HEY! We resemble that remark!
Posted on 12/10/2004 10:25:04 AM PST by SmithL
Maybe rock n' roll finally died, really and truly and once and for all, roughly a decade ago, when Microsoft shelled out a whopping and still quite ludicrous $10 million to Jagger & Co. for the use of the Stones' classic "Start Me Up" for the massive overblown launch of the utterly awful and terrifically bug-addled Windows 95.
And maybe that sad epitaph was writ even larger a few years back when stodgy old Cadillac bought the rights to Zeppelin's manic mega-anthem "Rock n' Roll" for use in hawking the wildly mediocre CTS sedan to wealthy boho yuppies, all of whom vaguely remember inhaling back in the '70s and who might've once believed Page & Plant to be demigods but who now only fantasize about owning a riding lawn mower and having sex once a month and glimpsing the babysitter's nipples through her Avril Lavigne T-shirt.
Did you cringe at all when you heard Iggy Pop's fabulous "Lust for Life" during that commercial for the utter dystopian nightmare that is Royal Caribbean cruises? Did you laugh in a bitter and dejected sort of way when you read about that PR firm that wanted to use Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" to market a hemorrhoid cream?
Did a small but significant part of your rebellious antiestablishment anticorporate soul get slapped like a drunk Hilton sister when you first heard The Who's "Tommy" used to hawk Clarinex or Sweet's '70s glam-rock masterpiece "Ballroom Blitz" used to sell Nissans?
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The word "wildly" needs to be retired. #2. If I could afford a black Escalade, I'd buy one. Not only Led Zepplin, but Georg Stanford Brown do the Cadillac commercials, and they're obviously working.
You know, Tommy Shaw used to play in my cousin's band in a bowling alley on Atlanta Highway in Montgomery, Alabama. Just before he joined Styx.
Nothing can ruin a night out with the Mrs. more than wanting to hurry home to get another glimpse of the babysitter's nipples. I hate when that happens.
Dennis DeYoung is my nomination for most annoying rock star ever, just ahead of Ronnie James Dio.
Universal? I don't think so.
It's show business now and it was show business then.
Every big time rocker needs the answer to the age-old question: What's my percentage?
Awesome. One of my cousins went to school with Bill Murray. I guess this means we're both only *8* degrees away from Kevin Bacon! Woohoo!
LOL! I can almost smell his aftershave.....
I knew we where in the last days a week ago when I heard the Ramones "Blitzkrieg Bop" over the supemarket muzak. It took 'em 30 years, but Joey and the biys are mainstream now!
D
biys = boys
I have to admit that I cringe everytime I hear Zeppelin, The Who & even Jimi selling cars, medicine or whatever. Makes me sad. It goes against everything Rock n' Roll is supposed to be about, at least for me.
I remember recently seeing one for some computer or network product, I forget.. But they were using the Who's "Baba O'Riley" and I remember thinking, just what in the hell does "Teenage Wasteland" have to do with Cisco? (or whatever it was..).
I guess Pete Townsend needs a buck as much as anyone and I don't begrudge him that but it makes me sad just the same.
I still love The Who anyway.
What is Miss Morford getting religion.
What's next, Metallica's "Fade to Black" to sell draperies? Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" to sell kiddie Prozac? Why not?
Not a bad idea.
I think he would have been a better fit in "Air Supply".
HEY! We resemble that remark!
I can't wait to hear Pink Floyd's "Saucerful of Secrets" being used to hawk some product on TV.
Oh, shucks, man... It took me to the line about panting Mormons before I even realized it was a Morford article. For the first five paragraphs I actually LIKED the article.
The trivial use of emphatic songs robs the soul of the ability to possess those emotions. While this is most heinious when done to religious classics (I darn near assassinated the CEO of Starz for their blaspehmous destruction of the Alleluia chorus), even songs by the most base of pop stars can register deeply. The fact that Morford is most upset by Lust For Life being used by a family cruise ship just says where he's coming from: "No! No! Enjoyment of life is supposed to be strictly a fetish thing!" I think it upsets him so much because the picture does show exactly how a family of BoHos lust for life.
And that's the other tricky thing about criticising commericalized music: One song can have a very different meaning from person to person. I hated the "Alleluia Chorus" being used for Die Hard until I saw the movie, and saw that the movie was, on one level, about a man coming to desire, and then earn, the love of his estranged wife. It sorta seemed a little more appropriate.
And I'm sorry to say this, but as someone who basically lost the tenth through twelfth grades due to the need for daze-inducing allergy medicines, Claritin's use of "Tommy's Prelude" (rhymes with Quaalude!) had me rolling on the floor.
And about Morford, who is always desperately yearning for every last sexual perversion to make him feel something: It's amazing that in his little world of bizarre prejudice and hatred, the first thing he things of to express exploding sexual lust is Mormons. Maybe you should give it a try, Morford. They seem to have something you want.
I actually like STYX. I just do no think they are the best.
Way too verbose. Too many targets of warped animosity in one sentence. Besides, everything was overpriced in those days.
Thanks for the laugh.
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