Friday Night Videos

Happy 4th of July everyone! For the U.S., this is independence day, the one day of the year where we pretend we don't like the British, but in reality just use it as an excuse to eat too much barbecue, drink too much beer and shoot off fireworks illegally within city limits. Whoo hoo!

Beyond that, I'm not sure what Chris Rea's song "Texas" has to do with the holiday, other than the fact that a cliched, stereotyped vision of Texas has come to represent the U.S. in the eyes of much of the world. Unfortunately, the same can be said for the way the rest of the U.S. views Texas, and even many folks who actually live here. In any event, Rea's video has less to do with the song than pretty much any video I've ever seen to any song. What does a U.S. army post in Germany have to do with Texas? Granted, many of the soldiers stationed there likely spent time at Fort Hood, which is undeniably in Texas; and a great number of German immigrants--including Prince Carl Solms, who founded New Braunfels--came from what is now Germany, but somehow I don't think Rea was getting that obscure with his allusions. Maybe they'd already finished a video for some song called "German Family's Car Breaks Down and American Soldiers Give Them a Big-Ass Coke" when the record company decided that wouldn't be a good lead single and instead went with "Texas," forcing them to re-cut the video to fit a different song. Who knows?

Previously on Friday Night Videos... Henry Lee Summer.

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