Lady Gaga Does The Right Thing In Her “The Edge Of Glory” Video

Becky Bain | June 16, 2011 7:17 pm

It’s old hat for a Lady Gaga video to shock us, but we’re baffled by the pop star’s simple approach in her video for Born This Way single “The Edge Of Glory”. Remember those hints about Enrique Iglesias-looking doctor characters and the wink to the video being “fishy”? Well, none of that takes place in this video. Instead, we get Gaga wearing leather, fishnets and the wardrobe from a late-80s Spike Lee joint, dancing around a street corner like she’s in Do The Right Thing. It’s the most un-Gaga-esque video she’s given us yet. See for yourself below.

Lady Gaga – “The Edge Of Glory”

The video premiered tonight on So You Think You Can Dance?, and features Gaga emerging from her window to dance on her fire escape, dance in the streets, and dance on her stoop as Clarence Clemons (who is currently recovering from a stroke) wails on the sax.

If this concept feels a bit too simple for the same artist whose previous videos gave us an endless array of Halloween costumes in each one, it might make more sense to consider the clip’s last minute switch in directors. Joseph Kahn, who helmed Gaga’s “LoveGame” and “Eh Eh (Nothing Else I Can Say)” clips, was initially announced as director, but reportedly clashed with her on set.

According to a tweet by Kahn, “I did NOT direct Lady Gaga’s “Edge of Glory” video. Lady Gaga did.”

Gaga’s choreographer and creative director (and co-director of the “Judas” video) Laurieann Gibson tweeted soon after,”sorry guys there was a slight turn of events on Set” in response to a fan asking why Kahn said he wasn’t the video’s director anymore.

She followed it up with a less apologetic message: “Listen u disrespectful fuck they had an issue on set I don’t lie!!!!!”

Oh boy. We suppose the closest we’ll ever see to that storyline is by rewatching her performance on Le Grand Journal, in which she dons a Mermaid’s tail before men in white coats enter and turn her into a two-legged star.

Are you pleasantly surprised by Gaga’s relatively frills-free video? Perhaps the self-described musical theatre geek is just doing her own spin on the fire escape-dancing number “Out Tonight” from Rent?