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Bob Dylan living large in Cadillac Escalade
The Guardian and others are weighing in pretty harshly on Bob Dylan’s new ads for the Cadillac Escalade, claiming they make him “the biggest sellout ever.” (See also here and here.) Yeah, his ads for Victoria’s Secret and iTunes were one thing, but a car? What a philistine. Anyway, you can’t really blame people for getting upset—the man did symbolize a counterculture. But that was 40 years ago. He still has to make a living and, judging by his latter-day resemblance to Vincent Price, he probably has a wax museum to maintain. —Posted by David Kiefaber |
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bob is secretly working for the CAR FREE CULTURE>
nobody advertised this day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Free_Days
How can you get more counter culture than that be doing a Cadillac commercial. Bob, I am mostly carfree in town, but when i visit my friends, as I only have one or two friends and they live halfway across the US on either side, the train is just so dang inconvenient. Flying from Indy is a headache. Anyway, I'll be tapping and banging on my steering wheel to Thunder on the Mountain CD anyway in case I can't find a local radio station. And if i could just get a car charger for my laptop I can plug it in my car, as i dont have a MP3 player, and listen to Just Like a Woman as that's the only music i have from you in my collection.
As for carpooling...
I could be a chauffer. Better than being a contender.
AHHHHH Contentions
Bob, do you need a ride anywhere?
Posted by: nancy | Oct 24, 2007 11:09:30 AM
Make a living??? If Dylan is hurting for cash, then he has done some SERIOUS spending. Sad to see this. Another icon selling out for a crappy product.
Truly, nothing is sacred.
Posted by: | Oct 24, 2007 1:01:21 PM
Correction I meant chauffeur
Well, maybe chauffer is oK, too.
from the dictionary
chauffer=
A table stove or small furnace, usually a cylindrical box of sheet iron, with a grate at the bottom, and an open top.
or from my online picture dictionary (aka how i use image search)
http://www.photos-suede.com/photos-gallery/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=0&pos=-466
Preparation of wood to heat the hut
Posted by: nancy | Oct 24, 2007 1:13:44 PM
Counter Culture my ass, Bob Dylan, Janice Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix and all those lefties made their fortunes out of the counter culture. What's the difference between selling a song and selling a car? They're both products, usually designed for mass appeal.
By the standards of this website, perhaps all artists should take a vow of poverty and donate all their money to charity, living our of the mercy of others, giving free concerts and allowing legally free music downloads.
I'm glad that in their old age they're showing their true colors. I hate fucking hypocrites who decry materialism while making a huge profit. You want to be a humanitarian? Try living like Mother Theresa of Calcutta, sorrounded by poverty and filth. If you can't, then you're a fucking sellout like the rest of us. And there's nothing wrong with that.
Posted by: Bobby | Oct 24, 2007 1:27:15 PM
To get some context on why people feel that way, Bobby, imagine this:
Bill O'Reilly goes and does ads for an illegal alien amnesty/environmental/some other lefty crap bill, just because they throw millions at him.
It's called going against your ideals for money. Selling out.
That's the problem. Not making money, selling your ideals for money.
No one decries blatantly commercial "artists" for selling out, but when your whole shtick is counter-culture or whatever, it's a bit hypocritical.
Carry on though. It's clearly all liberals' fault.
Posted by: yikes | Oct 24, 2007 2:46:09 PM
Alright Yikes, I understand your point. But it's wise to remember that Dylan isn't 22 anymore, maybe he has realized that cars are not so bad after all. Maybe his ideals have changed. Or maybe he has always liked cars, but he claimed not to like them because it was politically correct back them.
"but when your whole shtick is counter-culture or whatever, it's a bit hypocritical."
---Well, my argument is they were hypocrites from the very begining. I read how they used to spit at soldiers returning from Vietnam, calling them baby killers, treating them while crap, while protesting against the war.
Look at Rolling Stone Magazine? Have they also not sellout? That liberal rag is covered by advertising while allowing articles against consumerism.
"It's clearly all liberals' fault."
---Ha! I saw Keith Olberman on MSNBC 2 days ago. In every segment he interviews a liberal complaining about Bush or the Bush administration. Then he proceeds to name Bill O'reilly the second worst person in the world, (normally Bill is #1 in worse, but a national review guy pissed Keith more this time). So I guess from their point of view, and probably yours, it's all the conservatives fault.
I feel sorry for Bob Dylan actually, after years of pandering to the left, kissing their ass, supporting their cause, he finds how quickly he's declared persona non gratta for making a few commercials.
