Be Good or Be Gone

I can't help it. It makes me smile. The YouTube video of Be Good or Be Gone, by the Irish singer, Fionn Regan. It's just so catchy, genuine, and sweet. It's clever and refreshingly under-produced, despite being packed with loads of interesting locations in which Regan performs.

Very Short List (VSL) says this about it:

Walk the thoroughfares and subway stations of any major city long enough, and eventually you’ll come to believe that you’re seeing the same street performers wherever you go. But what if the same guitar-toting roadside musician really did turn up everywhere — and we mean everywhere — you went?

That’s roughly the conceit behind the ingenious, endearing video for “Be Good or Be Gone,” by Irish singer-songwriter Fionn Regan. Over a series of jump cuts, we see Regan perform his gentle folk song, usually standing in the center of the frame, as his environment completely changes every few measures: He’s singing in a casino, then in a church, then on a beach, and on and on. And he’s not just lip-synching: For the few seconds he performs in a barbershop, we hear the actual ambient noise of the salon, and when he reappears in a pet store, we hear caged birds chirping behind him. It’s a three-minute video that probably took months to complete, proving once more that it’s not so simple to make things look simple.

My two favorite scenes are the ones with the cows and the passing bus.
And my favorite lyrics are:

I have become
an aerial view
of a coastal town
that you once knew.

[For a live version of the song, watch this YouTube video.]