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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDon't Know how I feel about Bob Dylan's big deal.
It looks like Dylan is about to sell his song catalog for somewhere around $300 million. While I understand that he is probably organizing his affairs and preparing for the end and this could help.
I really do not want to hear his tunes in commercials for indoor air conditioning. It was jarring enough to hear Elton John used to sell pants.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)lithiumbomb
(250 posts)I logged in specifically to reply to this comment. I saw him about 12 years ago or so and it was just, loud. And not a good kind of rock and roll loud, but loud so that you couldn't distinguish anything as a song.
Elvis Costello opened up with a solo acoustic set which was great.
NightWatcher
(39,343 posts)Initech
(99,913 posts)The band was great and he plugging Modern Times, which was a great album, but even still, not a great show.
cbdo2007
(9,213 posts)the other half were mediocre and a little disappointing. Much of the greatness or disappointment were due to the setlist and hearing certain favorites, others were due to the venue, others were due to his voice or energy level. It's always hit or miss but when the times when they were great, they were really great, some of the best shows I've seen of some classic songs of Americana.
Response to judeling (Original post)
CatLady78 This message was self-deleted by its author.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)Response to USALiberal (Reply #5)
CatLady78 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)CUZ ITS A TRANE!
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)I am sure there will be plenty others.
I ain't gong to work on Maggie's farm no more - Indeed.com
A hard rains going to fall - Goodyear tires
Positively 4th street - Google maps
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)Endless possiblities for sure!
Blues Heron
(5,898 posts)Get terminix!
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)I found songs because they were in commercials.
davekriss
(4,608 posts)When an artist takes stands against convention and the establishment, then goes home with a pile of loot and we then hear the establishment use those songs in conventional ways to sell their wares, it breaks our hearts. It will not be long before we hear Blowing in the Wind used to sell air conditioners at a Super Bowl.
We ourselves invest thought and emotion into the words sung by an iconoclastic artist and feel betrayed. Irrational? Yes. Real, felt experience? Yes.
However, the first thing I thought of, given BDs advancing age, is hes consolidating his estate so it can more easily be given to his heirs. Not a bad thing. In fact, its kinda a rightly placed loving thing. So I say, ouch, but good on you Mr. Zimmerman!
Codeine
(25,586 posts)Theater designed to sell a very particular product to a carefully targeted demographic. Dylan is and always has been as much a product as air conditioners and non-stick frying pans.
davekriss
(4,608 posts)This thread makes me think of how I felt when watching the last of a 4 part documentary on the Grateful Dead.
Jerry Garcia had a serene and beautiful girlfriend in the end. Everyone at the time was concerned about Jerrys excessive drug use. So his girlfriend went to him one day and raised concern. In private. And with love. Jerry said to her, sternly, I think were done.
She packed, left, and they never talked again. Definitely pressed the deflate the hero button for me. Ive never been able to think of Garcia the same way again.
(You see signs of his black and white thinking earlier. In the first segment, a group of reporters during a concert raised issue with something, maybe access, maybe drugs, I dont recall exactly. A pre-beard JG tells them this is what it is, that they have a choice, stay or leave. I admired that in him up until he so callously broke his girlfriends heart.)
betsuni
(25,127 posts)my father didn't listen to their Bob Dylan records anymore. He was their favorite. She said because he was a sell out for buying a mansion in Hollywood (or wherever it was). I thought they were being ridiculous but not exactly why.
maxrandb
(15,188 posts)It's because we set a standard for our favorite artists that we ourselves could never meet. It's hero worship.
I am a huge fan of Dylan, but I think he would tell us that he didn't set out to be the "voice of a generation". Some of his fans tried to make him that. Just like all of us, these rock stars are complex people with flaws of their own.
His songs inspired a generation of change and inspired people to think. I don't begrudge him making gobs of money off of something he created.
