Biggest musical sellouts

[Quincy]

I get a kick out hearing the riff from the Stones' "Monkey Man" for a Victoria Secret ad, which is just before the line (well, close to it) "I could use a lemon squeezer." Snicker.

DTMX beat to it on the "Lust For Life" for Carnival Cruise.

Heroin for bras & panties, heroin for cruises. It sells baby!

As far as The Clash & Jaguar, here's Joe's answer from a Salon interview from back in January 2003.

"Q: 'London Calling' has been recently used to advertise Jaguar cars in the U.S.

"Strummer: Yeah, I agreed to that. We get hundreds of requests for that and turn 'em all down. But I just thought Jaguar ... yeah. If you're in a group and you make it together, then everyone deserves something. Especially 20-odd years after the fact. It just seems churlish for a writer to refuse to have their music used on an advert and so I figured out, only advertise the things you think are cool. That's why we dissed Coors and Miller. We've turned down loads of money. Millions over the years. But sometimes you have to earn a bit, so everybody gets some.

"Q: There's no feeling of compromise, doing this? "

Strummer: Well, putting your music to an advert is a compromise. But a good advert with cool music can turn on a lot of people. I know that when I'm watching TV and you get a good ad, it's an up.

"Q: We were getting e-mails saying it was a dubious thing to be doing.

"Strummer: Yeah, well you'll always get that. They should realize that we didn't sell loads of records back then."

Edited October 20, 2004 by Quincy

[Guest ariceffron]

IN THE AIR TONIGHT IS ABOUT THE TIME PHIL SAW A GIRL DROWN IN A POOL AND THE LIFEGUARD DIDNT SAVE HER. THEN, HE INVITED THE LIFEGUARD TO THE SHOW A YEAR LATER AND GAVE HIM FRONT ROW TICKETS-- THEN HE EXPLAINED WHAT THE SONG MEANT AND SANG IT, AND THE NEXT DAY, HE KILLED HIMSELF

[Bill Nelson]

I'm impressed that Phil remembered a lifeguard from a year ago -- I can't remember any of mine. Also, this means you should refuse comp tickets from Phil cause he wants to 'roast' you in front of a large crowd.

[Use3D]

Don't forget Metallica.

[Quincy]

IN THE AIR TONIGHT IS ABOUT THE TIME PHIL SAW A GIRL DROWN IN A POOL AND THE LIFEGUARD DIDNT SAVE HER.  THEN, HE INVITED THE LIFEGUARD TO THE SHOW A YEAR LATER AND GAVE HIM FRONT ROW TICKETS-- THEN HE EXPLAINED WHAT THE SONG MEANT AND SANG IT, AND THE NEXT DAY, HE KILLED HIMSELF

And then they pumped Phil Collins' stomach and found...

The lifeguard story isn't true, see for yourself at the Urban Legends site.

[jmjk]

The lifeguard story isn't true, see for yourself at the Urban Legends site.

Thanks for posting that link, Quincy.

In the DVD for the making of the Face Value lp, Phil Collins stated that "In the Air Tonight" is about nothing in particular. It's not about saving a drowning man, and it's not about his divorce (though he was going thru one at the time).

Oh, and as for sellouts, how about Rush Limbaugh using The Pretenders' "My City Was Gone" as his radio show theme music? I can't imagine HOW IN THE WORLD Chrissy would approve of that. There must be a lot of $$$ involved, or perhaps it falls under the general media "umbrella" licensing fee.

Edited October 20, 2004 by jmjk

[David Ayers]

I'm always struck by those ones where the content and meaning of the original is reversed or ignored in favor of creating a feelgood songbite. 'Born in the USA' (chorus only) is miserably travestied as an affirmative anthem, and that ELP 'come and see the show' thing, actually a futuristic song about the complete destruction of nature, is aired at EVERY baseball game as a ditty about going to baseball.

Hasn't Bob Dylan let one go for an advert recently? I'm trying to remember...

[Chrome]

As far as The Clash & Jaguar, here's Joe's answer from a Salon interview from back in January 2003.

You can't exactly fault Strummer, but this is the interviewer commenting on his (Strummer's) comments later in the article:

While Strummer's reasoning was perfectly sound, there's little doubt that the Strummer of 1977 would have blanched at such rationalizations and probably skewered them in song.

[Big Al]

Oh, and as for sellouts, how about Rush Limbaugh using The Pretenders' "My City Was Gone" as his radio show theme music? I can't imagine HOW IN THE WORLD Chrissy would approve of that. There must be a lot of $$$ involved, or perhaps it falls under the general media "umbrella" licensing fee.

Chrissie Hynde admitted in a radio interview that she had no problem with Rush using her song, even though she disagreed with him on practically everything. Apparently, everything was done legally and she’s getting paid for the use of the song.

