Re: Coke after Coke after ....7-up!

["Schrade, Scott" <sschrade@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> > It's true but I believe it was a 7-UP commercial.  
>
> Get out!  Where the hell was I?
> Can you give a description?


Gosh, when was it?  The late '80s?  Early '90s?  I can't remember.  I
think I saw the commercial only once or twice.  It was when 7-up was
using the water image (!) of a refreshing rain in their commercials.

I remember a person outside, on a street?  In an alley?  Getting drenched
by rain with "Love Reign O'er Me" playing overtop.  Now, I can't remember
if it was just a bit of the music & no vocals, or if vocals were indeed
present.  Someone with a better memory, please help.

Icidentally, your querie (!) led me to do a Google search, & while it
didn't provide all the answers it led me to this interesting link:

=====
http://home.insightbb.com/~timgcain/pete00-6.html

An open letter to Pete Townshend

I know times are tough all over. And I know you wrote these songs, and you
obviously can do anything you want with them. 

But enough is enough. 

Watching TV the other night, in back-to-back advertisements, I heard Who
music in the background. Not somebody doing some lame version of a Who 
song, but the actual tracks -- of "Who Are You" for some stupid new
technology ad, and of "Won't Get Fooled Again" for some car. 

This comes on the heels of "Love Reign O'er Me" for 7Up, and you re-writing
"Tommy" for the stage and using the platform to revise the spirituality of
the story to an ending that attempts to (a) assuage your guilt over the 
1978 Cincinnati riot at a Who concert that resulted in a dozen deaths and 
(b) convince us, the audience, that pop stars really have it tough. 

A couple of things: (1) Do you really need the money this badly? and (2)
Would you please mind knocking it off, you brain-dead weasel? 

See, I know this stuff doesn't mean anything to you anymore, and I have no
doubts that in my lifetime I'll hear "Squeeze Box" used for pimple cream 
and "I Can See for Miles" bought up by some place that does eyeglasses in 
an hour. But seriously, enough is enough. 

And I know the talent well runs dry. I take a look at your output, and
realize that about the last decent writing stretch you had came about 20
years ago (sheesh, Elvis Presley has a better track record than you, and 
he's been dead for 22 years), and you have cars to buy and habits to sup-
port -- heck, we all do. 

But seriously, enough is enough. 

Your most enjoyable trait, Pete, is your self-righteousness. Now believe 
me, I know you can't stay that way forever -- if I was as angry now as I 
was when I was 20, my head would have exploded around 1994. 

Still, I keep thinking about the guy in the film "The Kids Are Alright." 
It's 1978, and you and the Who are playing "Won't Get Fooled Again" for
what's probably the trillionth time, and even though Keith Moon's a little
shaky, the original Who on three wheels kicked ass on 95 percent of the 
bands that ever took to a stage. 

Daltrey gets to the line "If we happen to be left half alive/I'll get all 
my papers and smile at the sky/Though I know that the hypnotized never lie,"
you strut up to your mic and SPIT out a contemptous "Do ya!" ultimately
directed at every one of us who's ever been fooled by the lie of a leader, 
a parent, a friend. 

Dammit Pete, it was doing those kinds of things that always made me believe
you were one of US, the few, the idealistic, the people who actually dared 
to believe in the liberating truth, beauty and wisdom of something. It just
had to be a belief in something. But I felt even closer to you because I
thought you believed in the music as much as I did. 

Then I turn on my TV, and songs you've written that actually mean something
to me are hawking some crap I don't need. 

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss. 

Your pal, 

Tim 
=====


- SCHRADE in Akron

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, 
every opinion.  Question with boldness even the existence of a God. 
   - Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)