Elton John and Brandi Carlile have released the video for their duet “Who Believes in Angels?,” the title track from their upcoming collaborative album.
Directed by Elton’s longtime collaborator David LaChapelle, the clip starts with a young girl who unveils an Elton John “Captain Fantastic” pinball machine — a real thing that existed in the ’70s — plugs it in and begin to play.
Cut to Brandi and Elton inside the pinball machine playing the song; Elton’s on piano that has a giant wing on top, while Brandi is playing a wing-shaped guitar. Various figures — including two representing Tina Turner and Little Richard — dance around them, possibly because one of the songs on the new album is called “Little Richard’s Diary.” As for Tina, well, Elton played the Pinball Wizard in the movie Tommy, which co-starred Tina Turner, so maybe that’s the connection.
As the song ends, the little girl jumps up and down, celebrating how well she did playing the machine. In a statement, LaChappelle says, “We made a magical world that reminds us of where we’ve been as kids – that dreams do come true – and creating together with your heroes can be a sublime experience.”
While this song is somewhat upbeat, Elton revealed in an interview with BBC Radio 2 that there was one song on the album — “When This Old World Is Done With Me” — that made him “sob” for 45 minutes after he read the lyrics, penned by Bernie Taupin.
“It was about my death, it’s about mortality,” said Elton, 77. “And when you get to the late seventies, you think about mortality… you think, ‘Well I hope I’ve got a few more years left.'”
The album Who Believes in Angels? is out April 4.
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