# The most literal music videos **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-literal-music-videos/722812 "2015-06-18T01:30:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-literal-music-videos/722812/1 "2015-06-18T01:30:17Z")
Some music videos go off on artistic tangents that bear little if any relationship to the song at hand. Other videos are more or less a literal visual presentation of the song lyrics. Usually this category of videos is pretty dull and unimaginative. But there are occasional gems. [Jeremy](https://youtu.be/MS91knuzoOA) by **Pearl Jam** is a pretty literal presentation of the song’s subject matter, but it manages to be interesting and artistic. Good or bad, what are some of the other videos out there which simply tell the same story as the song? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-literal-music-videos/722812/2 "2015-06-18T01:36:07Z")
Janie’s Got a Gun does that, but I think it does it pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-literal-music-videos/722812/3 "2015-06-18T01:45:46Z")
The video for Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”, which is about the Charge of the Light Brigade, is entirely composed of clips from the 1936 film _The Charge of the Light Brigade._ ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-literal-music-videos/722812/4 "2015-06-18T02:02:52Z")
> [@buddha\_david](#): > > The video for Iron Maiden’s “The Trooper”, which is about the Charge of the Light Brigade, is entirely composed of clips from the 1936 film _The Charge of the Light Brigade._ Likewise the video for Metallica’s One is footage from the movie Johnny Got His Gun. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-literal-music-videos/722812/5 "2015-06-18T02:10:54Z")
[Tommy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073812/). It’s ultimately a music video of the album, and Ken Russell took _everything_ literally. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-literal-music-videos/722812/6 "2015-06-18T02:39:23Z")
I thought this thread was going to be able the wonderful trend of a few years back of replacing the lyrics of a song with ones based on the video. The classic of the genre was _[Total Eclipse of the Heart](http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/f03d464867/total-eclipse-of-the-heart-literal-video-version-original)_. ---
**Author:** ![Stealth\_Bragg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4bbf92/32.png) [@Stealth\_Bragg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stealth_Bragg)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2015, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-literal-music-videos/722812/7 "2015-06-19T10:32:26Z")
Vic Reeves does [Gypsies Tramps and Thieves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Vu8BhAUS5Y)…