Posted on 10/09/2005 3:50:59 PM PDT by dennisw
Is it simple selling or selling out? We report on a band at odds over ad revenue
THE drummer of the Doors has infuriated his former bandmates by turning down nearly $20 million to use their music to sell computers and cars.
John Densmore has a legal right to veto the use of the band’s music for advertising. And that is exactly what he is doing. He says that he is holding out to honour the memory of the band’s lead singer, Jim Morrison, who died in Paris from a suspected heroin overdose in 1971, aged 27.
“People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first time to this music,” Densmore, 60, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview that has astonished an industry more accustomed to performers launching bottled water brands than objecting to the capitalist exploitation of their art.
“I’ve had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That’s not for rent,” the drummer said.
Densmore recalls the day in 1965 that Morrison discovered that his colleagues had allowed the song Light My Fire to be used in an advertisement for a Buick Opel car. The singer vowed to take a sledgehammer to a Buick on stage unless the deal was cancelled.
Five years later the Doors agreed in writing that the band would have to approve unanimously any music licensing agreement. It is a contract that the other members regret.
The sanctity of rock music in advertising ended in the 1980s, when Nike used Revolution by the Beatles. Since then, Paul McCartney has sung for Fidelity Investments; a dancing silhouette of Bono has been used to promote Apple’s iPod; and the Rolling Stones have played the blues for Ameriquest mortgages. Even Bob Dylan’s The Times They are a-Changin’ can be heard in an unlikely advertisement for the health firm Kaiser Permanente.
One of the few to hold out is the experimental blues singer Tom Waits, who recently said that corporations “suck the life and meaning from the songs and impregnate them with promises of a better life with their product”.
Recent offers to the Doors include a reported $15 million (£8.4 million) from Cadillac for the rights to use Break on Through to promote its 4x4s. Densmore said that he could not sell a song to a company that was “polluting the world”. In the end Cadillac stuck with the slogan “Break Through”, but used Led Zeppelin’s 1972 Rock and Roll instead.
Apple offered the Doors another $4 million for Light My Fire, but again Densmore said no.
The other Doors, Robby Krieger, 59, and Ray Manzarek, 66, are not happy. The last time the trio met was at the Los Angeles County Superior Courthouse last year, when a judge ruled that Krieger and Manzarek could not use the name Doors of the 21st Century during a world tour. The musicians changed their name to D21C. But they may still have to pay Densmore a percentage of the estimated $8 million receipts.
Manzarek has cited the court battle as evidence that Densmore does care about money. “John is going to get about a million dollars for doing nothing,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “He gets an equal share as us, and we were out there working. A free million bucks. That’s a gig I’d like.”
Others have pointed out that in the 1970s Densmore agreed to sell Riders on the Storm to the Pirelli tyre company. He later vowed never to be tempted by money-lust again.
“I gave every cent to charity,” he said. “Jim’s ghost was in my ear, and I felt terrible. If I needed proof that it was the wrong thing to do, I got it.”
Er, uh, well... As a (former) bass player myself, who lists Chris Squire as one of my top 3 or 4 indluences myself, Yes has only had 2 drummers: Bill Bruford, and Alan White. On the other hand, when you look at all the different incarcations of Yes (including Anderson, Wakeman, Bruford, and Howe), you need to count the bass players as Chris Squire, Trevor Horn (on Drama, he played bass on one song, "Into the Night"), Billy Sherwood (on some of the later Yes tracks), and Jeff Berlin and Tony Levin (with AWBH).
Mark
l8R
I have never been cited for exceeding the speed limit. Seriously.
Sorry, that sort of thing's for big corporations, not some long-hair, dope-smoking, pinko commie.
Blame Disney for this.
Reminds me of a curious circumstance concerning Donald Duck. Heaven forbid anyone but Disney using or profiting from this familiar character. But many, many years ago, the University of Oregon took to using the likeness of Donald Duck for its athletic teams (the Oregon Ducks). Eventually, this came to the attention of Disney. The Ducks had apparently used Donald Duck for long enough to jeopardize Disney's ownership of this cartoon character. A legal accommodation was reached: The university can use Donald Duck only on apparel or memorabilia sold in Eugene, Oregon, and they cannot put Donald Duck on anything that would be broadcast over the air.
“I’ve had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music. On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That’s not for rent,” the drummer said.
I recall once eating a grilled cheese sandwich to this music.
Or as Dennis Leary calls him, "Big Fat Dead Guy in a Bathtub."
bttt
bttt
Wait'll your mom reads this and sends you a bill for all those suppers, and the Pepto.
"People are ugly
When you've been drinking
Showing your penis
Scares them away"
Close...Neil Peart...with an 'i.'
ah, shoot. Oh well, at least we remembered him :)
I know what you mean. The last straw for me was when "Sugar, Sugar" by The Archies was used to sell corn flakes. All my dreams of the new age of Aquarius were shattered forever on that day.
bttt
Actually as a drummer, I LOVE good bass players. Especially ones that actually understand RHYTHM and TIME as opposed to being wannabe guitar players.
One of the good things about some old full bands was that they understood and had RHYTHM SECTIONS(guitar, piano, bass AND drums), which meant that more than ONE person was responsible for the time and rhythm. Even a good drummer can't keep 2 or 3 other players with no rhythm or sense of time in time or with or on the beat if these people can't or don't want to keep time. It makes the music sound lousy if the drummer has to constantly fight other band members over time and rhythm.
Now, speaking of keyboard players,........one of my good friends is a real good keyboard player, except for the fact that his time stinks. On further reflection, I don't know if he's really a good musician. I don't know if he can stand to play more than a minute of any song before he's on to the next one.
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