The clip consists of scenes from the zombie/love film “๐ช๐ฎ๐ฟ๐บ ๐๐ผ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ฒ๐” and has subtitles. If you know the plot of the movie and connect it with the lyrics one can see that the two of them match surprisingly good. You can read more about the film further below.
 |
| Photo credit: Mads Perch, movie poster, stills from „Warm Bodies“ / edit by Silke |
๐น๐๐๐๐จ๐ง๐๐๐จ๐ ๐๐๐ ๐๐ฆ
๐ต https://bit.ly/3jbzFP2 ๐ต
(video with scenes from “Warm Bodies”)
It's maybe because of the fact I know the movie and the book, but this video of “Beautiful James“ with the scenes from “Warm bodies“ really touched me and made me think about the lyrics again. Brian already said that he is not going to answer the question who Beautiful James is and that he wants everyone who listens to the song to find their own story behind it (see quotes below).
And as my mind wandered I remembered what one of our soulmates told us about their thoughts on the record: “๐๐ต ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ด ๐ธ๐ฆ๐ช๐ณ๐ฅ, ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ต ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ฏ "๐๐ฆ๐ข๐ถ๐ต๐ช๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด" ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ข๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ต๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข๐ด ๐๐ถ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ง๐ฆ๐ญ๐ญ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ. ๐ ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ง๐ช๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ด ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ด ๐ข ๐ด๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฎ๐ข๐ต๐ฆ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ด๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ง๐ณ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ข ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ช๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต ๐ฅ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฑ๐ข๐ช๐ฏ. ๐๐ฆ ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐จ๐ฏ๐ช๐ป๐ฆ๐ด ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐บ ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ ๐ฃ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ด๐ช๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ช๐ต ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ญ๐ฅ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ฏ๐ช๐ค๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ๐จ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ญ๐ช๐ง๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ข๐ต ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ข๐ฎ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ช๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ถ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ง๐ณ๐ข๐ช๐ฅ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ธ๐ข๐ฌ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐๐ถ๐ค๐ช๐ง๐ฆ๐ณ ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ค๐ข๐ถ๐ด๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ด ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ข๐ฃ๐ด๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ถ๐ญ ๐ฅ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฑ๐ข๐ณ๐ข๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ.”
That's also an interesting approach, especially considering the Hail Satan T-shirt which caused some serious arguments lately. But I don't want to start a discussion about Satanism at all again, I'd rather like to ask you for your personal opinions on the song and its unknown main character James.
I know who my “Beautiful James” is, but who is yours and why?
The 2013 movie “Warm Bodies” is based on the same-titled novel by Isaac Marion, a book which is partly inspired by Shakespeare's “Romeo and Juliet”. It's a romantic zombie comedy staring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer and John Malkovich.
๐ ๐ฃ๐๐ข๐ง
R is a zombie and constantly craves human brains, as he is able to "feel alive" through experiencing the victims' memories when he eats them. When he and a pack of other zombies are hunting they encounter a group of people. R sees Julie and is immediately drawn to her. After being shot in the chest by Julie's boyfriend Perry R kills him and eats his brain. Perry's memories increase R's attraction to Julie and he rescues her from the rest of the pack.
Julie is terrified of R first, but then they bond. The zombie begins to come to life again; his heart starts beating and he is slowly able to communicate with words. After R reveals Julie that he killed her boyfriend she abandons him.
Julie returns to her human enclave but R follows her and they reconnect. Julie's father Colonel Grigio, who is also leader of the human survivors, threatens to kill him. R and the girl escape together but find themselves trapped on a high building soon. R jumps into a pool far below, shielding Julie with his body from the impact. When they finally kiss Colonel Grigio arrives and shoots R in the shoulder. Julie notices that he is bleeding from his wound – revealing that he has completely revived and is human again. The film ends with R and Julie watching the wall surrounding the enclave being demolished, signifying the end of the apocalypse.
 |
Photo credit: Mads Perch / edit by Silke |
๐ข “If the song serves to irritate the squares and the uptight, so gleefully be it. But it remains imperative for me that each listener discovers their own personal story within it – I really don’t want to tell you how to feel.”
(NME, September 16th 2021)
๐ข “I had this list of song titles and that was one of them, and for some reason it just kind of jumped out of the page at me and, you know, and it made itself known. But it kind of started during a period of major insomnia for me in 2019. I was having this kind of… I mean I have issues with sleep, and I can sort of go through periods where I, for a couple of months, I don't really get more than two or three hours sleep at night. And this was a particularly bad couple of weeks, but in my kind of stupor I was getting kind of… I don't know where from, but melodies and phrases were coming into my head. I was kind of delirious, you know, from lack of sleep and therefore connected to something which I didn't really know what it was, but these things were just coming into my head. And I remember having to sort of get out of bed like five, six times a night even though I wasn't sleeping and just go over to the piano and record a melody onto my phone. And one of those melodies was called “Bad Piano” because I'd recorded it at like 5 in the morning, you know, just to get the notes down. And so, for a long time “Beautiful James” was called ‘Bad Piano” because the initial, the main hook melody was written by me at 5 o'clock in the morning in the middle of a major bout of insomnia. And then, Stefan had to take it and make some sense out of it, and it became the keyboard riff, the main riff of “Beautiful James”. I really want each person who cares enough to listen to the record to find their own story. So, Beautiful James… I fully expect people to ask me all the time ‘Who is Beautiful James? Who is Beautiful James?’ Well, I don't know! Who's your favourite James? James Corden or James Brown - which one do you prefer? Or like, you know, who is James to you? And is James even a man? These are questions I'm not going to answer, these are questions I want people to ask themselves.”
(BBC Radio 6 Music, Septeber 16th 2021)
 |
| Screenshot from the video |
๐ ๐๐ฌ๐ฅ๐๐๐ฆ
Bring me back to life
Never let me go
Your troubles and your heart strife
I saw them
Take me by the hand
As we cross through battlefields
Nobody understands
'Cause there's nobody at the wheel
Beautiful James
I don't wanna wake you
Beautiful James
I don't wanna wake you
Everybody lies
One hundred times a day
The silence in your hard eyes
Is far too rare to give away
And it's exactly why I stay
Beautiful James
I don't wanna wakะต you
Beautiful James
I don't wanna wake you (don't wanna wakะต you)
Beautiful James (don't wanna wake you)
I don't wanna wake you (don't wanna wake you)
Beautiful James (don't wanna wake you)
I don't wanna wake you
Though I may have to
I may have to
I may have to
Beautiful James
I don't wanna wake you (don't wanna wake you)
Beautiful James (don't wanna wake you)
I don't wanna wake you (don't wanna wake you)
Beautiful James (don't wanna wake you)
I don't wanna wake you
