Post by darkstar on Oct 8, 2005 1:22:41 GMT
Drummer Closes Doors On $20M
Americas
The Times October 08, 2005
Drummer Closes Doors On $20M
By Chris Ayres
Is it simple selling or selling out? We report on a band at odds
over ad revenue
THE drummer of the Doors has infuriated his former bandmates by
turning down nearly $20 million to use their music to sell computers
and cars.
John Densmore has a legal right to veto the use of the band’s music
for advertising. And that is exactly what he is doing. He says that
he is holding out to honour the memory of the band’s lead singer,
Jim Morrison, who died in Paris from a suspected heroin overdose in
1971, aged 27.
“People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first
time to this music,” Densmore, 60, told the Los Angeles Times in an
interview that has astonished an industry more accustomed to
performers launching bottled water brands than objecting to the
capitalist exploitation of their art.
“I’ve had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music.
On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and
magic. That’s not for rent,” the drummer said.
Densmore recalls the day in 1965 that Morrison discovered that his
colleagues had allowed the song Light My Fire to be used in an
advertisement for a Buick Opel car. The singer vowed to take a
sledgehammer to a Buick on stage unless the deal was cancelled.
Five years later the Doors agreed in writing that the band would
have to approve unanimously any music licensing agreement. It is a
contract that the other members regret.
The sanctity of rock music in advertising ended in the 1980s, when
Nike used Revolution by the Beatles. Since then, Paul McCartney has
sung for Fidelity Investments; a dancing silhouette of Bono has been
used to promote Apple’s iPod; and the Rolling Stones have played the
blues for Ameriquest mortgages. Even Bob Dylan’s The Times They are
a-Changin’ can be heard in an unlikely advertisement for the health
firm Kaiser Permanente.
One of the few to hold out is the experimental blues singer Tom
Waits, who recently said that corporations “suck the life and
meaning from the songs and impregnate them with promises of a better
life with their product”.
Recent offers to the Doors include a reported $15 million (£8.4
million) from Cadillac for the rights to use Break on Through to
promote its 4x4s. Densmore said that he could not sell a song to a
company that was “polluting the world”. In the end Cadillac stuck
with the slogan “Break Through”, but used Led Zeppelin’s 1972 Rock
and Roll instead.
Apple offered the Doors another $4 million for Light My Fire, but
again Densmore said no.
The other Doors, Robby Krieger, 59, and Ray Manzarek, 66, are not
happy. The last time the trio met was at the Los Angeles County
Superior Courthouse last year, when a judge ruled that Krieger and
Manzarek could not use the name Doors of the 21st Century during a
world tour. The musicians changed their name to D21C. But they may
still have to pay Densmore a percentage of the estimated $8 million
receipts.
Manzarek has cited the court battle as evidence that Densmore does
care about money. “John is going to get about a million dollars for
doing nothing,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “He gets an equal
share as us, and we were out there working. A free million bucks.
That’s a gig I’d like.”
Others have pointed out that in the 1970s Densmore agreed to sell
Riders on the Storm to the Pirelli tyre company. He later vowed
never to be tempted by money-lust again.
“I gave every cent to charity,” he said. “Jim’s ghost was in my ear,
and I felt terrible. If I needed proof that it was the wrong thing
to do, I got it.”
TAKE THE CASH
Bing Crosby and Sammy Davis Jr sang in the 1960s’ Shell petrol ads
New Order rewrote the lyrics to Blue Monday for Sunkist soft drinks.
But the vocalist Bernard Sumner managed to complete his role by
singing to a piece of card with “£100,000” written on it
Moby allowed every song on his 1999 album Play to be used for
advertising, netting more than $1million
JUST SAY NO
Super Furry Animals turned down a reported $1 million from Coca-Cola
for the use of Hello Sunshine
Sigur Røs: The Icelanders have turned down offers upwards of £1
million, but their manager says companies still fake an
approximation to their music
Tom Waits is seeking damages from companies who used a “soundalike”
in their ads
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1815736,00.html
Americas
The Times October 08, 2005
Drummer Closes Doors On $20M
By Chris Ayres
Is it simple selling or selling out? We report on a band at odds
over ad revenue
THE drummer of the Doors has infuriated his former bandmates by
turning down nearly $20 million to use their music to sell computers
and cars.
