The Ballad Of John & Citroen.

TV ad's can cause such a fuss these days can't they?

A recent case in point being an advert by the French car maker Citroen, for it's DS3 model.

As you can see, the advert features footage of ex Beatle, John Lennon, being interviewed & talking about not rehashing the past & saying "Do something of your own. Start something new, you know? Live your lives now. Know what I mean?"

Now, The Beatles are one of those bands that nobody is allowed to mess with & that is especially true of John Lennon himself. So, when Yoko Ono allowed these images & words of John Lennon to be used in this way, it was bound to create a bit of controversy.

I have no doubt that part of this controversy is being stirred up by those people who have never forgiven Yoko Ono for "breaking up The Beatles". I am not one of those people, by the way.
But, i'll admit that i'm not at all surprised that people have reacted in the way that they have.

After all, The Beatles have always been very protective of every aspect of their music, image etc.
It wasn't that long ago that they finally reached an agreement with Apple Computers, about the use of the "Apple" name. That dispute went on for nearly twenty years, if i remember correctly.
It took 40 years for their original albums to be remastered & repackaged. And The Beatles music is still not available to be downloaded digitally.
So, they are not ones to give up lightly.

Although the advert in question was first shown in the UK on February 14th. The story has taken on a new twist over the past few days, because John Lennons son, Sean, stated on his Twitter account:
"Look, TV ad was not for money. It's just hard to find new ways to keep dad in the new world. Not many things as effective as TV. Having just seen ad I realize why people are mad. But intention was not financial, was simply wanting to keep him out there in the world"

Obviously Sean Lennon was saying this partly to protect his mother & i don't blame any son for doing that. But, to claim that it was done to "find new ways to keep dad in the new world", is going a bit too far, in my opinion.


The Beatles are the most famous rock/pop group that there has ever been. Right across the world. 
They still sell as many records & CD's now, as they have ever done. 
Their recently remastered & repackaged CDs have sold millions of copies in the past year.
The Beatles Rock Band video game has opened up a whole new audience for the band & has also sold countless copies. 
And all of this recent activity has been wonderful publicity for the band, their music & their legacy.
John Lennon, himself, is still one of the most famous people who has ever lived. Well certainly in the past 50 years anyway. 
So, to claim that new ways are needed to keep him in the public eye, is for me at least, complete rubbish.


Maybe i'm old fashioned? 
But, i don't like to see the memory of great people, like John Lennon, being exploited by their family in this kind of way.
If it's to do with the actual music & the art that they produced, that's one thing. But, to exploit the person in an advert in this way, is wrong.


Ultimately, the decision is with those he left behind & i suppose we must respect that. Even if we don't approve of that decision.


I can only wonder what John Lennon, himself, would have made of all of this?


Imagine.

Music Of The Past & Present.

If you have visited my page at http://andymooseman.posterous.com/ recently, you might have noticed a link that i have shared.
It was a link to an article on the BBC news website by John Taylor. John is the bass player with the band Duran Duran. The article was entitled "Is The Internet Stifling New Music? " & it is well worth reading by the way.

Without going into detail, he was saying how he felt that music was more exciting when he was growing up & that the Internet was to blame for this. He went on to say that because of the immediacy of the Internet & it's accesability, music was more widely available & this was, in some way, slowing down the creative culture.

Whilst i can see where John Taylor is coming from on this issue, i can't say that i agree with him.
Yes, there is now more music available for all of us to hear & be exposed to than ever before. But, i fail to see how this can be a bad thing.

Most of the great music of the past & present is influenced by those who have gone before.
There is a great musical timeline that can be drawn from right back to the days of jazz, blues & gospel music, right through Elvis, rock 'n' roll & then on through The Beatles, the music of the 60's & 70's & right through to the present day.
So, it surely follows that with this great educational resource that is the Internet now available, there is more music than ever out there just waiting to influence the modern musical artists?

If modern music is not as creative, or as exciting as what has gone before. I don't think we can blame the Internet. Maybe we have to start asking ourselves whether modern music is just not as good as it used to be?
A radical thought maybe? But, in my humble opinion anyway, it is a question that needs to be asked.

So, now that i've posed the question. I'm going to leave it hanging in the air & come back to it in the days to come.
In the meantime, i'd love to hear anyone elses thoughts on this topic.