Lady Gaga debuted her new music video for "The Edge of Glory" during Thursday's episode of "So You Think You Can Dance." The song is the third single from her sophomore album "Born This Way," and it features one of Gaga's childhood icons, E Street Band sax player Clarence Clemons, who suffered a stroke over the weekend. "In bed with Mommy thinking about Clarence," Gaga tweeted on Monday. "I can't wait for you to see the beautiful video we made together. He's a really special person." Smoke machines! Sax solos! Fake buildings! Gaga salutes the beauty of simplicity in her latest video, which looks like something straight outta 1987.The song was inspired by the death of the singer's grandfather in late 2010, the 25-year-old pop diva revealed that she wrote this song at an emotional moment at the piano with her father. "My dad and I were going to say goodbye to him at the hospice, and I got out a big thing of agave tequila and my dad sat next to me at the piano and we started doing shots back and forth, and I wrote 'The Edge of Glory' on the piano and my dad and I cried. The song is about, how when I watch my grandpa die, I believe that he looks my grandmother and I realize that he was a champion in the life and that's when he's able to go to the edge of glory that represents being on the edge of that glorious moment."
The most ecstatic pop serenade Gaga has ever come up with, "The Edge of Glory" is a massive power ballad with heavy club beats that features Clemons wailing on his saxophone—but somehow it all seems totally natural when you actually hear it. There's an element of cheesiness to it, but it's totally captivating and incredibly catchy. If any of these new Gaga tunes demands to be a big fat hit this is it. The inclusion of Clemons is an inspired touch that amplifies the song's Eighties stadium rock vibe, but his actual performance is amazing and ranks among the best of his career.
It begins with Gaga slowly appearing from behind a building on a deserted street corner, the '80s-themed promo finds Gaga wearing a two-toned wig and barely-there leather getup, strutting her way through an abandoned New York City neighborhood in a silent night, and getting dirty on the edge of a fire escape and sitting on a stoop with the 69-year-old musician; just hanging out, saxing it up. Not to put down her previous over-the-top video releases but finally. A music video that complements the aesthetic that she's going for with the entire "Born This Way" album; balancing the best song on the record with the album's best music video.
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