Dance Tonight!

Ex-Beatle Paul McCartney reduced to writing commercial jingles.

Have you seen the latest IPod/ITunes commercial? It features an animated Paul McCartney dancing, skipping, and strumming what I believe to be a mandola in tennis shoes. It looks like the same animation technique they use in the Charles Schwab spots. I was going to let this go until I watched the commercial again and noticed that Paul ended his little jingle with a power strum on a mandola!? This put me over the edge. He may as well put on a British schoolboy uniform and sing:

"Berries and cream,
Berries and cream,
I'm a little lad who loves
Berries and cream."

This new snippet of music by the softer half of the fabulous Lennon/McCartney duo has the teeth of a newborn baby, the grit of personal lubricant, and the passion of an old Catholic school nun. To add insult to injury I was buying coffee at Starbucks the next morning and found I could buy a limited edition Paul McCartney Starbucks Coffee card, and charge a triple venti no-foam soy milk latte and the new Paul McCartney CD "Memory Almost Full" from the very exclusive set of music CD offerings from my local barista.

How did it come to this? I hate to use this cliche, but...Back in the old days it was considered selling out if your music was sold as a commercial. Even sounding commercial might get you blacklisted by the grass roots. Now Bono and Paul McCartney both have "songs" that I heard first as an Apple, Inc. IPod/ITunes commercial, which pretty much makes them commercial jingles the way I hear it. Both these artists are rich enough and have earned the right to record and play any kind of music they wish, a freedom coveted by many. They should not forsake this right by insulting fans with insipid commercial jingles.