John Densmore of The Doors Won’t Sell Out

I just read an article called “Ex-Door Lighting Their Ire” by Geoff Boucher where he describes how drummer John Densmore, won’t allow Doors music to be sold to advertisers. The article was originally in the Los Angeles Times on October 5, 2005; I read it in the Da Capo Best Music Writing 2006 (Da Capo Best Music Writing). The other two surviving members of the band, Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger, are quite upset with him and wish he would sell out. After all, everyone else is doing it.

The arguments for licensing are “…people don’t frown on this anymore,” and it’s “not selling out; if it’s done right, it’s giving it new life.” What they mean by that last statement is that the only way for dinosaur bands to build a new audience is to have the song played for 15 to 30 seconds to shill high-dollar merchandise. That’s wrong. How many people ask, “Who was that in that commercial? I’ve got to run out and buy that.” If they like that style of music, they can hear it on classic rock stations. I’m betting there is at least one of those just about anywhere in the US that has radio stations. And it’s not like they don’t play The Doors.

According to Boucher, Cadillac approached the Doors before they got Led Zeppelin’s song “Rock ‘n’ Roll.” They offered 15 million dollars. Tempting offer. However, as Densmore says, “… On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and magic. That’s not for rent.”

Licensing a song for a movie is less intrusive. The Doors’ song “The End” was used to great effect in Apocalypse Now. Most people won’t hear the same song 20 times during a movie like they will during a televised football game. And several times a week if they watch that much TV. But few of us will watch any movie more than a couple times in our lifetime.

Selling your song to advertisers isn’t too bad for some groups. The Soup Dragons “Don’t be afraid of your freedom” for Visa is an example. They aren’t played on the radio all the time, and I bet many people have never even heard of them. But I can’t listen to Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock” anymore. Do radio stations still play that song? I’ve only heard it once on the radio since Chevrolet trucks started using it. Is Led Zeppelin’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll” going to be ruined the same way? Probably. Especially if it is used for many years. That’s too bad, cause a lot of us really love that song. I would especially hate to lose some Doors songs. I’m sure that advertisers swoon because whenever I hear “Like a Rock,” I think of Chevrolet pickups. But the down side is, I never hear that song. No one plays it. If it came on, I’d change the station.

So, as a fan, I would like to say to Mr. Densmore, “HOLD OUT! Don’t sell your songs, please.” I’ll end with the best quote of the article, “…hey, you have to respect that. How many of your principles would you reconsider when people start talking millions of dollars?” “None,” should be the correct answer.



Tags:
The Doors, Advertising

Migraines and Prescriptions

I've gotten my migraines under control somewhat. I tried Inderal and Topamax as daily prescriptions and neither one worked for me (the Inderal is cheap try it first). They seemed to take down the severity of the pain, but I want something that keeps the migraines from happening at all. The best thing I have discovered is weight lifting. Not pumping iron, just lifting some weights every day to build up the muscles and keep blood flowing through my neck and back. I'm only benching 50 pounds, so it's not a lot. And I only do about 10 or 15 minutes a day. I did too much once and gave myself a week of headaches. It put a strain on my joints and I had to see the chiropractor about every day for that week to get it sorted out. No, just exercise to build strength and stay flexible and I'm doing pretty well. Ask around, I got the weights free from someone that had them in their basement and weren't using them. Garage sales are great places to get exercise equipment cheap, and this is the season for it. Hope this helps someone out there.

Tags:
migraines, prescriptions, Pharmaceuticals, Migraine Prevention

A great post on Photographing cars

A great review of two books on How to Photograph Cars. Pithy and witty. Of course, I wrote it.

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Grand Duke Robert the Dulcet of Lower Bumhampton Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Seems to fit.

Links to Rants about NSA Phone scandal

Two related, but unrelated links today. Both mention the "phone scandal."

“We Have To Do Something” puts the issue into context with the movie United 93.

Last week made it clear yet again that some of us are still gaping mindlessly at what they refuse to believe while others—and thank God our Commander-in-Chief is among them—have found the courage to understand: We have to do something.

