my guiding lights as fellow mothers and musicians. This video is as much an homage to them as it is a statement about the current administration.”
Read even more here.
Video: Pink Floyd – “What Shall We Do Now?” (Gerald Scarfe Animation)
From The Wall.