[SmithL]

Headline too long:
Aerosmith Sells You A Buick In which the rock icons waste their finest song, and rock n' roll finally gasps its last

Morfordite Alert!

He doesn't blame Bush until the next-to-last paragraph.

[Kokojmudd]

This is truly a low point for Buick. Dump Airysmith, Bring back the Electra 225!

[Huck]

Why should it be surprising when commercial music is used for commercial purposes? Because the consumers were fooled into thinking it wasn't commercial in the first place.

[Mr. Mojo]

Aerosmith's last good album was Draw the Line (1978) and their last great song was "Hangman Jury" (1987).

[MichaelP]

There is nothing mediocre about the cadillac CTS...

Mike

[Rummyfan]

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.

Is Morford revealing something here? I thought he was gay.

[kc2theline]

My favorite is the Hummer commercial with the kid and the go-kart to the Who's "Happy Jack". Great commercial.

[Bluegrass Conservative]

*sigh* I actually agree with this article in a lot of ways. It kills me to hear such great hard rock being used to market items that no true fan would purchase!!! Yes, I want to jam to "Ballroom Blitz" while driving in a Nissan. Aiiiighhhhhh!!!!

But, as a kid of the early 90's and a big grunge fan, I must comment that I am a Republican that really does care for trees . . . especially when they're Screaming!!! : )

[Scythian]

STYX was the only true, pure rock band.

[Fierce Allegiance]

In high school, selling buicks meant something like this:

[Question_Assumptions]

I still wish I could get a studio version of Dream On from iTunes...

[Prime Choice]

Ah, Morford's just p!ssed off because all his anti-capitalist "heroes" from the 1960s are still cashing in big-time. The whole "article" (sic) reads like a heartbroken bubblegum teenybopper whose favorite rock star just ran off with Pam Anderson. (Come to think of it...what rock start hasn't run off with Pam Anderson? I lost track...)

[vetvetdoug]

These butthole surfers can't stand the fact that the rockers can sell their music to make money. So what? I am glad that the music is snippet-ed in commercials so that some that would not ordinarily ever hear the music would look to see from where the bars came. The only thing these writers approve of is bath houses that encourage multiple same sex partners.

[zetapsi]

I could do without the last minute Bush-swipe...... but other than that, I don't think i could agree more. There's absolutely nothing wrong with selling one's song for commercial use, the free-market is the free-market, but "jumping the shark" still leaves a sour taste.

[vetvetdoug]

Marfadites are from Marfa, Texas.

[Cinnamon Girl]

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.

[siunevada]

the universal belief was once held that rock n' roll really could change the world and affect minds and rejuvenate souls

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?

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

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!

[Trampled by Lambs]

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.

[NeoCaveman]

Oh man. And you think: Have they gone too far? Is this a sign of the apocalypse?

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.

[dangus]

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.