The World’s Best Music Videos Featuring Bicycles
Dave Burdick this week offered up his choices for the Top 5 videos featuring a bicycle on the Huffington Post. While it's nice to see the mainstream blogosphere types showing some love for two-wheelers, c'mon man! Robin Thicke bouncing around NYC on a crappy bike to disco Beethoven is the world's number one bike video?! I think not.
The Mercedes Benz-ollieing, sidewalk-riding, pedestrian-buzzing Thicke is an ass. As a former pedestrian and cycling advocate in New York City who worked hard to dispel the cyclist-as-sidewalk-riding menace myth, I'd like to see someone hit Thicke with a nice, solid cross-check. Stereogum has it right calling Thicke a "Dick on a Bike." Bottom line: If you're going to promote bad behavior on bikes, at least let it be talented bad behavior.
Burdick didn't get his top five list all wrong. I love the inexplicably askew, Donnie Darko-esque Bat for Lashes video:
And The Flobots' catchy anti-corporate jeremiad, "Handlebars:"
Even the multi-modal Lily Allen is pretty cute riding through some of the more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly sections of London:
But how on earth did the Flight of the Conchords not make the list? Was Burdick worried that the wingers over at RedState.com would accuse the Huffington Post of being a France sympathizer if they picked "Foux De Fa Fa"?
And what about the Conchords' "Mutha Uckers"? It features prominent bicycle placement, no sidewalk riding and the fellas even wear helmets.
As for hip-hop, why not rep Oakland's scraper bikes? Ghost ride the (pedal-powered) whip!
I am unimpressed with the selection of "Bicycle Race" by Queen (original NSFW version) as an honorable mention. That's so obvious.
How about some more obscure selections like this fetishized Alvin and the Chipmunks ode to bikes from 1961, "Bicycle Built for Two." Simon extols the bicycle as "gorgeous, simply fascinating" and admires its "elegant simplicity of lines." Still, I can't shake the strange feeling that Dave is a little creepy at the end:
And while it's not technically a music video, Monty Python's "Bicycle Repairman" would make my honorable mention list for his willingness to root out Communism wherever it may be found. Perhaps Glen Beck can resurrect the character to fight Obama's socialist tendencies?
(And thanks to Clarence at Streetfilms for making sure I included the best PSA ever!)
What other videos am I missing, Streetsblog Nation?
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