Posted by: Bobby | Oct 24, 2007 3:32:44 PM
I think that Dylan just chooses to do whatever is the unpopular thing to do. Right now, that's a Cadillac commercial. He likes to piss people off.
Posted by: thatguy | Oct 24, 2007 4:27:26 PM
Hey Bobby,
I'm not sure how this sunk to a blue state-red state crap fest, but whatever. Just keep waving your flag and saluting your borderline retarded, coke sniffing, stumbling, bumbling, mumbling mess of a president.
Any chance he can express a single coherent thought before leaving office?
Posted by: | Oct 24, 2007 4:42:00 PM
I think you're muddling some facts with the counter-culture Dylan was part of, as it was pre-Vietnam, but yes, I see your point as well.
I do think he may have changed, but fans don't take change well (see first time he played electric.)
And yes, Rolling Stone magazine has undoubtedly sold out its 60s ideals. It first did in the 80s, then did once again when they hired the Maxim editor to run the show.
C'est la vie.
FYI - I think both sides of the divide are ridiculous. And I read many, many true conservatives who are fed up with BushCo as well. In fact, by definition, Bush is the second least conservative President of the past 50 years (LBJ is the only one to spend more).
Posted by: yikes | Oct 24, 2007 4:45:30 PM
Please point to all these lefty ideals that Bob Dylan apparently espoused in some long-ago era which were anything other than pro-individual, anti-cruelty and anti-injustice. I can't remember a single song he's written which is pro-whale, anti-gasoline or for that matter anti-American. He's a very American arist, quintesentially American. So the Cadillac Escalade is an ugly, vulgar, gas-guzzling yank tank - isn't that what America is all about? John Lee Hooker collected Cadillacs, Elvis bought them like candy and gave them away, Hank Williams died in one. Even the sainted working man Broooce wrote a song about them. Where's the inconsistency in Dylan's stance?
Posted by: umberto | Oct 24, 2007 8:31:29 PM
Lefty didn't come into the picture until there was mention of Hendrix & Co.
What was mentioned, was Dylan's counter-culture status, and how "selling out" goes against (seemingly) the ideals of that movement.
Posted by: yikes | Oct 24, 2007 8:48:57 PM
"I can't remember a single song he's written which is pro-whale, anti-gasoline or for that matter anti-American."
---What's with this fetish of Americans hating themselves? Show me a German being anti-German. Or a Brit being anti-Brit.
"And I read many, many true conservatives who are fed up with BushCo as well."
---That may be true, but the Hillary Clinton "healthcare for everyone" agenda does not fit well with them or with many Americans that realize that free healthcare isn't really free. So for us, either we get another republican who will probably be a moderate and mantain the status quo, or we get a radical lefty that will try to change everything.
"So the Cadillac Escalade is an ugly, vulgar, gas-guzzling yank tank - isn't that what America is all about?"
---America is about freedom. Freedom to drive a hummer, live in a McMansion, and do as you see fit. Europeans and self-hating Americans don't like that. They think the average person is too stupid to make his own choices, so they would rather make choices for them. And by the way, the Cadillac Escalade is a beautiful car, just because neither you nor I can afford to buy one, doesn't mean other people shoudln't. Until the marketplace finds an alternative to gasoline that is just as cheap and bountiful, we're stuck with gasoline. That's what enviromentalists don't understand, it isn't enough to tell people not to do something, you have to give them a real alternative. If ethanol was $1.00 a gallon I'm sure plenty of people would use it. But right now ethanol sells for $2.50 and delivers lower mileage than gasoline. So you do the math.
Posted by: Bobby | Oct 25, 2007 11:07:51 AM
Really, Dylan never stood for any of the things people said that he stood for. He was just a guy writing about what he saw. Making money was always a part of the deal.
Posted by: thatguy | Oct 25, 2007 11:15:22 AM
Just keep wearing that flag lapel pin, Bobby boy.
And remember, they hate us for our freedoms.
Posted by: | Oct 25, 2007 12:26:56 PM
Politics aside, shit talking aside, can't we all just agree to disagree that Bob once supposedly stood for something that may or may not be what he meant or didn't mean to stand for?
Posted by: Mia | Oct 26, 2007 2:12:52 PM
Bob must be thinking he's gotten too popular. So he's shilling for Cadillac.
My first question is when did Bob start talking like a transsexual Wolfman Jack?
Second, why the pimp-mobile Escalade of all the cars he could possibly pimp? At least they used The Clash for Jaguar.
Third, is Bob really just a real-life form of Krusty the Clown--who found that he was ultimately better at selling out than being a "serious" clown? (Remember the Simpson's episode about the Canyonero? Bob's driving a Canyonero! With black leather "driving gloves"!)
