{"id":586,"date":"2007-05-22T19:51:52","date_gmt":"2007-05-22T23:51:52","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2008-12-11T09:50:43","modified_gmt":"2008-12-11T09:50:43","slug":"title-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/title-19\/","title":{"rendered":"The Cream Ale &amp; The Crock: Beer Commercialism in Rock and Other Stuff&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img src=\"http:\/\/i49.photobucket.com\/albums\/f298\/moderngal\/crockrock.gif\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Doors&#8217; drummer John Densmore borrowed a great catch quote in his article about a permanent stance of his on greed (that of his bandmates), and continuously having to veto the use of The Doors&#8217; songs for commercial pursuit gains in a past written article for <strong><em>The Nation<\/em><\/strong>. <\/p>\n<blockquote><p><img src=\"http:\/\/images.jambase.com\/bands\/tribaljazz\/j.jpg\" alt=\"john densmore\" title=\"densmore\" \/><br \/>\nJohn wrote: <em>&#8220;Vaclav Havel had it right when he took over as president of Czechoslovakia, after the fall of Communism. He said, &#8216;We&#8217;re not going to rush into this too quickly, because I don&#8217;t know if there&#8217;s that much difference between KGB and IBM.'&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>John Densmore (The Doors) &#8211; Article &#8211; Riders On the Storm<br \/>\nhttp:\/\/www.thenation.com\/doc\/20020708\/densmore<\/p>\n<p>Is there really any difference between selling your music and <em>selling your music<\/em>? Wink, wink &#8211; right? Is it selling out, or rather, is it just about getting an artist&#8217;s music heard and having fun with a &#8220;product&#8221;? <\/p>\n<p>I have to admit that I have mixed feelings myself when I hear a band I love&#8217;s music on the &#8216;ol boob tube or in a &#8220;spot&#8221; on the radio. The silliest being <strong>The Zombies&#8217;<\/strong> <em>&#8216;Time of the Season&#8217;<\/em> being used for <em>Tampax<\/em> (smirking aside) of all things, and the awe of new and old commercials by hipster-label companies using <em>Pink Moon<\/em> by <strong>Nick Drake<\/strong> <em>(Volkswagen)<\/em>, or <em>Revolution<\/em> by <strong>The Beatles<\/strong> (for <em>Nike<\/em>, a Yoko OH-NO-YOU-DIDN&#8217;T production) and <em>You&#8217;re Gonna Miss Me<\/em> by <strong>The 13th Floor Elevators<\/strong> (for <em>Dell<\/em>). Someone&#8217;s already even put together a whole best-of compilation for the songs that have been used to sell certain products, I&#8217;m sure &#8211; making money off the money makers, so to speak.<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/BXsWSIyMI7w?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Townsman Ismine was so good as to remind me, that while I was writing this &#8211; I had to at least make sure that I included <em><strong>The Who Sell Out<\/strong><\/em> &#8211; and how could I not? The album with its ideas squared firmly around early AM radio ads utilizing catchy music-filled jingles to sell a product. Commercialism in music at its youngest and maybe finest. As if they were daring you to: <em>use our product to sell yours!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img src=\"http:\/\/static.rateyourmusic.com\/album_images\/s4658.jpg\" alt=\"\" title=\"\" class=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>She ripped her glittering gown \/ Couldn&#8217;t face another show, no \/ Her deodorant had let her down \/ She should have used<\/em> [insert your choice of deodorant here please &#8211; I prefer &#8220;Secret&#8221;, because it&#8217;s made for a man but&#8230; well, you know]&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>However, what I&#8217;d really like to talk to you about today, is BEER. When Mr. Mod originally brought up the article for Motorcycles In Rock, I was already thinking of Beer In Rock. I didn&#8217;t know where it could go, and I&#8217;m still not even sure that it&#8217;s a worthy topic. But, well &#8211; here I am.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<img src=\"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/en\/9\/96\/Billydeesign.