Guitar star Paul Gilbert has just released a wildly entertaining, animated video for his song Enemies (In Jail), a Todd Rundgren-inspired jazz-rock track from his latest album, Vibrato. The video was illustrated by Ben Dewey and was edited by Vicente and Fernando Cordero at Industrialism Films.
Last September, Gilbert talked to us about the song: "For the lyrics, I used a quote from a book that I wrote when I was around four years old. I would draw pictures and dictate the text to my mom, who would write the words on the page. One of the things that I wrote was 'It's happy when you get to ride in a racing car, and one of your bad, bad, bad, bad, bad enemies is in jail.'
"This idea from my four-year-old self really cracked me up. I hadn't yet learned to be polite or politically correct, and I was demonstrating the part of human nature that finds joy in revenge.
"We're not supposed to admire or admit that we feel this way, but in this song, I just let it loose. And the joyous, gospel-choir vocal arrangement singing 'In jail!!' just cracks me up. Again, I love the contrast."
You can read Paul Gilbert's complete track-by-track interview on Vibrato right here.
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Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar World, Guitar Player, MusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.
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