Yay! I think there is a lot of misunderstanding about what literalism is. I think it's important to distinguish 'literal' from 'obvious'. Both may be things you wish to avoid, but sometimes it's important to be obvious if you want to make a particular point.

, for the lyric "the structure fell about our feet," well I didn't use an actual house falling, but they're basically standing in the ruins of their dreams. So I guess that's metaphorical, but it feels pretty literal to me!
I know exactly what you mean--that feeling is what I struggled with in my own vidding too, and I only really found my way through it by trial and error, betaing and other feedback. It's really the place where you have to test your audience reaction.

I didn't feel like I was interpreting lyrics so much as just finding the clips that obviously had to go there, which anyone would have put there.
That's how I felt with 'Middleman' and yet everyone saw different things in it and people kept saying how layered it was. Well, yeah, I tried really hard with that vid to juggle some complex ideas, but it still felt very obvious to me--the only way of making it. I think though that what it feels like to the vidder (at least when the vidder is me!) is not a reliable test of whether it's obvious or not.

I just went with clips that fit with the overall tone on the problematic part, and it ended up being fine. Moral of story: perhaps lyrics are not always as important as I tend to make them?
You sound like me! (Again!)