Gasoline Cowboy “I Hear You Call My Name”

2003-gasoline-cowboy-i-hear-you-call-my-nameGasoline Cowboy originally came from Christchurch and was made from ex members of previous Canterbury bands Slim and Fuce. The video takes inspiration from the band’s name, and casts singer Jolyon Mulholland as a cowboy, wandering the countryside.

Most of the video is sepiatone, giving it that ye olde wild west feel, but Jolyon is shown in black and white, with a fuzzy watercolour-style filter. He looks like he’s escaped from the magical hand-drawn comic world of A-ha’s “Take On Me” video.

I think the idea is that this is some sort of robot or hologram cowboy. Because after things going in a very ordinary direction (man rides horse), suddenly they get a bit sci-fi. He stops the horse at a petrol station and fills up the horse with quality Europa fuel. But then this raises the question – if the horse runs on gasoline, what’s all the hay doing in the barn? And what happens if you accidentally give the horse unleaded petrol? Will it run wild? This point should actually be covered.

The video feels like someone’s come up with the “Gasoline Cowboy = petrol-powered horse” gag and constructed the entire video around it with nothing much else in the video either side of the gag. So it ends up feeling quite slow and empty.

Best bit: the horse’s elegant side-on pose for the camera.

Director: Richard Bell

Next… colour me prickly.

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