“The car’s on fire, and there’s no driver at the wheel.”

This is about a couple of things. First, ever notice how images get in the way of lyrics? I came across a cover of Tom Waits’ 9th & Hennepin on Blip.fm. Didn’t need a video to picture the hookers with doughnut names because those words pretty much say it all. (Which is why I hate most music videos. Too often they force a literal translation of the lyrics on you or make scenes that have nothing at all to do with the song. Either way, they rarely live up to the images in my head.) But 9th lead me to another piece that was more compelling from the now defunct Canadian group Godspeed You! Black Emperor called The Dead Flag Blues.

But it’s the YouTube fan versions that are interesting.

Watching these clips, most of them, with the exception of this one, ruin the song I had in my head. That’s why you should listen to the song first by itself, before seeing any of the vids. (A control group already in your head, if you will.) Because what you see is one version as tribute to a personal loss while another backs a Call of Duty 4 sequence, and yet another creates a 9/11 metaphor. (While you can easily picture that scenario as you listen to the words, the song was written four years prior to that day.)

The main thing I took from it all was that even though most of the clips have views in the hundreds, some in the thousands, the song seems no less personal for any of the people who posted the different versions. Amateurish quality? Sure. But the stories for each mean something.

Bringing it around to brands who are always looking for bigger audiences, it’s easy to overlook loyal niches right in front of them because they were focused elsewhere.