The other post, Mark Steyn says To connect the dots, you have to see the dots. The London bombing report (PDF) came out accusessess the British Government of not connecting the dots to see the bombing coming. Same thing as the 9-11 Commission report. Yet, people are throwing a fit about the government trying to connect dots of unimaginable scale on a random messy page. This is not preschool. There is complexity here and that requires access and resources. I'm as agovernmentment, pro-privacy as anyone I know, yet I realize that some things have to be done. I hope you do too.

Tags:
9-11 Commission, Wire Tapping, Mark Steyn, United 93

Two Related Op-Ed Articles on Celebrity and Paparazzi

Leonard Pitts, Jr. and Betsy Hart each have an article over at Jewish World Review today that touch on fame. Leonard Pitts talks about how WE are to blame for celebrity culture. In many ways he is correct (as he usually is). People buy the magazines and watch the shows that use the pictures and stories that the paparazzi sneak and/or bother people to get. The example Mr. Pitts uses is Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have gone to Namibia for the birth of their baby. I didn't even know they were together, much less that they were expecting. I am guessing they have been together at least a year? Anyway, photographers have followed the couple to nowhere Africa and won't give them a moments peace. WHO REALLY CARES? That is my question. Leave the couple alone. They will show pictures when and if they are ready. As a side question, Namibia? How will this affect the kids status as a citizen? Does that matter the parents? Can they bathe the kid in the water?

The other article by Betsy Hart discusses the 1953 movie Roman Holiday. Audrey Hepburn is a princess who escapes from her duties for a day in Rome and meets a reporter (Gregory Peck) and his photographer friend (Eddie Albert). They spend the day being bad (by 1953 royalty standards) doing things like smoking and riding a motorcycle. Eddie Albert gets some great photos that could make him and Peck rich. In the end, they all do their duty, and the movie is really a tragedy of sorts about star-crossed lovers. If only photographers and reporters and us, the buying public, were willing to put duty above prurient leering into people's private lives. As Christians, doesn't this kind of stuff count as gossip? Romans 1:28-30 (New International Version) 28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents;... Looks like sin to me.



Tags:
Paparazzi, Celebrity, Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie

Password Security

From the Travelin Librarian, here is a link on how fast can your password be cracked? Depends on the computer and most important, the compexity of your password.

Tags:
Passwords,

Hippie Music at Wolfgang's Vault

For those of you who love music from the late 1960s, through the mid 1970s, you have to check out Wolfgang's Vault. Wolfgang was more commonly known as Rock Concert Promoter Bill Graham (NOT Evangelist Billy Graham). At Wolfgang's Vault, if you have a high-speed connection, you can listen to concert music from some of your favorites from the days of the Fillmore West and Fillmore East.

Tags:
Bill Graham, Fillmore East, Fillmore West, Hippies, Concerts

The Best Drug Available

This is the drug we ALL should be taking. Here is Panexa! Be sure to read the fine print.

Hit from Micheal Sauers.

Gone for a Week

I'll be gone for a week building in New Orleans with a team of Southern Baptists.

Track people via the Cell Phone

This is a really evil idea. This story tells how a guy tracked his girlfriend's whereabouts through her cell phone. He even set it up to where he could see where she had been all day, every thirty minutes. See, this is why I don't have a cell phone.

A Sort-of Wal Mart Story

Leonard Pitts, Jr., one of my favorite writers, has written a piece about the leaving of the Mom-and-Pop stores. I really like what he has to say. It's all about "soul." As the big-boxes take over, uniqueness loses out. The temptations are there, but you must resist! Buy small!

Carival of Homeschool #4

The 4th Carnival of homeschooling is up at the Common Room. What amazes me about this one is how many new blogs there are, like there is a whole other wing of publishers that I didn't know about. x-posted at Biblical Parenting

American Library Association Create Ugly Button

The ALA has created a button they sell on their own site that proclaims "Radical Militant Librarian." Sound like a Nazi thing to me. Perhaps it's just Communist, in which case we can all settle down and relax. Not only that, it's ugly. They are trying to claim the Bush administration is Hitler-like, yet here they are the ones making "Militant" noise. Odd. Very odd. I am aware that the phrase came from someone in the FBI who used it in a derogatory way. Still I wouldn't design an ugly button because of that.

Seen at Librarian.net.

Southern Baptists Advertise the Good they Do

It's about time! Dallas Morning News has a story about the SBC being FOR something instead of just AGAINST stuff.

Some critics say, though, that the ad amounts to putting a spotlight on a sideshow – highlighting activities that are genuine but not the denomination's main work.

