Aldo Nova - "Fantasy" - 1982
RANDOM THOUGHTS ... This is a great song, and I still crank it up every time I hear it on the radio. Great riff, excellent guitar solo, I could listen to this song all day. Aldo Nova's self-titled album is certified double-platinum, while "Fantasy" peaked at #23 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. The video is a classic, too.
The futuristic intro is about a minute-and-a-half long and it features guns, guitars, helicopters, and lasers. In other words: It's got it all. The plot for this video was so far ahead of its time, we may never be able to fully grasp its true meaning with any accuracy. But I'll try to narrate...
0:01 - It was a dark and stormy night...
0:41 - Aldo Nova arrives via helicopter wearing a leopard-print jumpsuit. My reaction to seeing this for the first time: (Head bobbing) "Yeah, that sounds about right."
1:05 - Abandoned warehouse. Door locked. Key? No. Try the gun butt. Not working. Damn.
1:09 - Nova: "Hand me my Les Paul, please? Careful, careful..."
1:19 - Aldo Nova hits a low E string and fires a laser beam from his guitar that disintegrates the padlock (and, amazingly, nothing else). My reaction to seeing this for the first time: (Head bobbing) "Yeah, that sounds about right."
1:26 - Aldo Nova kicks the door in and hears his own song blaring inside. Lucky for him, it's just starting. OK, wait... so he was locked out of his own concert?
1:34 - Okay, I see the drummer playing a cymbal there... but I don't hear no cymbal. Matter of fact... I don't hear any hi-hat or anything during this whole song! What the hell, did they accidentally edit that out during mixing or something? Except for a few parts (3:09, 4:52) where there's a crash or some ride cymbal, it's pretty much just a bass drum and snare drum the whole time. I find it very odd that there's no hi-hat in this song, and equally odd that I never noticed it before.
1:39 - I'll give Nova a 8.5 out of 10 as he tries to stick the landing here. Jesus, was he shot out of a cannon onto the stage?
2:45 - "The man in the white."
2:52 - Nova winks at a girl in the white, but apparently she didn't get the memo that this is an Aldo Nova video... and that he's Aldo Nova... because she could not be more apathetic.
3:38 to 4:08 - Aldo Nova makes sweet, passionate love to his guitar. There's enough guitar-humping here to warrant an NC-17 rating. Clearly, this is not Nova's first time on stage, because he proves to be well-versed in the areas of guitar-grinding (3:42), guitar-wanking (3:50), and guitar-face-making (4:04). Rumor has it the entire band needed a smoke break after this take.
Frankly, I would have been insulted if he hadn't humped the humbuckers out of his axe. The thing shoots lasers!
3:59 - Does it sound any better when you lick your pick-hand middle finger and then tap it onto the fretboard? Nope. Does it look super-badass in a music video? Most definitely.
4:52 - Nova is touched by the girl in the red and is turned into neon (5:05), thus assuming all elemental properties of the noble gas in perpetuity.
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