\n<\/p>\n
If you turned on MTV for any length of time in 2001, you almost certainly saw Christopher Walken flying around the lobby of a Marriott in Los Angeles. Even in an era when music videos were far more hotly discussed than they are now, it was a weird sight. Walken\u2019s trim shock of gray hair matched his gray suit, punctuated by a red tie; he looked less like the movie star he was than some guy on a long layover.<\/p>\n
The music was Fatboy Slim\u2019s \u201cWeapon of Choice<\/a>,\u201d a weird little ditty that did make you want to dance. Having trained as a dancer in his youth \u2014 and done a great deal of tap and more in \u201cPennies From Heaven<\/a>\u201d (1981) \u2014 Walken was well equipped for the concept that the video\u2019s director, Spike Jonze, had cooked up: Normal-looking man hanging out in a hotel lobby hears the song, starts dancing, then flies off a mezzanine before, eventually, returning to his seat. The video was a hit, winning several MTV Video Music Awards and a Grammy.<\/p>\n The lyrics to \u201cWeapon of Choice\u201d (sung by Bootsy Collins) are heavily distorted \u2014 the point isn\u2019t the words so much as the hypnotic beat. But if you listen closely, you can pick up the line \u201cWalk without rhythm\/and it won\u2019t attract the worm.\u201d<\/p>\n Yes, it\u2019s a reference to \u201cDune.\u201d<\/p>\n In Frank Herbert\u2019s 1965 novel, giant ancient sandworms that live beneath the desert on the planet Arrakis are hugely dangerous to humans, though their power can be harnessed for travel and other purposes. They\u2019re one of the most famous elements of the story, so instantly identifiable that they were made into a dubiously conceived popcorn bucket<\/a> for the release of Denis Villeneuve\u2019s new \u201cDune: Part Two.\u201d And they\u2019re attracted to rhythmic thumps on the surface, so the Fremen \u2014 people who live in the Arrakis desert \u2014 walk in strange, loping, arrhythmic steps to avoid accidental detection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n In the video, Walken even seems to be imitating those steps:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These lyrics also appear. They could mean anything, of course.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t be shocked But it certainly would make sense if it was a reference to \u201cthe voice\u201d (or is it THE VOICE?), a powerful vocal distortion that the mystical sisterhood Bene Gesserit use to control people in \u201cDune.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
by the tone of my voice
Check out my new weapon
weapon of choice<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n