JOURNAL ENTRY 6


VIDEO REFLECTION

STEVE VAI - FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

Steve Vai is a guitar virtuoso. Most of his songs have no lyrics at all. He is a complete talent and has wonderful songs. When he was in 20’s, he worked with Frank Zappa, another great guitarist, for 2 years. Above is the song of him, named For the Love of God. It is Steve Vai’s best known work. I think it is a great song. Although it has no lyrics, it absolutely tells something through its clip because it is a work of art. Works of art have an aim; always tell something. As it is a work of art, everybody can comment on it however they want. Now, I will comment on it and video. Nature and love of nature are at the background of the clip, which is striking. Religious figures, rituals and temples such as Adam and Eve, Buddha temples, Jesus, Christians, Jews and pray of Muslims are shown. Afterwards, the disasters caused by human race, such as launching of atomic bombs and war missiles, cruel wars, killings, funerals held for those who died at war, global warming and desperate animals in Polar Regions, are shown while the bitter melody goes on playing. Why is that? Is Steve Vai stupid? Absolutely, he is not. He strikingly asks the humanity: What have you done to deserve the love of God? What have you done for the love of God? Have you done these cruel things to make God love you? There is also an irony in the video. While the bitter melody plays, the good  ones, such as Martin Luther King, a racism fighter, Mohandas Gandhi and desperate war victims, and the bad ones, such as Adolf Hitler and liar politics, are shown together. The most striking part is the end of the video. The sentence “We may be human… But we are still animals” summarizes the plot of the song. I think that Steve Vai harshly spills out hatred against human race with this song of contrasts, For the Love of God.