I’m always curious to find out how many people bought the Learning to Crawl album after hearing the song on the Rush show? I think that may have been part of Hynde’s strategy all along.

[Uncle Skid]

I don't remember what the ad was for (a bank?), but I was *seriously* upset when I heard Starship's "We Built This City" used for commercial purposes.

Talk about sellouts!! I can't believe they compromised their artistic integrity, just for a few extra bucks!

[Jim Alfredson]

LOL

[Big Al]

Which contains the immortal line:

Someone’s always playing corporation games

Who cares?

They’re always changing corporation names

As one of my favorite books asks, “Sound like anyone you know, Grace?”

Edited October 20, 2004 by Big Al

[catesta]

Which contains the immortal line:

Someone’s always playing corporation games

Who cares?

They’re always changing corporation names

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember

We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll

You gotta love it.

[Big Al]

And who is this "WE" that they keep referring to?

[Jazzmoose]

Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, a catchy heroin anthem, used to promote family vacations or cruise ships or something.

For more information on your family's next vacation, see our tour director, Mr. Pop:

That commercial always got me thinking of some drugged out ad writer thinking with an evil grin, "let's see if I can sneak this one by the bastards!"

[Aggie87]

IN THE AIR TONIGHT IS ABOUT THE TIME PHIL SAW A GIRL DROWN IN A POOL AND THE LIFEGUARD DIDNT SAVE HER.  THEN, HE INVITED THE LIFEGUARD TO THE SHOW A YEAR LATER AND GAVE HIM FRONT ROW TICKETS-- THEN HE EXPLAINED WHAT THE SONG MEANT AND SANG IT, AND THE NEXT DAY, HE KILLED HIMSELF

I REMEMBER THE DAY PHIL COLLINS KILLED HIMSELF. HEHE THAT WAS COOL AND STUFF. I DON'T REMEMBER THE EXACT DAY HE TURNED GENESIS INTO A PILE OF CRAP, THOUGH.

edit: NO REPLY AT ALL, PLEASE. B-)

Edited October 20, 2004 by Aggie87

[Jim Alfredson]

I DON'T REMEMBER THE EXACT DAY HE TURNED GENESIS INTO A PILE OF CRAP, THOUGH.

March 31, 1980.

[Big Al]

Aw, come on Jim: Duke and Abacab may not be vintage Genesis, but they're still pretty tight records nonetheless. Nothing to make you forget Gabriel was in the group, I'll give you that.

I think Genesis officially died when that Invisible Touch crap came out, complete with the aforementioned ready-made beer-commercial "Tonight (x3)"

[catesta]

And who is this "WE" that they keep referring to?

Al, c'mon man, you know you were swingin' a hammer.

[Rooster_Ties]

Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, a catchy heroin anthem, used to promote family vacations or cruise ships or something.

I know. Jeeze, who's idea was it to sell cruises with Iggy Pop???

[Dr. Rat]

Hey-

I remember reading a lot of stuff about this in the Nation, and I was kind of taken aback by Tom Waits's letter to same.

I thought to myself:

"But rock is commercialized from the get go. 'Tom Waits,' the product, is what his career is all about. Same goes for Led Zeppelin, etc."

Now I understand that there are bad moves these guys can make--identifying themselves with products their fan base finds heinous, or whatever. BUT I never really got the idea that commercialism in itself is some kind of betrayal. I mean, aren't these bands just products, products that were extensively advertized and which worked a particular vein of consumeristic "identity formation through purchase"?

I'm not being moralistic about this--certainly I was there with everybody else. Just that when I look back on it, I don't see anything like an experience free of commercialism.

What do you guys think of this line of [insert noun here]?

--eric

[alankin]

Eric Clapton re-recording "After Midnight" as an ad for Michelob.

Especially since Clapton had a massive booze problem!

I suppose it wasn't a good idea for him to accept payment in cases of beer instead of in cash?

[RDK]

And here I thought this thread was gonna be about Miles playing funk...

[DMP]

Bob Dylan and "Victoria's Secret."

[Jim Alfredson]

Aw, come on Jim: Duke and Abacab may not be vintage Genesis, but they're still pretty tight records nonetheless. Nothing to make you forget Gabriel was in the group, I'll give you that.

I think Genesis officially died when that Invisible Touch crap came out, complete with the aforementioned ready-made beer-commercial "Tonight (x3)"

There are some good moments on both of those records, for sure, but with the release of Duke, Collin's songwriting became more and more dominant with each record and soon led to albums like Invisible Touch.

Of course, who could blame them? They'd been together for over a decade and never really had a hit and then Phil goes and does a solo record and BAM the thing explodes.

I like Phil's first two or three solo records. After that, meh. Lately his output is just plain sad.