« Lee Hazlewood 1929-2007 | Main | Video: M.I.A. - "Jimmy" »
August 06, 2007
The Shillest: Hey Babe...
I try to keep from mixing my politics nerdiness and my music geekery on this site, so I haven't had much cause to link to the New Republic's blog, the Plank. They have now however shown us a vision of a horrible past that falls under our steez. Well, Keith's steez anyway.
I've borrowed Keith's steez.
This ad shows clips from the gritty pre-Guiliani Manhattan, the one lusted after by James Murphy in "New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down." As various hustlers and hard cases skitter about, you hear the familiar strains of Transformer's classic "Walk on the Wild Side." All that unpleasantness about "giving head" and such is left mute, but the omission almost works, giving the dark scenes sort of a subtle in the know hip quality. As with only the briefest glimpses of the song's singer on posters and once quickly on the street, you'd have to be familiar with the material for that to mean anything to you. So clearly they are targeting the hip, gritty, city sort who listens to the Velvet Underground and wouldn't dream of leaving the city grime or no grime. The sort of people who look to underground cultural icons like Lou Reed for guidance towards fine motor vehicles. So what blindingly hip cause has St. Lou left the after hours club to endorse? A tough muscle car? A hot rod? A hearse?
What could make him bark out the line "Why settle fer waawkin'?" in his suitably intimidating downtown snarl?
Honda ad, circa 1985
Scooters?
So it follows from his line and the song in question that he thinks we should SCOOT on the wild side?
That's unspeakably weak.
The full destructive impact of this campaign was initially thought to be minor, but you have to remember that though not many people bought the first Lou Reed scooter, everyone who did later formed a band.
A scooter band.
Posted by Jeff Klingman at August 6, 2007 06:43 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/1164
Comments
That's nothing. A few years back, the NFL Network aired commercials (during the Super Bowl, no less) where a bunch of back-yard enthusiasts serendipidiously re-enacted some of the greates plays in league history ("the Catch", Starr's QB sneak, Barry Sanders demolishing the Patriot's defense on Thanksgiving Day, stuff like that). In the background played Lou Reed's "Perfect Day", a choice that I can only assume means the NFL endorses the use of heroin in children.
Posted by: Randall Monty at August 6, 2007 07:02 PM
I remember that one, but you didn't see Lou out there on the field, riding a scooter.
Posted by: Jeff K at August 6, 2007 07:10 PM
Yeah...but that sure would have been a sight to see. As for the Scooter Rock genre, Chris Spedding had a song called Motorbikin', and I bet there were some other glammy things that would qualify, from the mid-70s, when scooters were on the upswing.
Posted by: david at August 7, 2007 11:11 AM