If you hear "Blowing in the Wind" in an AC commercial and you associate it with Air Conditioning, instead of listening to what the song really says, that's a "you problem". Besides, as with most great music, that song is going to mean something different to those who hear it.
I'm also a huge fan of The Who. Roger Daltrey (who seems like s decent guy and does great philanthropy work) was once asked what "message" the band was sending, and he said; "look, we wanted to make money and meet girls"
Seemed about the most honest thing I ever heard.
davekriss
(4,608 posts)Maybe take a look at my other post in this thread, Deflation of Heroes.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)Im glad to have found that song.
USALiberal
(10,877 posts)Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)But I thought I the music in that ad sounded cool, so I went and got "Lust for Life", which then introduced me to the rest of Mr. Osterberg's work, with and without the Stooges.
And now I'm all about the Iggy, and I laugh my ass off whenever I think that a cruise line chose that song for their commercials.
Clash City Rocker
(3,379 posts)One of my pet peeves is when a great musician dies, and, several months later, I hear his songs in commercials for the first time. It tells me that the artist didnt want his songs in commercials, but whoever gained the rights to them doesnt care, they just want the money.
marlakay
(11,370 posts)With the money, maybe he wants to donate to a cause he likes instead of just leaving a bunch more money for his son. He knows he already has plenty to give him. When we look at the words to his songs he has always had many things he strongly believes in, maybe he wants to use his fame to help some out.
The Wizard
(12,482 posts)performers and recording artists are not getting royalties for their work. Dylan is collecting royalties by selling his song book to the highest bidder. Like retailers, they will realize the Internet changed everything.
Baclava
(12,047 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)StarfishSaver
(18,486 posts)Anyone can record the song as long as they pay mechanic royalties. But if they want to use it for other purposes, they need permission from the copyright owner.
yellowcanine
(35,692 posts)KatyMan
(4,147 posts)From my point of view, if someone wanted to buy one of the most heartfelt emotional songs that I've ever written to sell boner pills, I'm all in.
Docreed2003
(16,817 posts)But in the interview he was asked what products he might be willing to "sell out" for and his response was women's undergarments. He actually ended up doing commercials for Victoria's Secret featuring his song "Love Sick" in the 90's. Dylan also did commercials for Cadillac not too many years ago. I guess the advertising part of this doesn't bother me so much.
What I do find interesting is that Dylan, someone who is notorious throughout his career for "borrowing heavily" and taking inspiration from other artists, has usually been incredibly protective of his catalog. In the 90's, Hootie and the Blowfish had a hit with a song called "Only want to be with you". The song lifts an entire line from "Idiot Wind", and Dylan and his people ultimately settled with Darius Rucker and Hootie out of court for an undisclosed amount.
At the end of the day, this is Dylan being Dylan. He has always been difficult to define, unwilling to be pinned down as one thing, mercurial, strange and yet prophetic and powerfully poetic. I've got no issues with this and I see it as more of a planning for the future.
MineralMan
(146,192 posts)Why do we feel we have some sort of ownership of celebrities? I don't get that.
Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and a few other performers played a big role in my thinking in the early 1960s. They woke me up to things I didn't know, and made me think. I appreciated their music and poetry, but never once did I feel I had any ownership of their work.
They should do as they see fit with it, as, like me, they come closer to the end of their lives.
blueinredohio
(6,797 posts)Happy Hoosier
(7,077 posts)It is VERY unlikely he would net $300M before his death. He is pretty famous for racking up debt, so that may play on it too.
He did a tour a couple years ago, and played at a university in my small city. I did not go to see him, but some friends did. Apparently the only thing he said the whole show was that he was there because he had bills to pay. Quite a show.
phylny
(8,353 posts)greenjar_01
(6,477 posts)It doesn't matter.
tinrobot
(10,848 posts)Besides, it makes more sense to sell the catalog now. He can divide things up a lot easier. Give some money to his kids, start a foundation to do good work, donate some to charity.
