I love the K-mart commercial with Coltrane's "My Favorite Things"

[dolo amber]

I think it really classes it up, don't you? :evilgrin:

[StopTheMorans]

1. definitely!

*ducks* :nuke:

[progmom]

2. huh?

:wtf:

[dolo amber]

5. K-mart (The Martha Stewart collection, no less)

has a commercial on now which uses "My Favorite Things" in it. It's magnificent! :bounce:

[ooglymoogly]

13. kmart is red, red, red,

[Zerex71]

3. God no. Tell me they haven't gotten hold of that.

I don't watch much TV, but I swear if I hear that it's going to make me very, very sad. Coltrane was against commercialism in any form, and I can tell you that song is about as far from the commercial herd mentality as any song could be. What a disgrace.

[redqueen]

4. Oh, yes.

They have.

[progmom]

14. Coltrane was against commercialism in any form?

Do you have quotes to back that up? Not so much challenge, as a serious inquiry. I don't remember that coming up in his bio. I know he certainly didn't have a problem doing Broadway tunes - seemed to have a particular fondness for musicals that had Julie Andrews in them. :)

This is something I argue about with my husband nearly every week. Is it REALLY so bad to have good music on commercials? I would be thrilled - BEYOND thrilled if a few dozen people discovered Coltrane through a K-Mart commercial. I think it was a Levis commercial that introduced me to Nina Simone...

[tigereye]

17. it is great to hear the song

but the commercial contexts are kind of disturbing. Don't think he would have wanted to be used to pitch Martha Stewart, I suspect. Wonder who owns his catalog- maybe Alice ( is she still alive)or his heirs are using the money for something really good... perhaps.

[Zerex71]

19. Let me amend my statement.

Coltrane certainly wasn't above selling records, but his spirituality was not one that would have fostered commercialism. And his views on "My Favorite Things" being popular almost had nothing to do with the fact that it sold a lot of records at the time. As for quotes, I do not have them handy, but I've absorbed just about every book ever written about Coltrane, as well as worked on the tune quite a bit, and so this is a pretty definitive position from which to speak.

I'm not against having good music -- what I'm against is the idea that somewhere, some Gen X imbecile in a midtown Manhattan ad agency thought, "Hey, wouldn't this be a good idea?" thinking that by just using whatever they thought would suit their purpose of bringing people into stores to buy useless crap would be acceptable behavior. I know for a fact that Alice Coltrane is very much against using any of John's work for any commercial gain, and even to get an interview with her, there are a very strict set of requirements as far as usage of his material, etc.

I think the problem with the use of Trane, Nina Simone, and even Louis Prima to sell GAP products is not that they're not catchy tunes -- after all, in most of these cases, these song-statements are much more valuable and artistic than anything more commercial ditties ever will become (which is not necessarily a knock on the artists creating them, of course -- there are commercial pressures in their business all the time) -- but rather, one of thinking that one can "buy hip" because of the inclusion of a "hip" song. It doesn't work that way.

Of course, this goes to a larger issue -- that American society is so ridiculously undereducated and ignorant about good music that it would take, of all things, a mass-production swag factory such as K-Mart to bring an artist like Coltrane to the masses. This is something that should be taught from an early age, and not left to the whimsy of the marketplace.

Mike

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

6. Ah yes - you know that so made my Holiday.

YA JERK!!!

[Magrittes Pipe]

7. I hate you, dolo amber.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

8. My hero

[Magrittes Pipe]

9. I hate you more, CStheT.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

10. No shit

Now THERE'S a surprise

[dolo amber]

11. I *heart* you, Chavez

Hope that helps. :loveya:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

12. I *spade* you. No more kids!

[dolo amber]

15. I *club* you!!

Cos you're a poop face. :bounce:

[J-Lo Biafra]

16. I thought it was the Levar Burton Jazz Quartet!

:evilgrin:

[bif]

18. Coltrane is sacred music

I'm a bit saddened to know they used "My Favorite Things" in a commercial. it's like using a Beatles song. It's just not right.