Friday, April 22, 2011

Nine YouTube Clips That Depict Mt. Rushmore as a Barbershop Quartet

A tribute to Mount Rushmore by the members of Deep Purple

Here they are! Georgie! Abie! Tommy! Teddy! Performing their greatest hits! (Seriously, it's amazing how much of this stuff there is.) I'm not sure why, but one day I decided to check YouTube to see if there were any videos which in which the giant heads on Mount Rushmore start singing. Boy, were there ever! Here are a few....

1. "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)"



What could be more all-American than... uh, this Scottish pop favorite? This clip employs a Clutch Cargo-type Syncro-Vox effect which works reasonably well, and the arrangement is charming. If nothing else, this gives us all a chance to think about Benny & Joon for a few seconds. Rating: 4 out of 5 Abes.

2. "Sing"



Ah, "Sing" by the Carpenters... I can remember when I thought it was a huge freakin' deal that an actual POP GROUP on the RADIO was singing a song from Sesame Street. I don't know what any of this has to do with the American Presidents, though. The limited animation is both creepy and effective. The eyes kind of weird me out. Rating: 3.5 Abes.

3. "Bohemian Rhapsody"




Crude but entertaining and to-the-point, this clip focuses just on the "Scaramouche" part of BoRap, which I think is pretty much everybody's favorite part anyway. This is the first clip in the collection to feature those flapping, South Park-style cartoon mouths. Rating: 3 Abes.

4. "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"



The audio from this is taken from a Family Guy cutaway gag in which Peter Griffin performed as part of "The Four Peters." I barely remember this particular joke, but it's spawned probably a dozen YouTube clips, including this one. Go figure. Cute, though. More South Park mouths here, too. Rating: 3 Abes.

5. "The Longest Time"




Boo! One of those "gotcha!" clips. And it was going so well, too. Rating: 2 Abes.

6. "Dancing With Myself"



Yikes. This one is a bit of a mess, technically speaking, as it switches from one kind of footage to another. And poor Thomas Jefferson looks like Jacob Marley in the 1980s TV movie version of A Christmas Carol. ("I wear the chains I forged in life!") Still a good song, though. Rating: 2.5 Abes.

7. "God Bless the USA"



Meh. I've never been a huge fan of this song (sorry!), and the Presidents are doing Lee Greenwood no favors with this arrangement. C'mon, guys, you have ALL THE TIME in the world! Practice a little, why don't ya? Rating: 1 Abe.

8. "Hail to the Chief"



Now this is what I'm talking about! Not only do Abe and the boys kick things off with a (great) song, but they follow it up with a very funny skit.
Muchacho! Rating: 5 Abes!


9. "Bohemian Rhapsody" (again!)



Less is sometimes more. Case in point, this clip includes (I think) the whole song. I don't know. I haven't gotten through it all the way. Not that I have anything against the song, of course, but I don't think I want five minutes of this animation. Rating: 2.5 Abes.