Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Bryan Ferry, Boots and `Style'

As I sat watching a rerun of "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" on Oxygen (yes, the Oxygen Network; so sue me), a commercial got my attention for the music it used.

I have noticed that as I get older (52 as of this writing), more songs that I enjoyed for decades that I thought would never be used in this manner have been appearing in advertisements; Devo seems to be going through another revival as its songs are used in several ads, and even my beloved the Clash have been featured in several, including the classic/notorious Jaguar and 2012 London Summer Olympics "London Calling" commercials.

This time, the commercial showed women walking down city streets in pretty lame looking boots, and the advertisement was for the rather boring DSW shoe warehouse business. But the music? Well, I knew as soon as I heard the guitar chords that I recognized it, and it quickly hit me that it was Bryan Ferry's 1974 version of "The In Crowd."

I seem to have gotten over the offense of hearings songs I loved being used for commercials, as part of me realizes that songs are for sale one way or another anyway, and if their use in advertising helps the composers and original artists make some money through their creations, well, fine with me. The boots, on the other hand...