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The Cream Ale & The Crock: Beer Commercialism in Rock and Other Stuff…

May 222007

Doors’ 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’ songs for commercial pursuit gains in a past written article for The Nation.

John wrote: “Vaclav Havel had it right when he took over as president of Czechoslovakia, after the fall of Communism. He said, ‘We’re not going to rush into this too quickly, because I don’t know if there’s that much difference between KGB and IBM.'”

John Densmore (The Doors) – Article – Riders On the Storm
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20020708/densmore

Is there really any difference between selling your music and selling your music? Wink, wink – right? Is it selling out, or rather, is it just about getting an artist’s music heard and having fun with a “product”?

I have to admit that I have mixed feelings myself when I hear a band I love’s music on the ‘ol boob tube or in a “spot” on the radio. The silliest being The Zombies’ ‘Time of the Season’ being used for Tampax (smirking aside) of all things, and the awe of new and old commercials by hipster-label companies using Pink Moon by Nick Drake (Volkswagen), or Revolution by The Beatles (for Nike, a Yoko OH-NO-YOU-DIDN’T production) and You’re Gonna Miss Me by The 13th Floor Elevators (for Dell). Someone’s already even put together a whole best-of compilation for the songs that have been used to sell certain products, I’m sure – making money off the money makers, so to speak.

Townsman Ismine was so good as to remind me, that while I was writing this – I had to at least make sure that I included The Who Sell Out – 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: use our product to sell yours!

She ripped her glittering gown / Couldn’t face another show, no / Her deodorant had let her down / She should have used [insert your choice of deodorant here please – I prefer “Secret”, because it’s made for a man but… well, you know]…

However, what I’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’t know where it could go, and I’m still not even sure that it’s a worthy topic. But, well – here I am.
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The Unfulfilled Promise of the Motorcycle in Rock

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 192007

Only the hat failed to catch on

In rock’s nascent days, lurking not too far in the shadows behind the leather jacket, the DA, the hot rod, and the hot chick, was the motorcycle. Like the leather jacket, the cycle’s iconic power can be traced back to Marlon Brando’s role in The Wild Bunch.

Hot rods remained the vehicle of choice through the years when Chuck Berry was motovatin’, while soul and British Invasion artists of the first half of the ’60s did most of their commuting by foot and train. In the second half of the ’60s, however, thanks to Roger Corman‘s exploitation flicks and hippie-era interest in exploring the wide-open spaces of the United States, the motorcycle came to light as the vehicle of choice for rock ‘n rollers.

The opening images of one of the two most influential movies of my lifetime was accompanied by rock’s finest motorcycle song ever!

For reasons still unclear to me to this day, my parents and the parents of friends of mine from down the block took us all to see a drive-in double feature of Hell’s Angels on Wheels with Easy Rider. I must have been 5 or 6 years old. This was in the days when your could shove 8 people into a station wagon, with kids fighting for the highly valued seats that flipped up and faced looking out the back window. I still recall a bad biker dude in a WWI German helmet and a guy getting shot right between the eyes – shattering his rectangular Granny glasses – to end Hell’s Angels on Wheels. Yes! Then came Easy Rider, with choppers, kick-ass sideburns and facial hair, the leather football helmet, and “Born to Be Wild”. Yes! From that night forward I developed a crystal clear lifetime goal that, to be honest, exists in some form to this day: I wanted to be a hippie.*

*As part of this plan, I wanted to ride a chopper. Over the next couple of years I saved money to buy a mini-bike. My Mom was totally against it, but I kept saving. I was a week away from trying to get my Dad to make the case that I should be allowed to get one when a motocycle-riding neighbor from around the corner flipped his bike and died instantly. Just as fast I decided to cap my hippie accoutrements at big sideburns, a Fu Manchu, and a fringed suede jacket.
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BATTLE ROYALE: Shades vs Leather

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 172007

I would like to propose a BATTLE ROYALE today: Shaded vs Leather-Clad Rockers!

Team Shades
Team Shades includes Ian Hunter, Jeff Lynne, and Graham Parker.

Team Leather
Team Leather includes Elvis, Lemmy, and Leather Tuscadero.

Who else you gonna call? Which side wants the leather-clad, shaded Bono? Enter the squared circle in support of one side or another!