I totally disagree. For the majority of Southern Baptists, helping people is what we are about. The Culture Wars, however, make more noise than does feeding the hungry. Our church is still sending people to help out with the hurricane messes. And we are a small congregation of less than 300. We have another chainsaw team going to Texas in February. Things must have been bad, this will be the 4th chainsaw team to go.

Carnival of Homeschooling

There is a Carnival of Homeschooling at Why Homeschool. A Carnival is a bunch of links to several posts on a similar subject. Check it out if homeschooling is something you are thinking about.

Common Sense Media

I received and email from Common Sense Media asking me to put them in my links section. I checked them out and am impressed with what I see so far. Rob Reiner even wrote an entry for their blog! And no, I'm not getting paid for this in any form.

How to Make Money. A Ponderous Essay.

The biggest problem with making money is that you have to actually do something. For those who are natural self-starters, this isn’t a problem, or even those who may not be as much of a self starter as they just have a great idea. Most of us lack both ideas and gumption. I have a few ideas, but then I always wonder: Is this going to pay off? Is it worth the effort? Of course most of us never venture to risk and find out if there is something that we may be better at than our current job, of if we could be our own boss, or if we could do something that we love, not just enjoy.

Many people who take that chance go with the standard entrepreneur step of opening a store or manufacturing something. How about trying something else? Craft shows, farm shows, flea markets, work-from-home with your knowledge, instead of “buying, selling, or processing” something. Or perhaps a combination of those would work for you. I wouldn’t mind being a freelance writer and a woodworker. Or a old-car parts dealer. Maybe all three. But it is hard to leave the steady income and the insurance and all that jazz.

When I was younger I wanted to write for car magazines, or build hot rods, but those are very crowded fields. Could I have made it with some persistence? Who knows? Perhaps, but perhaps not. Perhaps that is something I should have started at when I was a teenager instead of thirty. A huge part of that stuff is luck of birth and location. If I was born in certain neighborhoods in Southern California as a kid, I would have been able to hang around a famous hot rodder’s shop before he was famous.

Another part of luck is your parents. I once asked the female professional drag race driver of the Western Auto car how one gets into drag racing. Her dad had been an engine builder, but all she wanted to talk about was the challenge of being female in that environment. I can understand that, but my question was, and still is, how does one get into it if they don’t have family involved. As with many things, in the early days it was easier for anyone to get involved in drag racing. Now it’s a hugely competitive, high-dollar sport and unknowns don’t have a chance. It takes hundreds of thousands of dollars to build and run a drag racer now, possibly millions.

Another requisite is passion. Most racecar drivers or writers are passionate about what they do. Most people are not that passionate about any one thing. I have too many interests. Passion creates drive for those who would otherwise not have drive.

American Music Association Awards Show Says 2005 Lousy Year for Music

My wife and I watched the AMA Awards and couldn't believe how bad it was. First, Mariah Carey came out without enough clothes on and sang a "Britney Spears type song," according to my wife. For most of the show the sound quality was muddled.

But what really sent the sign that 2005 was a bad year for music is that 4 old-timers were asked to play. (Mariah Carey may be an old-timer, but she has a new album out) Cyndi Lauper played with Sarah McLachlan, The Eurythmics, Carlos Santana with Los lonely Boys, and a satellite feed of the Rolling Stones. You know it's bad when my wife says the Rolling Stones were about the best sound of the evening. Not to forget, Lindsay Lohan did a rotten cover of Stevie Nicks. Now any one of these would be fine, they all did a good job on their songs (esp Eurythmics and Santana), but to have this many on one night says that they are hurting for talent. Another sign that they are hurting for talent is that both Lindsay Lohan and Hillary Duff got stage time.

Besides the 4 old-timers, the 3 teeny-boppers (including Mariah Carey) and 3 other acts (The All-American Rejects, Three Doors Down and Cheryl Crow) all the acts were County or Hip-Hop. I don't mind either category getting fair time at the show, but what about all the other categories? Alternative is still putting out some top-notch stuff, Rock surely has someone that can bring down the joint. Is top 40 radio that bad?

Military Recriuting and Retention Very High

If things are going so badly overseas, why is retention so high? Could it be that the people who actually see what is going on see good things happening?Article here.