Every reference to John Lennon featured in the alternate music video for "This One"
"This One", is a 1989 Paul McCartney single featuring Paul singing about what he claims to be "George Harrison's" missed opportunity to tell John Lennon that he loved him. (when obviously it's Paul projecting onto Harrison, judging by the lyrics, and the way he handled it in this interview).
The song has two music videos. The first one (and most prevalent music video) was heavily inspired by The Beatles trip to india. The second music video, is extremely psychedelic (possibly in reference to the acid trips McCartney and Lennon shared) within it are many intricate references to Lennon featured in the scenes of the music video.
The first two references (White feathers, and a feathered hat), are featured between the timestamps 0:30 - 0:38
The music video opens with McCartney sitting at a desk, surrounded by white feathers, before everything fades to black and all that's visible is one singular white feather.
Julian Lennon recounted Lennon saying that if he were to pass away, his spirit would take the form of a White Feather:
"One thing Dad said to me should he pass away, if there was any way of letting me know he was going to be ok the message would come to me in the form of a white feather.
Then something happened to me about ten years ago when I was on tour in Australia. I was presented with a white feather by an Aboriginal tribal elder, which definitely took my breath away. One thing for sure is that the white feather always represented peace to me."
- Julian Lennon, 2013
The white feather then transitions into a pale blue feather sitting atop a hat:
I assume this hat was meant to reference Lennon's Feathered Hat that he wore in the 1967 Magical Mystery tour film:
Reference Three: McCartney illuminating along with the Moon throughout the timestamps 1:40 - 1:46
McCartney is "juggling" the Moon as it passes through its moon cycles, the Moon is illuminating very brightly, along with a glowing blue outline of McCartney. This alignment may be a reference to the lyrics in the 1970 Lennon song "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)", where Lennon says: "we all shine on just like the moon and the sun"
Reference Four: A green apple seen throughout the timestamps 1:47 - 1:50
McCartney lip syncs to the camera, yet stops when he notices a bright green apple floating away. The green apple references Apple Corps (a company founded by the Beatles, however McCartney and Lennon played the most significant role in its creation). In some way, the apple represents McCartney and Lennon's relationship; Paul doesn't notice it fading away, until it's too late, and once he does notice it, it's too far up to retrieve and it becomes permanently lost.
Reference Five: John Lennon's Glasses, and him in Heaven featured throughout the timestamps 2:22 - 2:25
McCartney is seen wearing circular glasses with pink lenses a-like to Lennon's renowned circular glasses with yellow lenses. However, he can also be seen wearing pink lenses too:
Though, it's unlikely that this choice of switching Lennon's yellow lenses to pink ones was intentional, as I recall hearing that this music video was filmed in a barn, and therefore they were short of props and had to replace Lennon's yellow lenses with pink ones.
A few seconds after McCartney makes this appearance, a halo spawns atop of his head. It almost seems as though McCartney is "cosplaying" Lennon, and the Halo represents him having passed away, as John now remains an angel in heaven.
Reference Six: The closing scene: 3:51 - 4:27
Near the end of the music video, Linda and Paul sit beneath a tall tree, pointing at its branches. There are two references to Lennon in this scene, the first one being another sighting of a White Feather mentioned earlier (representing John's spirit), falling from the tree.
The camera then zooms out, and we get a clearer look at the tree that Linda and Paul are sitting under.
I'm unsure if this was meant to be a reference, or if it was solely coincidental. But in the comments of the music video, someone claimed that the tree looked like the one from the Strawberry Fields Forever music video:
References to Paul grieving John:
There is this very short part of the music video throughout the timestamps 0:32-0:36, where McCartney has his head down and you can see a shimmering tear fall from his face, and splash into a small pond. There are also many references to doves throughout the music video, which are considered a symbol of the "peaceful journey after death"
I'd also like some help uncovering this freeze-frame, as I have no idea what it means:
I doubt it was just added for no reason. It says "Ocean", yet there wasn't much I could find about Lennon and any correlation he might have with the word "Ocean". Maybe it's about someone else, or maybe I am missing something.
jbbartram-illu
dededos
germansingergirl
kianamaiart
annaxmalina
andulkaphoto
