Lilith Rose

@lillithrose · 18 Mar 2022

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How come, how long.

#learnedtoday

There was a girl I used to know
She was oh so beautiful
But she's not here anymore

This issue by Babbyface and Stevie Wonder is a song I really like, it's a song that's about domestic violence, and how the environment reacts to it.
It's a song I've listened a lot of times, but that I had never seen the clip before.
Because of this, I always thought it was about the death of the “girl I used to know”
This was done by the texts “And she paid with her life” “And maybe next time
We might save someone's life” has yet been emphasized.

Until today, today the clip came by when I watched a random video list at work in my break, and there it was, the clip from how come, how long.

The clip starts with an air shot of police cars and sirens, a boy runs through the rain to the building that these police cars are facing.

We see swing lights, a firefighter, the boy holding his collar up and then a sheet on the ground, in the rain.

The boy looks shocked, at the sheet, we see flashing lights and hear more sirens, then we see people looking with emotion full faces, with each of the people we see a short flash of them in a closer situation. all of them still looking.

The song starts with the singer in the rain and then standing in the building in front of a door with number 314, until we see eyes with in the reflection of obvious eyes in a female face, an angry man, pointing at the woman and, given his face, is angry.
The eyes close and tears come from the corners.
the singer again in the hall in front of door 314.
We see a woman with a paper bag with groceries coming home, if she wants to go in there is another woman walking past her who “scorn” her (?) "looks at and continues as her lips move, no idea what she says, but it does let the woman with the messages look to the right.

We see the transparent form of a man in a shirt with a tie tie, we see him pushing open the door of apartment 312 and looking inside.

We see a glass table, a broken cup and a pack of milk falling on the table and milk that flows over the edge of the table and ends up on the floor.

We're seeing the singer in the hallway again,

A quick flash of something falling down to the street.
Then we see a woman sitting behind a painters ass, she looks up and her hand holding the brush reaches to her head.
we see the woman with the paper bag again from another side and realize that the painter is the woman who walked by and said something that made the woman look to the right with the bag.

We see a boy walking to a door and a vase thrown to the wall behind him, by someone out of sight.

Then we see a gentleman with glasses in the hall, he looks shocked, he doubts.
The door becomes “transparent” and we see that the man wants to knock on the door, and when we go back to the hall he shakes his head and does not knock.

Singer in the hallway

we are out again and see the same man standing in the rain, he shakes his head, and looks somewhat shocked.
police cars and the boy again.

We see Stevie wonder standing outside by a window and see translucent people walking past him, it rains in view of the umbrellas, (they walk to the police cars)?)

We see a woman looking in a toilet mirror, she smiles, however, when the camera turns towards her she has a blue eye and pain.
When the camera turns back, we see a man standing in the door opening to the toilet and the mirror is broken.

Back to stevie wonder, with transparent people walking past him, in the rain.

We see the boy sitting in the hall, the camera looks through the key hole and we see the man grabbing and dragging the woman, the woman is released, turns with her back to the door and in the reflection in the boy's watery eyes we see the man hitting the woman.

a shot from a reflective ceiling fan in which she appears to be unconscious or worse.

the singer is now behind a window, where rain comes across on the outside with lights swaying in the reflection.

back to Stevie and the translucent people walking past him.

then again the singer behind the window.

we see a woman's face, with tears running down her cheeks, and then a scene in the hall where the lamp flickers in the hall, a man stands at the door, looks at the lamp and then back to the door.

The door becomes transparent again and the man, who wears a book, shakes his head and walks away.

Stevie short shot.

We clearly hear a fight in the background, and see a couple walking down the hall.
We see the wall in the apartment shining through and see the couple walking through the hall when a vase comes up against the wall and “bounces” back before it breaks into a table.
The quarrings continue and the couple looks shocked.

We see the couple through the door back and then back in the hall, the couple's husband wants to knock, but the woman grabs his wrist, and as she shakes no she “pushes” him away.
Through the door, we see the couple's husband say something and point to the door., the woman makes a gesture of “don't, let it” and the couple walks on.

We see the singer standing out again in the rain with cops walking around him, turning into a shot of people watching .

another fast flash of something that falls to the wet street.

Turning into a shot of the man with the book in his apartment rubbing his eyes, turning into a shot from everyone who has been at the door of apartment 414.

Going to Stevie Wonder who is now at door 314.

We see the husband and wife sitting at the dining table with the boy.
The boy looks at the link where the man is sitting, and we see a shot of an even younger child sitting on a bump horse when a man stands up, and then a shot down from the baby stretching the arms in a “pick me up” gesture, but seconds later looks more like pointing upwards.

Back to the husband, wife and boy at the table, when the man angrily pushes his plate and stuff over the table, we see a burning candle flying towards the woman, while the man screams land the candle somewhere and starts a fire while the man is still screaming/yelling angry.

a short shot from an elderly gentleman who looks crouching up/out and seems to close the blinds.

Singer in the hallway.

Short shot of a man we see through the door, and back to the husband and wife at the table, where there seems to be a fight and the boy looks at his father and is obviously struck.

Stevie Wonder back in the hallway.

Shot of woman wrapping her clothes in a hasty way she wears a night gown, she looks scared.
The man enters the image behind her, she hears him and puts stuff in the suitcase (?) cramming and looks up shocked.

Singer in the hall.

The woman closes the suitcase as the man gets closer.

Several shots of the singer and Stevie in the hallway at door 314.

the camera is spinning as if it falls and we see the woman landing on the floor of the bedroom, she moves in panic.

We see a shape in smoke and the smoke goes back into a man's mouth, is it “the man”

Stevie back in the hallway.

Quick shot of something falling down to the street, there are pouts of baking, a flash, a woman's face.

we see a fire man and go back to the beginning of all this with the boy holding his collar up in the rain and looking at something, (painting on the street) we see him looking at more, more agents and wave lights.

We see hand cuffs that are closed.

The couple of the hallway looking at the sheet from under their umbrella .

A shot of fire men, officers and the sheet on the street.

And then the shock

The woman. in her night gown, between two cops.

The faces of the other people in the complex, who have seen before.

the woman is taken to a police car

some quick faces again,

short shot of the woman, she seems defeated, and then the shocked boy's face.

Ending with swaying lights and the singer in the rain.



The clip has made the story even better in a way.
She may not have died, but her life is over.

As someone who has had a lot to do with domestic violence, it hurts me even more this story.

The neighbors who (dared to) do nothing. who were all just looking at the end.


And at the end, the boy is alone, no father and no more free mother.

wow.

So today I learned that this song is even sadder than I realized.

And I hope I can teach you something today.

If you suspect domestic violence, there is a place where you can indicate this. so you don't have to knock on the door if you don't dare. but you can take action .

https://www.ikvermoedhuiselijkgeweld.nl/

on this site you can indicate that you suspect domestic violence so that people can get help, and that hopefully in the near future, we will no longer be confronted with

“a girl I used to know”