Also, who in the Escalade-buying demographic listens to, or cares about Bob?
A really cool way to end the ad would have Bob pull off the highway to soccer field to pick up his granddaughter and a half dozen friends after a match.
"Hop in, gals . . . ." he nasally whines.
On second thought that would have been scarier than the current ad.
This is truly puzzling.
Posted by: Adam Zero | Nov 5, 2007 8:00:22 PM
The far left is off the field completely, thank God I grew up and fiqured that out
finally... Some good points here, but come on people DYLAN is being Dylan, as he has all these years, regardles of what you or I think of any advertising crap. He isn't a car salesman for heavens sake, he was and IS a musical geneous and lyricist like NO other. Period. Who else received a #1 Billboard album at 65 years old this year ??.... Drive what you want BD! You have earned it and deserve it. Screw these leftist filth turncoats who degrade the USA and sit and twist everything and condemn the best Country in the world. Wake the f***
up people..
Posted by: Bruce | Dec 12, 2007 1:39:35 AM
Read his autobiographical 'Chronicles'. He never wanted that "counter culture icon" crown of thorns. If you tune into him only every once in a while you might miss the fact that he has never passed up an opportunity to take that crown and grind it into the ground. Still, I wish he hadn't done the ad. But so what, he never cared what I thought. If he had ever started caring about what people thought, we would not be waiting for his next recording as if they were carved tablets from the mountaintop.
Posted by: Tom | Dec 12, 2007 11:01:03 AM
Dang, I posted my comment before reading the previous posts. I would have taken a second to tell all those brain-dead neocon fascists that Bob is not theirs either, Even if he drives the same planet-killing car they do.
Posted by: Tom Kelly | Dec 12, 2007 11:09:33 AM
I am very much a Dylan fan, and I lean to the left, and I do regret Dylan feeling he has to sell products of consumerism. Up here in Canada - I don't know if the USA received it - about 10 years ago he began advertising for the Bank of Montreal and was thoroughly roasted by serious media and the "satirical media" alike for his sellout. I was pretty dismayed with the ads, and put his records to the back of my collection. But I love his music so much that the lps were soon back on the turntable: I felt like I was selling out by still supporting him, but gradually convinced myself I could remain faithful to anti-consumerism while giving Bob the same freedom to choose his own side. I only wish he was on my side, because as capitalist as the Bank is, the manufacture of such guzzlers as the Caddy is shades worse, and we should, I feel, be all working toward sharing the worlds wealth and cleaning up all our mess so music like Bob's can be enjoyed by future generations.
Posted by: jeff carter | Dec 12, 2007 12:33:03 PM
"I feel sorry for Bob Dylan actually, after years of pandering to the left, kissing their ass, supporting their cause"
I'm sorry to say it - but that statement is just plain horse shit!
He hated the way that he was "portrayed" as a spokes person for a generation .. he just
plain fucking hated it.
And so fucking what if he makes a car commercial .. he obviously likes the car,and for all we know there could have been "Conditions" attached before he made said commercial .. we know nothing of his private life really,and to judge the man without knowing the true facts .. is simply fucking stupid.
Posted by: Orion | Jan 30, 2008 8:06:07 AM
Seriously??? Bob Dylan is f-ing BOB DYLAN! He can do whatever the hell he wants. I hate it when people get on their high horses and claim that an artist is selling out b/c they make a freaking commercial. It's getting so old. So what if Dylan or Wilco have their songs on commercials..at least it is THEIR songs, and at least that's thirty seconds that people actually get a chance to hear good music on television. And yes, these people do have to make a living. I'm sorry-but, I have no idea when some people became damn experts on the 'art of selling out'. They aren't really compromising anything about themselves, they're only finding other outlets in order to get their music heard...and isn't that the point?
Posted by: amber | Apr 24, 2008 2:43:59 AM
Man, too many folks in our North American culture have internalized the corporate ethic of "if there's a market for it, sell it". We quite rightly are disappointed in this guy who sang of simplicity and authentic day-to-day feelings now turning to the promotion of one of the most disgustingly wasteful machines being manufactured. Our earth's ecosystem is threatened, and a shrivelled 130 lb. old-age-pensioner needs a 5000 lb. car to get around? I don't think so.
Posted by: James | May 25, 2008 12:56:26 AM
He is probably just very tired of always having to be the icon that he has become. Every now and then he needs to prove to the world that he is not, or does not want to be the guy we'd like him to be. Most likely money has nothing to do with it. Sellout? No. Dylan? Yes.
Posted by: The Poor Guy | Sep 11, 2009 5:57:00 AM
