Discussion: Video Ruined the Song

Music videos can be quite powerful.  The very best intensify the song’s message or reveal new ways to interpret it.

Then there are those videos that absolutely ruin the song.  They’re so bad that you can’t even listen to it on the radio because it’s been so sullied by its video clip.

The worst offender of this?  Travis Tritt.  “Tell Me I Was Dreaming.”

Tritt tried to recreate the magic of his “Anymore” clip, which found him in a veteran’s home, dodging the phone calls of his Annie.  See, he’s convinced himself that she won’t love him now that he’s in a wheelchair. Anyway, his buddy Sam gets him to take the call, and the clip ends in an embrace, with Tritt saying, “I want to go home, Annie.”  She cries.  Fade to black.   A little cheesy, but not too bad.

Oh, but the sequel is such a disaster.    Let me walk you through it.   Tritt’s character Mac and his friend Sam have opened up a boat repair company.   Annie’s pregnant.  Mac throws her a wet sponge from the dock as she’s trying to get out of the boat.   She slips.   Bangs her head.  Falls into the water.   Mac can’t help her because he’s in a wheelchair.  Sam has a limp so he gets in the water too late.   Annie dies.  Baby lives.  Doctor inexplicably tells Mac and Sam the good news first.

Meanwhile, Tritt wails in between the footage, looking like someone used a steel-tipped boot to make sure he never has children again.

Seriously awful.

Can you top it?

7 Comments

  1. Oh I thought the red strokes was an awesome video. I know one person I got upset with was Shania Twain. She always does good video’s, when she tries. But waaaay too many “concert” videos. They started to bug me.

  2. I recently saw this Tritt video starting and practically dove for the remote! This is a good example of knowing when to say when.

    Great topic… could be here all day making lists!
    I definitely have to nominate Reba as the queen, ie. “Night the lights went out in GA” for starters.
    Then again, I’m four-square against talking in videos.

  3. Faith Hill – This Kiss (Too goofy)
    Faith Hill – Breathe (Holy Anorexic, holy overplayed)
    Rascall Flatts – Skin (Sara Beth) (Great song, video reminds you who sings it!)

    Tritt is up there with Alan Jackson and Wynonna for insta-channel-change for me anyway, doesn’t matter the video. But I do dislike that video more than normal. Jamey Johnson, his uncle Billy Ray… also get this treatment.

  4. I like videos that interpret the song, and if there has to be some dialogue, then fine. For me, Travis’s video for “Tell Me…” is proably one of the 5 best I’ve ever seen. I also really like a few from Reba “…New England”, “Is There Life out there” , “What Do You say” and “The night the lights…”

  5. Faith’s “Breathe” What was a beautiful song became something I can’t stand because of the video. Really? A bed in the desert and Faith wrapped in some kind of sheet dress?

  6. I just saw the video for “Tell Me I Was Dreaming” yesterday and completely agree with the author. It aims to be pretty depressing, but the actual “death” scene is very poorly produced which came across to me as pretty funny.

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