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the payouts for beer commercials with rock n&#8217; roll flavor in the mid-to-late 80s, <em>Eric Clapton<\/em> and <em>Phil Collins<\/em> seem to be the biggest perpetrators in the Beer In Rock category in the shifting of units for their songs &#8220;After Midnight&#8221; and &#8220;Into the Air Tonight&#8221; &#8211; could this be an alleged Rock Crime? Maybe the songs themselves without the beer constitute the crimes. Then again, where would Crockett and Tubs be without Phil&#8217;s theme song &#8211; were they kickin&#8217; back with Michelob&#8217;s too? But, selling your soul for a lousy beer ad? And not even a good beer or an import at that! <\/p>\n<p>Do we really believe that Clapton was gonna kick back with some Michelob, after a tough night of guitar playing, either around (or after) midnight?! Everyone from Sinatra, to Winwood, to Daltrey did time for Anheuser-Busch. Daltrey&#8217;s ad even featured a pretty boy on guitar playing at the club (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uPtpAa-g48k\" title=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uPtpAa-g48k\">holstering alert!<\/a>) and not actually Daltrey himself. Did anyone actually buy more Michelob beer because of this? He may as well be shopping me a Coors. But at least Billy Dee had the balls to do justice to the brainiacs behind the great-named (of-questionable-character Coors&#8217; owned) Colt 45 with the catch-phrase &#8220;It works every time.&#8221; Sexist in its presentation, yes. But also &#8211; funny as hell.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=i6uO_7RMkNQ\" title=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=i6uO_7RMkNQ\"><br \/>\n&#8220;With a six-pack of that Colt 45, just like I should&#8230;&#8221;<\/a> (Youngbloodz)<\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/WU_iuV0RR0M?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>Then in 2004, there&#8217;s the Weezer vs. Miller Rolling Stone advertising snafu. Someone at Miller decides it would be great street cred to have a band on the face of their beer, a live band and a logo in the bottom corner. Simple, right? Of course they didn&#8217;t ask for permission. Who doesn&#8217;t like beer? Weezer&#8217;s beef apparently wasn&#8217;t necessarily the beer, but the other artists that they were being associated with who apparently didn&#8217;t drink Miller either (Jurassic 5, Unwritten Law, Incubus, Wyclef Jean, D12, Less Than Jake, Trapt, Velvet Revolver, Shinedown, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Tantric, Static-X, Puddle of Mudd and the Strokes).<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>According to the lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court Sept. 29, Miller used the band&#8217;s name without approval, and Weezer and members Rivers Cuomo, Brian Bell, Scott Shriner and Patrick Wilson claim the advertisements contained beer endorsements from other bands and musical artists that they &#8220;do not wish to be associated with <em>in any advertisements.&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m just asking that they go back to simpler times, to times when a band actually wrote a theme song or a jingle for a commercial, times when a beer commercial might have actually stood for a bit of &#8230; well I don&#8217;t know, and not just the latest single or private party invitation to Blind Drunk Date at the Miller Fest.<\/p>\n<p>And here&#8217;s the jingle that started it all:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>&#8220;The beer that can slake any thirst, any thirst<br \/>\nThe beer you reach for first<br \/>\nWhen you want to quench your thirrrrsssst<\/p>\n<p>FALSTAFF!&#8221;<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/FalstaffBeerCommercial.mp3\" title=\"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/RockTownHall\/FalstaffBeerCommercial.mp3\">Play Falstaff Beer Commercial!<\/a><\/p><iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UIo5vb2vaaI?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Doors&#8217; drummer John Densmore borrowed a great catch quote in his article about a permanent stance of his on greed (that of his bandmates), and continuously having to veto the use of The Doors&#8217; songs for commercial pursuit gains in a past written article for The Nation. John wrote: &#8220;Vaclav Havel had it right when <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/title-19\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[77],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}