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Posted

Equal parts lies, truths, exaggeration, fact, frankness, deadpan bullshit, all of it designed to do one thing - sell records. My kind of ad!

I wonder where it ran...not in DownBeat, I'm sure! Maybe Rolling Stone, maybe Jazz & Pop, probably not Ebony, maybe Jet...truthfully I think it's aimed more at a white audience than a black one, overall.

Posted

I'd like to have been a fly on the wall at Columbia the day after that ad ran.

Are you suggesting that this as was not 100% developed and approved by the Columbia marketing department before it ran? I'd find that hard to believe, myself. The thing exudes pro calculation to me.

Posted

I love this copy...it's got that vintage Mort Goode The Inner Sleeve thing gushing out the wazzoo...check it out:

Before Miles, this is what a black musician had to do to sell records.

And not many records at that.

Maybe just enough to influence a generation of superstars.

And maybe just enough records for people to say, "Oh gee, if only he were alive today, we owe him so much."

It ain't gonna happen to Miles.

His latest album, "Bitches Brew," has sales of over 300,000.

300,000 people who went out and bought an album that doesn't have a voice track on it.

Where did Miles get so many new fans all of a sudden?

Take a look at where he recorded his new album.

Live, by the way. Very live.

Go Mort, go!

Posted

I'd like to have been a fly on the wall at Columbia the day after that ad ran.

Are you suggesting that this as was not 100% developed and approved by the Columbia marketing department before it ran? I'd find that hard to believe, myself. The thing exudes pro calculation to me.

Sure -- but marketing departments are on one level, and the big bosses are on another, especially after questions are raised, if they are/were.

OTOH, I was just envisioning a perhaps amusing scenario and not suggesting that there actually was a big fuss at the Black Rock after that ad ran (if indeed CBS was at the Black Rock then).

P.S. They were:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CBS_Building

Posted

I wonder where it ran...not in DownBeat, I'm sure! Maybe Rolling Stone, maybe Jazz & Pop, probably not Ebony, maybe Jet...truthfully I think it's aimed more at a white audience than a black one, overall.

It was in Billboard on 11/21/70, according to the discussion on SH/original source link. See here. If you click the image it pulls up a larger, more legible copy.

Posted

First of all, let me point out that the ad copy isn't sufficiently mundane to have been written by Mort Goode. e was somewhat of a joke around Blackrock in those days.

That said, I am reminded of another full-page ad that ran in the trades around the same time. I can't find an image of it online, but it was for an album by The Last Poets. The copy read (bold white lettering on black bg):

If you're white, it will scare the shit out of you,

If you're black, it will scare the nigger out of you!

Posted

fine, im sorry, Columbia are fuckin' idiots- this is such bullshit. if i was head of marketing i would of hit the roof at this and fired whoever did it, how could this get past? and dont gimme that it was a different time bag, what the hell is this a way to sell jazz records. my god. was it complete idiocy over there in every regard? who is this company anyway i never did figure out how they got the huge name they did, like rca victors little baby cousin, i wouldnt be suprise if it was secret government investment money, i dont know, but i hate this ad, and the COFFIN? jesus. just jesus

Posted

Jesus? Yes, I believe he was in one of the ads. I don't recall hearing much ado regarding these trade mag ads. If Miles didn't like that one, he would have said so, but he may not even have seen it. I think you are making way too much out of this. I suggest that you melt all your Columbia vinyl--it might ease your mind. :)

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