If he didn't sell, it would get messy after he passes and the catalog would still get sold. Best he do it now and maintain control.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)Last edited Mon Dec 7, 2020, 08:09 PM - Edit history (1)
in 1970 or thereabouts. They still ascribe oversized importance to people who have long since ceased to be relevant as anything but a memory.
KatyMan
(4,147 posts)as well. Drives me crazy. Makes me feel sad too, imagine thinking that no good music was ever produced after 1975. Bad Company was the height of musical creativity? Led Zeppelin? Steppenwolf? Come on.
So spot on.
Cerridwen
(13,251 posts)I've not seen, read, nor heard so many re-writes of the 1990s by people who hadn't been born or thought they were born with smell-less shit on DU since the mra and gamergaters went into hiding.
Hekate
(90,189 posts)VOX
(22,976 posts)Thanks for enlightening a big chuck (sic) of DU.
Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)I did get a little enjoyment at his ignoring his nobel prize a few years back.
Response to Steelrolled (Reply #21)
CatLady78 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Codeine
(25,586 posts)based on its use in a Jeep commercial. And honestly, Dylan was never as profound as he and his boosters pretended.
nolabear
(41,915 posts)I say this as one being driven mad by that damned Rakuten ad ruining Rocket Man. But it has ever been thus and no matter what else, hes contributed more to the American music canon than 90% of songwriters.
Wounded Bear
(58,440 posts)YMMV
cbdo2007
(9,213 posts)as a listener who doesn't own them, and I literally probably know 100 of his songs by heart, every single word and can play most of them fully on the guitar, but I'm able to let them go, lol.
Hamer555
(75 posts)With the medium changing so much, and artist making so little from streaming services, I think he made a very smart move.
In addition, how many people in their 20s today are going to spend money on his music?
We may see more of his music used for advertising, but who knows, maybe this was addressed in the deal in some way.
UTUSN
(70,496 posts)It's like Mary TRUMP's excellent title, "Too much and never enough."
Surely he's made (billions?). And as for leaving stuff to offspring, the trend for some Big Rich has been not to leave anything. And besides he has never seemed the type to be concerned on how he disposes of "loved" ones.
He didn't exactly "lose" me, just became more irrelevant to me than he already was when he turned Xtian. Is he still that, I've never kept up.
Cuthbert Allgood
(4,866 posts)I feel that he totally deserved that Nobel Prize.
UTUSN
(70,496 posts)Steelrolled
(2,022 posts)He was successful, but he wasn't the Beatles.
Like a house, or stock, his song catalog has a cash value (apparently around $300M) whether he sells it now, or let his heirs decide what to do with it. It might well be his heirs would get more after he died, and maybe he didn't like that idea.
themaguffin
(3,805 posts)[link:&feature=emb_logo|
PlanetBev
(4,098 posts)Theyll be playing Blowing in the Wind for a GasX commercial.
lame54
(35,137 posts)Alka-Seltzer
Towlie
(5,307 posts)Response to Towlie (Reply #43)
CatLady78 This message was self-deleted by its author.
lame54
(35,137 posts)ALL rock songs are future commercials
nuxvomica
(12,361 posts)I was glad when Stevie Wonders' "I Just Called to Say I love You" was ubiquitous in phone ads because at least the music made the ads bearable. A good song is a pleasure on its own and should be heard as often as possible. If we make them sacred, we lose some of the playfulness that they were meant to inspire in us.
tavernier
(12,322 posts)My songs are like Bic razors, theyre for fun, for modern consumption. People can discard them like a used tissue afterwards. I dont believe that I have a talent to write deep messages. As far as Im concerned what Ive written in the past is finished and done with. A few classics will always remain but I write them and leave them. Im more interested in what I will write in the future.
So his joy was in the actual work more than idolization of the product. And he did enjoy making money, so he had no problem selling his music to be used commercially.
Totally Tunsie
(10,885 posts)of Elton John's "Rocket Man" thanks to those horrid Rakuten ads. It's driving me a bit batty.