I loved this week's theme as you can't deezer it! You really have to trawl the grey matter for those elusive songs... I think we were all off on fairly fruitful tracks of reflection: cars, alcohol, and cigarattes yielding the most suggestions. How rock n' roll... This week's playlist starts off with two hymns to bling: Sister Sledge's "He's the greatest dancer" name-checks the brands of clothing in any savvy gent's wardrobe (in the mid 70s anyway), and JLo croons about Benzes and Rollys (that's Mercedes and Rolex to you, sir) while insisting that her 'love won't cost a thing'. Hum. Neil Hannon then extols the virtues of coach travel in a pithy account of a journey on a National Express bus. My favourite 'soon to be very famous indeed' French band, Jack the Ripper, provide a fairly conclusive list of the cigarette brands that may cause the lung cancer of which they sing. It is indeed a crime that I have never had an Elvis Costello song in a playlist, so I've put this right with 'Hoover Factory'. A nice bit of just discovered deep house gets 'Rolls Royce' into the list and some acid jazz brings in the legendary Hammond Organ. Two French songtrels, Bardot and the divine Charlotte respectively, give us Harley Davidson (written, of course by Charlotte's dad) and the name of an ill-fated Air France flight. We then fly north to Sweden for Eskobar's 'Champagne' and ABBA's Super Trouper which I was tickled to discover, for the purposes of this blog, really is a registred trade-mark of follow spots - those huge lights which follow you around on stage.
A bonus track and a question: the relationship between music and advertising is often a fraught one. Musicians are accused of 'selling out' if they lend their songs to adverts. And yet there's no denying that you can actually discover music via adverts, so it cuts both ways. I discovered the song "Turn on, tune in, cop out" by Freak Power in an intriguing advert which features a taxi driver coming on to his glamourous passenger, until he realises she is a he...
It's at the end of the list.
But what we really want to know is: Have you discovered any bands through adverts or their link to a brand name? Or have you been horrified when one of your favourites took the ad man's dollar?
Découvrez Sister Sledge!
8 comments:
Think I would like Jack the Ripper more if they sang in French.
Great stuff as always - I'd forgotten how good that Freak Power song was.
I have to confess that recent years have left me much divided about music and advertising. I feel vindicated when tracks I've always loved (Pink Moon, Touch Sensitive, Just Another Diamond Day) are whistled by the postman (alas a figment of speech - our postman never whistles- he just stuffs the junk through the letterbox and scurries off leaving a trail of red rubber bands)because they're the latest Vodaphone ad or whatever. But then it's slightly ruined, despite the (living) artists getting some well-overdue royalty cheques for their brilliant songs.They stole my music!
Has a brand ever switched me on to music? Well, 'Jeans On' by David Dundas in 1976 is the only example I can dredge up. I'm sort of relieved really.I did track down a cover of 'Getting Better' I heard on an ad, which turned out to be by Gomez, a band I already liked.
TV programmes and Films are different.
BTW LOVED Steven C's RR Phantom. Thanks for the commercial.
Well there was a time when Levi's were quite good at music programming. They even released a compilation, so proud of themselves they were. There was What a Wonderful World by Sam Cooke on it, The Joker by Steve Miller Band and some others I've now forgotten. But the only example in recent years for me is This Is How We Walk On The Moon by Arthur Russell.
On the other side, I don't think I've listened to 1234 by Feist since it got huge, and Mushaboom a bit less, but I still like those songs in absolute terms.
Was amazed to hear The Fall's "Blindness" on the recent Mitsubishi Outlander ads.
Was it Levi's who did 'Heart Attack & Vine' only the had to find a Tom Waits clone to sing it because Tom refused to sell out?
That 'clone' was Screamin' Jay Hawkins! Easy tiger!
Just poppin' in to say thanks for those comments, guys. I've been horizontal on the sofa/in bed since Sunday with a deadly combination of tonsilitis, bronchitis, rhinitis (but I'm NOT a rhino??) since Sunday. Bleee!! Up and and about if not quite fighting fit. See you aboard the Mother Ship tomorrow. FP.
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