John Densmore has a legal right to veto the use of the band’s music
for advertising. And that is exactly what he is doing. He says that
he is holding out to honour the memory of the band’s lead singer,
Jim Morrison, who died in Paris from a suspected heroin overdose in
1971, aged 27.
“People lost their virginity to this music, got high for the first
time to this music,” Densmore, 60, told the Los Angeles Times in an
interview that has astonished an industry more accustomed to
performers launching bottled water brands than objecting to the
capitalist exploitation of their art.
“I’ve had people say kids died in Vietnam listening to this music.
On stage, when we played these songs, they felt mysterious and
magic. That’s not for rent,” the drummer said.
Densmore recalls the day in 1965 that Morrison discovered that his
colleagues had allowed the song Light My Fire to be used in an
advertisement for a Buick Opel car. The singer vowed to take a
sledgehammer to a Buick on stage unless the deal was cancelled.
Five years later the Doors agreed in writing that the band would
have to approve unanimously any music licensing agreement. It is a
contract that the other members regret.
The sanctity of rock music in advertising ended in the 1980s, when
Nike used Revolution by the Beatles. Since then, Paul McCartney has
sung for Fidelity Investments; a dancing silhouette of Bono has been
used to promote Apple’s iPod; and the Rolling Stones have played the
blues for Ameriquest mortgages. Even Bob Dylan’s The Times They are
a-Changin’ can be heard in an unlikely advertisement for the health
firm Kaiser Permanente.
One of the few to hold out is the experimental blues singer Tom
Waits, who recently said that corporations “suck the life and
meaning from the songs and impregnate them with promises of a better
life with their product”.
Recent offers to the Doors include a reported $15 million (£8.4
million) from Cadillac for the rights to use Break on Through to
promote its 4x4s. Densmore said that he could not sell a song to a
company that was “polluting the world”. In the end Cadillac stuck
with the slogan “Break Through”, but used Led Zeppelin’s 1972 Rock
and Roll instead.
Apple offered the Doors another $4 million for Light My Fire, but
again Densmore said no.
The other Doors, Robby Krieger, 59, and Ray Manzarek, 66, are not
happy. The last time the trio met was at the Los Angeles County
Superior Courthouse last year, when a judge ruled that Krieger and
Manzarek could not use the name Doors of the 21st Century during a
world tour. The musicians changed their name to D21C. But they may
still have to pay Densmore a percentage of the estimated $8 million
receipts.
Manzarek has cited the court battle as evidence that Densmore does
care about money. “John is going to get about a million dollars for
doing nothing,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “He gets an equal
share as us, and we were out there working. A free million bucks.
That’s a gig I’d like.”
Others have pointed out that in the 1970s Densmore agreed to sell
Riders on the Storm to the Pirelli tyre company. He later vowed
never to be tempted by money-lust again.
“I gave every cent to charity,” he said. “Jim’s ghost was in my ear,
and I felt terrible. If I needed proof that it was the wrong thing
to do, I got it.”
TAKE THE CASH
Bing Crosby and Sammy Davis Jr sang in the 1960s’ Shell petrol ads
New Order rewrote the lyrics to Blue Monday for Sunkist soft drinks.
But the vocalist Bernard Sumner managed to complete his role by
singing to a piece of card with “£100,000” written on it
Moby allowed every song on his 1999 album Play to be used for
advertising, netting more than $1million
JUST SAY NO
Super Furry Animals turned down a reported $1 million from Coca-Cola
for the use of Hello Sunshine
Sigur Røs: The Icelanders have turned down offers upwards of £1
million, but their manager says companies still fake an
approximation to their music
Tom Waits is seeking damages from companies who used a “soundalike”
in their ads
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1815736,00.html