Posted on 04/15/2003 4:46:52 PM PDT by mikeb704
Eva Narcissus Boyd was buried in North Carolina earlier this week. The name may not be familiar, but her music certainly is.
Under the name "Little Eva," she recorded "The Locomotion." The song was a giant hit in 1962.
Forty years is a very long time, even if Baby Boomers recall the era as though it were last week. I thought of Little Eva a few of months ago while driving. Her hit was playing on the radio and I wondered how many times I’d heard it over the decades. Surely hundreds of times. Maybe even thousands.
I began conjecturing if "The Locomotion" will still be listened to in yet another 40 years. Given how pervasive 60s music is today, I think there’s a possibility of that happening.
It’s not just on oldies stations. Turn on the TV and chances are you’ll hear 60s music in commercials.
Donovan, the Sunshine Superman, sings "Colours" in a Kohl’s commercial. A Gap ad uses his "Mellow Yellow." The same company features another commercial with The Troggs’ "Love Is All Around." What, you thought "Wild Thing" was their only groovy ditty?
Admittedly, some of the music in TV ads emanated from one hit wonders. Flowers.com runs a spot with "Concrete and Clay," a 1965 hit for the legendary Unit Four + Two. GMC’s Yukon included "Our Day Will Come." The first song released by Ruby and the Romantics, it was also the only one for which the group is remembered. Old Navy used "California Sun," a hit by the Rivieras. The band made the Golden State sound like heaven, which was quite an accomplishment for some Indiana boys who’d never personally been out there a’havin’ fun in that warm California sun.
It’s surprising to me that, given their sheer number and popularity, more Beatles tunes aren’t incorporated in advertising. Possibly it’s because of legal impediments. Michael Jackson has owned the rights to over 200 Beatles songs. Of course, Michael is always busy with either not getting plastic surgery or being named in multimillion-dollar lawsuits, so perhaps he just hasn’t had the time necessary to exploit his ownership.
Another consideration is that some Boomers consider Beatles music sacrosanct. These folks feel disgust with what’s perceived as tawdry commercialization of their heroes’ works. They must have not paid much attention when the group cranked out barkers like "Dig A Pony" just to fill up an album.
The mid-80s marked the first use of a Beatles song in an ad. Lincoln-Mercury had a sound-alike group singing "Help." A couple of years later, Nike featured "Revolution" performed by the Beatles and the company credited it with increased sales. Apple Records sued Nike, but until the case was settled kept employing it.
In the late 90s, Nortel Networks licensed "Come Together" for a new marketing campaign. H&R Block latched on to "Taxman" for commercials last year. Around the same time, an Allstate Insurance ad included "When I’m 64." Julian Lennon performed the tune, which added a nice touch of irony I thought.
Car companies especially look back to the golden age of rock. Steppenwolf does a heavily mixed version of "Magic Carpet Ride" for Dodge Viper. "Unchained Melody" was a 60s hit for the Righteous Brothers and Mercedes Benz incorporated it in a commercial last year. The Kinks’ "You Really Got Me" has been used in other ads for Mercedes Benz.
A song I’ve heard in several commercials is the great "Time Has Come Today" by the Chambers Brothers. It’s pitched beer, cars, and even an investment company.
One advertisement highlights "It’s A Beautiful Morning," a hit for the Young Rascals. The product being sold is Vioxx, an arthritis pill purchased by many Boomers, possibly even the not so young anymore Rascals.
When most of my generation finally leave this vale of tears – if they ever do – maybe then the 60s music will fade away. But what will take its place? The Insane Clown Posse, Eminem, Twisted Sister?
You know, The Locomotion keeps getting better with age.
Good stuff. You should post that parody here on the internet under parody songs..
* 972: Can't Buy A Thrill - best songs..Do it AGain, Reeling in the Years, Dirty Work..
* 1973: Countdown To Ecstasy - best songs, Bodhisattva, The Boston Rag, Your Gold Teeth, Show Biz Kids, My old School
* 1974: Pretzel Logic - Best songs..Night by night, East St. Louis Toodle-oo, Parker's band
* 1975: Katy Lied - best songs - Black Friday, Bad Sneakers, Dr. Wu
* 1976: The Royal Scam - Best songs - Kid Charlamagne, Don't Take me Alive, The Caves of Altamira
* 1977: Aja - Best songs - Black Cow, AJa, Deacon Blues, Josie
* 1980: Gaucho - best songs - Babylon Sisters, Hey Nineteen,
* 2000: Two Against Nature - Gaslighting Abbie, What a shame about me, West of Hollywood
I'll buy anthing Dan record that still has Becker in charge of music and fagan in charge of the lyrics.
They haven't always been a duo, but overtime found out that it was much more convenient to go ahead as a duo and recruit whichever session musicians and guest stars they deemed it appropriate at the moment instead of depending on a regular backing band. Their point of existence was to mock American society by combining the most radio-happy melodies and arrangements possible with the most sneering, biting, poisonously satiric lyrics possible. Their sophistication was in working over those radio-happy melodies and arrangements for months and sometimes even years, sterilizing, polishing, and brushing every note to some kind of modelled perfection, and in working over the sneering lyrics so as to make them as inaccessible as could be. Their personal mystique was in gradual self-concealing, when they used to give out something like one interview per album and didn't tour at all.
I'm looking forward to the 24 bit remastered version of Live Bursting Out. The sound is quite good except there is some trouble with the overall mix. Barlow's drumming suffers a bit in a couple of the songs.
BTW... I never purchased the original Live Bursting Out Cd. I still listen to the LP on my old Kenwood Turntable...
And you think you're something? I have a buddy who'd be wholly unimpressed. He's boomer musician who used to play punk rock and who now collects wax cylinder records and won't listen to anything recorded after around 1926!
(Above is no flame!) Do you have or remember 33 1/3 RPM 10'' LPs? Or 45 EPs? Presley issued a whole bunch of 45 EPs in the early 60s with colorful covers and up to 6 tunes from his sorry movies. You could also buy albums on reel to reel tapes, I recall. Somebody, perhaps the French, experimented for a while with 16 RPM LP records for spoken word recordings. Those were the days!
You are 100% correct in making that statement.Those 8 albums truly show the Writing and Producing Ingenuity of Jimmy Page, a fact that cannot be denied. There's a double live DVD coming out in May (Produced and Mastered by Jimmy)that are Pro-Shot Live Led-Zeppelin shows from 1970,1975 and 1979 ( and a host of extra clips)that will allow a whole different generation of people to 'feel' the Power of a Live Zeppelin show.That point can't be emphasized enough.
If I'm not mistaken, the other track was 'Sweet Dream'. Smart move to burn the LP to a CDR. I haven't figured out how to do that yet. I have burned casettes to a CDR but only from a portable casette player. The live version of 'Sweet Dream' on the last years live Tull record, Living with the Past, is well worth hearing for people who don't have the double album/CD Live Bursting Out. Martin's guitar is twice as metallic-sounding as on the original version and Ian's vocals particularly expressive and "unslurred", it may be even harder-hitting than the studio version, although maybe a bit less subtle at the same time.
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