Robin Hood Meets Crime Stoppers, Literally

When Toby Keith's album "Bullets in the Gun" came out I didn't immediately fall in love with it's title track. It's grown on me, but I do remember thinking at first "What on earth is Toby singing about, some sort of Bonnie and Clyde nonsense?"  Then last week he released the video.  It is a very literal video. It kicked my internal dialogue onto the subject of literal videos and narrative videos. Strangely enough, one of the blogs I follow The 9513, had a short post on the subject of literal videos just a few days ago.

You can click here to view the "Bullets in the Gun" video.

This is one of the rare instances when the video actually improves the song. The video reminds me of a cross between Disney's Robin Hood and an episode of Crime Stoppers. The little Toby Keith appearing on the screen like Alan-a-Dale (Roger Miller) from the animated versions of Robin Hood, narrating the story, is brilliant. Even better is the instance toward the end of the video where he borrows a technique from theater. There is a quick moment when one can see, on the side of the screen Toby Keith's outline in the shadow. The spotlight comes on and he continues to narrate.

I like the choice of actors. He chose someone that looks just enough like him to for the viewer to make some connection, yet, like in those horrible Crime Stoppers reenactments, the actor never really looks quite like the criminal. Obviously Toby Keith is not singing about an episode of his life, but the loose visual connection between the singer and the actor, since the song is written in the first person,  is effective.

The very narrative video that I think detracts from the song is Brad Paisley's and Allison Kraus' "Whiskey Lullaby".  There is a beautiful abstraction to the lyrics that is completely undermined by the story that plays out in the video. I love videos, but I'd rather watch a clip of them singing the song live.

The song that I think needs a more literal and narrative video is Clay Walker's "She Won't be Lonely Long."  That video is a wasted opportunity. Clay Walker made a timid and boring video for an incredibly sexy song with plenty of visual references.  "Somethin’ bout the way she’s blushin’. You can tell she isn’t sure. Let you know she’s up to somethin’. She’s never done before." I see what he was trying to achieve through subtlety, but there is nothing subtle about that song.