Rock Crime: REM’s “Losing My Religion” Video

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Apr 092007

Do we try over spilt milk?

The last thing I want to do is make this into a pile-on session on the pride of the American ’80s underground, REM. If you’ll recall, some Townspeople already had the opportunity to do this when the band we inducted into the Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame some weeks ago.

We are not here to indict the recording career of REM, Mike Mills’ shocking switch to the Nudie suit and unkempt hair Look, or even Michael Stipe’s overall Look portfolio. Today, there’s but one Rock Crime for which REM must answer: the video for “Losing My Religion”. Love the song itself or hate it – and surely there are many on each side of that fence – it is solely the 1991 MTV Music Awards‘ Best Video of the Year, directed by Tarsem Singh, that is accused of high crimes against rock.

If you were anywhere near a tv in the early ’90s, surely you’re all-too-familiar with this video. There’s the religious imagery and obvious hints at the framing of famous photographers’ works as well as the works of Caravaggio. There’s tho whole Soviet poster art/salt of the earth imagery: large-nosed, honest folk with stubble and somber faces, looking off into the distance or, briefly, directly at you, the viewer of these important messages from a singer who’d already made a career of mumbling nonsensical lyrics to cover for his near-crippling introversion. Jeez, does anyone look like they’re having a good time in this video?
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Thank Heavens for Cool, Die-Cut Album Covers!

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Feb 012007

While doing my annual re-evaluation of The Small Faces’ Odgen’s Nut Gone Flake album this morning, I couldn’t help thinking about how much mileage and forgiveness the album has probably garnered among rock fans thanks to the cool, die-cut cover sleeve in which it originally appeared. I’d show you a picture of it, if you don’t know what I’m talking about, but any 2-dimensional, digital image I can find doesn’t do it justice: the sleeve was die-cut to a circle, perfectly containing the album itself with no extra space around it. Very cool, and the motivation for saving up the spare pennies from my bookstore clerk years to buy an expensive used copy in the mid-80s!

Surely, I ran home that night, dusted off what seeds and stems I could gather, scraped out some resin from my bong, and braced myself for what would be one of those psych-rock fanboy moments a young music geek chases until he’s reached the end of the rainbow and has paid good money for one too many Idle Race albums, eventually hitting rock bottom with a desparate grab at the collected works of SRC.
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Headbands: Rock’s Doomed Fashion Trend?

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 302007

I’ve grudgingly come to the belief that headbands, although very cool in concept, were among the major fashion flops of all-time. For a brief time in the early ’70s, they were promising. Lakers’ center Wilt Chamberlain was at the vanguard of the headband movement. With his long sideburns, his Van Dyke, and that muscular 7-foot, 2-inch frame barely covered in a gold and purple uniform, the flexible, terrycloth headband was the coup de grace of the man’s Look. Of course, the headband also had a practical use, keeping sweat out of basketball players’ eyes.

Dating back to the late-60s, rock ‘n roll culture also began flirting with the headband. Hippies, as the cutting-edge of that era’s youth culture were then called, tied colorful scarves around their head, for a sort of Native American/pirate Look. Jimi Hendrix was rock’ best-known early proponent of the headband. These headbands also served a practical function: keeping the user’s long, unkempt hair out of the way when lighting joints and in Hendrix’s case, according to rock lore, serving as a delivery device for massive doses of LSD that would enter the pores of his sweaty forehead!
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Look Letdown

Posted by Mr. Moderator

Jan 232007

Watching the All-Star Jam clip of The Kinks performing the exquisite “Autumn Almanac” that Mr. Todd just posted, I’m reminded of perhaps what is – for me – the most disappointing letdown in a favorite rock artist’s Look. How cool is Ray Davies’ Look in 1967? How cool is Dave Davies’ Look, for that matter? Sure, getting old’s a bitch, and I’m not getting any younger myself. Somehow, though, Ray’s long, thinning, dyed hair – possibly with some combover action in play – makes him look too much like the questionable characters he portrayed in both song and stage persona circa early-70s. For me, that’s a letdown. I didn’t grow up thinking I might model my Look after a sleazy hustler. I know it’s petty and wrong to express such a feeling, but I suspect you harbor your own Look Letdown candidate.

I look forward to your shamefully sharing.

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