Well isn’t this just an adorable secret romance between (the just married) Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow. Directed by Vaughan Arnell (who also did Robbie’s awesome “Rock DJ” video), “Shame” tells the story of … oh c’mon, you know what this is about.
music videos
The Closest Robbie Williams Will Ever Get to Romancing a Guy
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Marcus
“The Closest Robbie Williams Will Ever Get to Romancing a Guy”
HAHAHAHA!
Yeah, right.
Ricky Wuz Here
Loved it! Glad to see Robbie Williams and Gary Barlow seemed to have put asside thier differences. Love both of their music in and out of Take That! The video can be interpretted several ways. I didn’t take much of a romance from it… I took two friends letting a rocky past go and reconecting. Still, I can’t deny there were some homo-erotic scenes so I can easily be swayed to see it in that light, but knowing what I know kind of makes that hard to do. Great song! Good meaning.
EdWoody
Aww, that was sweet.
McMike
@Ricky Wuz Here: Did you maybe miss the part where they were dancing with women while staring at each other??? There’s no getting around the real topic of this video.
McMike
btw, this makes 2 well known male performers in the past month, not including Barlow, which, seemingly, are coming out and saying they’re not totally straight. Maybe one day guys will realize most men aren’t 100% heterosexual.
jason
Why is it British men who challenge society? Why aren’t American men doing it too? American men – especially the ones who consider themselves straight – seem incredibly phobic of men’s bodies and male-male intimacy in general.
I honestly couldn’t imagine Bruce Springsteen and John Mayer making a similar video.
Ricky Wuz Here
@McMike: Like I said, I take it to mean something entirely different. Not everyone sees things the same way… nor should they. The reason I see it through the lens I do is because I am aware that their history is less than civil. For a while, Williams had nothing nice to say about Barlow. For a tretch, Barlow blamed the break up of Take That on Williams. Sure, there is a little Brokeback vibe in the mix but I think it fell short of indicating a romance between them. This is strictly my opinion, my interpretation. The song itself indicates patching up problems with the past, through my interpretation, of course. I’m not saying your view is wrong I’m just saying I don’t quite see it the same way.
McMike
@Ricky Wuz Here: You can have your interpretation but that is NOT what the video is trying to convey. What else do you think it means when two men, who are dancing with women, gaze into each other’s eyes not to mention when one brushes off some lint, or whatever, off the other’s shoulder and then they strip down in front of each other. I understand you know the true history of their relationship but, again, this is not what the story in the video is telling us.
Ricky Wuz Here
@McMike: Correction: It is not the story the video is telling you. Clearly, it is telling me something different. I don’t see things in such a black and white sort of way, which could be a curse of taking a poetry class where I was taught that no one thing ever really has just one meaning but everything has a different meaning to someone else. What you get from the video is right, for you. I don’t see the same thing. I’m sorry if that offends you…
emjayay
The Brokeback Mountainesque story in this video is indeed totally and intentionally obvious. I don’t know anything about these guys, but I think the most obvious question is: why did they put out a video like this? What are they trying to say? Is is about they themselves being gay, their song being about that, about gayness in general, or what? Whatever their intent, the video is completely gay male gay, and anyone denying that is ignoring the obvious intent.
ousslander
2 beautiful men with a great song. I love me some Robbie and now Gary. It could be read anyway but I see to lovers coming to terms.
Ted C.
Of course it’s totally intentional.
Robbie has made a career out of finding ways to appear vaguely (but never conclusively) gay, to intrigue gay fans. (There’s some evidence that he’s actually a closeted bisexual, but who knows.) He probably learnt about marketing to gay men during his time in Take That!, which Barlow was also in.
That said, this video is pretty brilliant, partly because Robbie has made it clear that he didn’t get along with Barlow during their time together in Take That!. It’s nice to see them make up.
(It’d be nicer to see them make _out_.)
Ted C.
By the way, for those who don’t know, Gary Barlow was often considered the lead singer of Take That!, but Robbie was the break-out star.
fredo777
I didn’t really follow much of Take That’s history, but I do like the dance mix version of Relight My Fire.
And I’ve enjoyed Robbie’s music for a while now. Whatever the interpretation (I agree that it’s Brokeback-esque in meaning), I think it’s a sweet song + a lovely vid.
McMike
@Ricky Wuz Here: Um, correction, yes it is. How else are you interpreting the 2 guys gazing into each other’s eyes as they’re dancing with women? Sorry but the intention of the story is plain and clear. I don’t know why you’re having such a hard time digesting it.
Ricky Wuz Here
@McMike: I’ve already explained how I see it and that’s that. Don’t like it: tough. Not all us queers think alike as if part of some machine. 😉
Ryan
Ricky, the video is marketed as a gay love story. Both men have declared it as such. It’s not subtle nor open to interpretation. This has nothing to do with “all queers thinking alike”. All humans who watch the video know what they’re watching, except you.
Ricky Wuz Here
@Ryan: Ryan, love, even the greatest of poets who heavily intended for their work to be interpretted in one set way have their vision interpretted in ways not expected. This can be said for anything. One person may not leave something artistic with the same mental experience as another viewer. You may not see it my way, and that is fine. I don’t want you to. BUT do not say that I cannot see it this way because it’s WRONG because it is not. It is just another way of interpretting what I’m seeing. Sure, the artists involved amy have said “This is how we intend it to be” but they have ZERO control over how others who listen or view their piece feel about it after wards. So, feel free to ridicule my interpretation… my view, but know that what you point out isn’t swaying me in the least. It is intriguing me, sure, but in doing so it is making me feel all the more steadfast in not comming around to what everyone else sees simply because that is the obvious intent (sue me, I like to dig a little deeper). I’m an individual. Not part of a flock of sheep.
Ryan
Ha! Nice! I see. In your desperation to be seen as an individual and smarter than the rest of us “sheep”, you’ve ironically aggressively embraced stupidity. Quite the trick. Well done! (I also can’t help but wonder if there’s some self-loathing involved in your “interpretation”. But that’s just •my• read–I could be wrong).
Ricky Wuz Here
@Ryan: While your *read* is interesting, I feel perhaps I have misrepresented myself. What I am getting at is that not everyone sees things the same way. That is all. To attack someone because they have taken a decidedly different stance on something is actually a sign of insecurity, but that is neither here nor there. I do not think I am smarter than anyone else on this thread and if I have made you feel inferior in any way, I am sorry. I am not sorry for my take on the video. It is my *read* on it after all, and it doesn’t mesh with yours and quite a few others and I am ok with that. Not because I am so desperate to be different but because I respect that great minds actually do not think alike. It is our differences that make us stronger. My take is rooted more into both singers personal past with each other. I’ve mentioned that I can certainly see some of the homo-erotic tension (which was also hinted at during Take That’s reign on the European charts before everything seemingly blew up due to inflated ego’s and the like) but to me, there was not enough of that tension to tell me the story that everyone else sees. I’m not insinuating that you, and anyone else who has challenged me, are sheep because you see it the “intended” way, I am insuating such because you insist that anyone who sees it differently is wrong. Your view is perfectly fine. Just don’t try to force it on someone else when they clearly do not see it in the same light, whether you understand the logic (or lack-thereof, as you seem to feel about my interpretation) or not.
Furthermore, I am not stating what I feel about the video based on irrational information. There is legitamacy to my claim that the video is in fact a representation of two old friends mending a rift between them. It’s not like I’m saying “The video is about leprechaun’s shagging trees!” or something completely left field like that. I am drawing my analysis of the video not solely from the content but also from the artists actual lives: their problems with each other, their troubled friendship, and the blame they seemed to throw around so maliciously.