In the breathtaking video for U2’s new song, “Window in the Skies,” Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye and a shirtless Iggy Pop take turns singing the lyrics on Bono’s behalf.
Instead of The Edge on guitar, you see Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Costello and a very young Keith Richards, back when he looked like a George Harrison doppelganger.
And hey, there’s Vladimir Horowitz playing the piano! And that guy from Wilco on bass! And the manic Keith Moon on drums!
All thanks to the magic of editing and copyright clearances.
The “Window in the Skies” video is a montage that features roughly 100 archival clips of various musicians performing in concert. The footage has been edited so the performances sync up with U2’s lyrics and music–right down to Frank Sinatra conducting the song to its conclusion.
It’s a triumph of postmodern reconstruction, a 4-minute 19-second celebration of some of popular music’s most beloved and influential figures.
U2 seems to have invited the entire Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to its party, and more than a few folks showed up: Ray Charles, Joe Strummer, Smokey Robinson, Patti Smith, Jerry Lee Lewis, Robert Plant, Ronnie Spector, Roy Orbison. They were joined by some celebrated current artists, from Kanye West to the Arcade Fire.
“We wanted to honor these great artists,” says Gary Koepke, the video’s director. “Throughout time, they’ve been playing music and trying to achieve greatness. We wanted to celebrate them and their passion. This video had to happen. And it made itself, basically.”
Well, not really. It took three months and plenty of man-hours to make the addictive video, which has become a hit on YouTube and VH1 and has inspired endless pages of Internet discussion-board messages about who exactly appears in the clip and when. (That’s Lou Reed, not Jim Morrison, at the 44-second mark; Beyonce, not Britney Spears, at 1:47. A rundown of all of the artists might eventually appear on U2’s Web site.)
While Koepke oversaw creation of the video, he left much of the heavy lifting to others–including three young editors who, he says, “wanted a break”: his son, Max, plus David Brodie and Julian Wadsworth.
“They’re all in their 20s, and they love music and embraced this,” Koepke said. “If I’d gone to somebody my age, in their late 40s, they would’ve grumbled and said, ‘You’re crazy.’ The spirit of youth really drove this project.”
Jeff Estow, director of business affairs for Modernista! spent endless hours making licensing deals for the archival footage and trying to secure permission to use the artists’ likenesses.
In making his pitch, Estow says, he told the musicians’ reps that the video would be “a very tasteful homage to artists from across eras and genres who’ve provided particular influence and inspiration to U2.”
Sinatra’s estate attorney signed off on the project almost immediately (it didn’t hurt that Bono had worked with Sinatra before the crooner’s death). Shortly thereafter, Presley’s estate agreed.
“Once that happened, we went to other artists and said Sinatra and Elvis are in the video,” Estow says, “and things really got rolling.”
