As far as modes of storytelling go, music videos do not immediately come to mind. I know very few people who do not enjoy music, or find it an essential part of one’s life. Whether it is as a companion to a commute, or background to work or studying, or even as the conduit for relaxation, music has become the subtle soundtrack to our everyday lives. However, music videos are less considered.
Music videos are an interesting form of art, specifically in the explicit storytelling theme they take on. Visual companions for songs, they have taken the track of short films, to dance choreographies, to artistic expressions or even animated design. Narrative music videos are not uncommon but are perhaps one of my favourite form of a music video, especially the extended narratives that span over multiple songs by the same artist or band.
One in particular that I have come to be completely absolutely obsessed with is the Lumineers’ incredible “The Ballad Of Cleopatra,” a twenty-four minute compilation of five songs, “Ophelia”, “Cleopatra”, “Sleep On The Floor”, “Angela”, and “My Eyes” in that order, off their sophomore album Cleopatra.
The music, lyrics and visual representation all combine in a cohesive manner to present a story of such depth. The narrative they are aiming to tell is one of love, redemption, loss, all that which generally combine into the human experience of life. Inspired from the real-life story of a female taxi driver, which not only became the whole basis of the album but also of the masterpiece narrative video which is the visual representation of her story.
Ophelia
The video begins with the band playing “Ophelia” in what looks like a deserted concert hall. Shultz has an out-of-body experience, where his body separates into two, one continuing with the song, and the other leaving the concert hall into the alley way in relief and dancing his way down the road in the rain, playing in the puddles. He then gets into a taxi, driven by an older woman, and are seen to have a conversation that begins the story.
When the music videos for “Cleopatra”, “Sleep On The Floor”, “Angela” were originally released, they were done so separately, and out of order, each teasing bits of the larger story, but their connection difficult to piece together. Each music video a story of it’s own and wonderful narratives individually. But when the band and director Isaac Ravishankara put out “The Ballad of Cleopatra” over a year after the album was released, we finally understand what the story was, an insight into the conversation between the taxi driver and Shultz, one that truly reminds us of one important lesson.
Cleopatra
After letting Shultz out at a motel, we see the same woman during the day to the soundtrack of “Cleopatra” giving rides to a series of people, two of whom we see again in later songs. We see the women’s face go through a series of emotions: happiness, sadness, amusement, resignation, and hope. The lyrics provide an insight as to her intentions saying, as she uses it to escape from something:
So I drive a taxi, and the traffic distracts me
From the strangers in my backseat, they remind me of you
They lyrics mimic the evolution of life, beginning with hope that is then lost in circumstances that we may or may not have been able to change, but nevertheless lead us to where we are now.
At an airport, we see her picking up someone we assume to be her son, enjoying a roadside meal of burgers and fries. She is free and joyous, but when she goes to drop of her son at his fathers and her ex-husband, inferred from the line “the only gifts from my Lord were a birth and a divorce”, she experiences a split, similarly to that we saw Shultz experience earlier, acting as a “what if” scenario. One version of her follows her son into the house, embracing his father, and the other remains outside, isolated from the domestic life, with the man gazing solemnly at her as she drives away.
But in these moments, we recognise that regardless of the assumption that divorce is a tragedy, she saw it as a gift from God. Shultz describes that as the courage to see life as it really is, an honesty that forms the heart of the song for him.
Sleep On The Floor
The woman is replaced by a young girl at the funeral of her father, a young man looks and in her sadness tells her “if you don’t leave now, you may never make it out”. “Sleep On The Floor” begins as the woman experiences a “what-if” scenario and chases the man out of the house following him into a taxi that leaves the funeral behind as her other self stays and endures more condolences. The two embark on a roadtrip together, finding happiness in each other’s company, overcoming obstacles, getting tattoos. They have nothing but each other, but it is all they need Eventually the two find themselves at a party that the band is playing at and get married.
The song echoes the importance of deciding on adventure, and moving away from what is expected of you from your family or even your religion and finding a life of freedom.
Angela
But as the song shifts to “Angela” we see the young woman driving alone in the car, perhaps driving away from the boy she has just married, and suddenly is replaced by a middle-aged version of herself, identifiable by the wave tattoo on her arm that we saw her get.
“Angela” then starts with the woman, who is pregnant, getting out of bed and experiences a split, one version returning to bed and the other leaving her house and husband behind, as she drives away to a motel. The pregnant woman dances in front of the motel, experiences freedom.
My Eyes
The final song is “My Eyes” and shows an elderly woman being dropped off at a retirement home by the taxi driver. The elderly woman sits alone in the bed and we see flashes of the taxi driver, the pregnant woman crying in the car and the young girl dropping flowers on her father’s grave, indicating she never left with the boy nor did she ever leave her husband.
The elderly woman living a lonely life in the old-age home experiences a final split and she walks through the building and leaves. And in those moments, we see that this woman is the same woman in all sections of the story.
The “what if” scenarios that indicate the desire to follow one’s desires. Playing out backwards, we eventually realise that the old woman taxi driver is the main female character in all sections of the story and that the out of body experiences are the roads she never took but wished to. In other words, her life is riddled with regrets over the paths she never took, listening to her head over her heart. The Ballad of Cleopatra tells you to always follow your gut, even if it means having a life no one approves of, or expects, always do what is best for you.
The Ballad of Cleopatra tells the story, not only of one woman, but of the development of all people. Life is not always perfect, but we must look up on it with honesty and choose the paths that our gut tells us is right.
~ S ~
