Another in a series of music vids you gotta watch!

chelseagirl47 asked a question about The Brothers Quay in my "Sledgehammer" post, which suggested to me that Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" (1994) might be a good vid to share with the class next. Parts are a live-action reenactment of scenes from their infamous short film "Street of Crocodiles."

Despite being one of the most overtly obscene and profane songs ever written, Trent Reznor's Closer (to God) is firmly ensconced in everyday popular culture, with so many covers I wasn't able to find a full list. I imagine it must be quite therapeutic for a singer to be allowed to belt out the words "I want to fuck you like an animal" in front of an appreciative crowd, as well as being a quick way to gain a desirable reputation for edginess--besides, it's an awesome song, deserving of "classic" status. NIN's version has been used on several TV shows, including CSI and Cold Case, though of course highly edited, and in several films like Se7en, The Hitcher, and The Fan. That opening drum sequence is unmistakable. Weird Al Yankevic's comedy version uses wacky Saturday-morning cartoon noises in place of the word "fuck."

In the MTV edit of this vid, there's a skip over the word "fuck" on the soundtrack, as if the film itself had cracked and been repaired with editing tape; also a title card with the words "scene removed" was edited in to replace scenes that upset MTV's censors, thus rendering naturalistic the necessary edits to get the vid on TV. The delightfully aged quality of the look of the vid is due to Reznor having it shot on a can of vintage unexposed film, not from post-shooting manipulation.

This ain't TV, so I'm posting the NSFW, uncut version of the video. But there are some who will find it disturbing, hence the cut-tag. ( Closer and Street of Crocodiles beneath the cut-tag. )

Maybe I should have waited until Halloween to post these... I shall have to come up with something scarier!