November 9, 2012

An orchestra of outdated printing equipment plays Bob Dylan's "Times They Are A-Changin'."

Warning: it is an ad.

PRINTER ORCHESTRA from Chris Cairns on Vimeo.


Here's a video about making the ad:



Maybe you think an artist should hold himself above commercial advertising. I'm not especially puritanical on the subject, but I don't like to see the artist's most holy songs sold out. It hurt me circa 1980 when Orange Slice — was it Orange Slice? — used "Good Vibrations." But "The Times They Are A-Changin'" is not the most sacred Dylan. And it kind of always was an advertisement. And when I think what are his holiest, unsell-out-able works, I have a hard time. If some glue company did something with "Stuck Inside of Mobile..." I think I would laugh.

12 comments:

pm317 said...

Didn't somebody (rock group?) cheapen Beethoven's 5th? Nothing is scared for some people.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

Ten years after it was released "Stuck Inside of Mobile..." was the theme song of a couple knockabout summers in my youth. It's not sacred though and I'd love to see it used in a commercial.

Johanna Lapp said...

Sunkist orange soda co-opted the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations." They also co-opted Sunkist's own brand of Vitamin-C goodness in real citrus fruit to serve artificial and natural flavors, sugar (back then, now fructose corn syrup), sodium benzoate, artificial color and all te other chemical crap.

Do they even pack real fruit any more? I haven't seen their purple name stamped on lemons in years.

Steve Goodman's paean to the romance of railroads, "City of New Orleans," was twisted in service of some automobile. "Don't you know me, I'm your native car?" No I don't know you, Buick or Mercury or whoever you are, You killed the railroads, America's true native son.

But the absolute worst was Melanie's "Look What They've Done to My Song, Ma," which became "Look What They've Done to My Oatmeal" in service to Quaker Oat Squared.

ricpic said...

Bach; Beethoven; Brahms: all a mere prelude to The Great Bob.

--The Gospel According To Althouse

Bill said...

Mighty Taco in Buffalo, NY used to do commercials to famous songs--the one that always stuck out to me the most was the commercial done to the tune of "Desolation Row."

It's notable, mainly because the vast majority of Dylan fans consider either Desolation Row or Visions of Johanna to be the best song he's ever written. It's all subjective, of course, but Desolation Row will always be #1 to me.

Ron said...

This....is way better!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht96HJ01SE4&feature=endscreen&NR=1

Tom said...

Sacred Dylan!? Ann, puh-leeze. I like Dylan, I'm a boomer just a few years younger than you, but to call anything he wrote sacred cheapens both the divine and Dylan.

It's just a song.

Tom said...

Sacred Dylan!? Ann, puh-leeze. I like Dylan, I'm a boomer just a few years younger than you, but to call anything he wrote sacred cheapens both the divine and Dylan.

It's just a song.

Synova said...

Bah. It's not "art" until it's released into the wild.

Get over it.

Johanna Lapp said...

Bill @ 5:28: Desolation Row is not #1.

Rick Lee said...

Man, that was lame. You can barely make out the song... and the printers are doing stuff they don't really do (lids jumping up and down, etc).

Emil Blatz said...

NEC Spinwriter 3550!!