McCartney new song on advert...WHO CARES?

simer4001 · Post by **simer4001** » Sat Sep 17, 2005 6:32 pm

Someone had mentioned earlier the gig bags Paul was pimping in an ad on Macca Central. I thought "No Way"! Someone snapped a lucky picture. WRONG! Check out this tidbit from www.mplcommunications.com

Roblés Roadcase
Rob Roblés, founder of Roblés Roadcase and close family friend of Paul's, along with his partner Chris Hansen have created an innovative line of electric guitar gig bags and drum stick bags that no musician should do without.

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Sun Sep 18, 2005 12:39 pm

Pimp schmimp. Let's not start that again. When every touring band stops selling T shirts, McCartney should stop selling bags. How about this link, fellas? http://www.mplcommunications.com/mccartney/charity.htm

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 7:07 am

I know some touring bands who depend on t-shirt sales just to put enough gas in the one van they're all sharing to make it to the next gig...and these are bands with recording contracts. It's not fair to compare them with Paul's bags (the gig bags, not the ones under his eyes). I'm one musician who will be revelling in 'doing without' one of these...

Just one schmimp's HO...

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:08 am

Did you buy a Rick Forum t-shirt, Dane?

I'm the worst kind of pimp. The kind who pimps for FREE...

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:09 am

Well, I tried to avoid this, but ... So much hostility toward someone who, if he had chosen to be a plumber, would not have had a hand in creating the music business which exists today so that small bands CAN tour and sell outrageously priced T-shirts. So, shall we hate The Beatles for perpetuating the money-grubbing capitalist system? Or should we go back to Sinatra and hate him for being among the first to cause bobbysoxers to scream for a crooner, thereby paving the way for The Beatles? Or maybe we should just go all the way back to the first caveman to thump two hollow logs together, thus inventing music.
In a perfect world, every song would be filled with hidden meaning that helps mere mortals transcend the vicissitudes of life in a meaningful way. Every dime made by a rock musician since Bill Haley first spit-curled his thinning forelock would have gone to famine relief and inventing automobiles that run on air. Sports stars would play with shinbones protruding through their flesh, and they'd do it for federal minimum wage. There would be no fast food and families would still sit down to three- course dinners and chuckle over what The Beaver did on TV the night before. But it ain't like that. The rich were making money hand over fist before McCartney was conceived. If I was a rock star and my buddy invented a nice gigbag, I'd plug it for him. If he tried to give one to me, I'd say, "No, I'll pay for it." I wouldn't take a share of the profits if people bought it just because it was associated with me, but I'd sure pose with it because he was my friend and I wanted him to make money.
Does anyone KNOW if McCartney's getting money to pitch these gigbags? Have we seen his balance sheets? How do we know that he's not taking all the fees he makes from Lexus and Fidelity and plugging them right into the anti-land mine effort? Is anyone asking Lexus and Fidelity what they're doing with the money that their using of McCartney's likeness will generate? Better yet, how do we know that if we don't buy a gigbag, some kid in Sarajevo isn't going to get his leg blown off because they didn't have the money to clear mines? How do we know that the money we spend on the struggling band's T-shirt isn't going to go up the the bass player's nose instead of into the van's gas tank? We don't know. After the money leaves our hands, we don't know where it goes. To a CEO? To charity? To underwrite an Internet site devoted to Rickenbacker instruments?
We don't known anything about what McCartney does with his money except for the publicized causes he espouses. He has just as much right to merchandise as George Lucas has, as much right as struggling bands have to sell their shirts. When you have something to market that people will pay to buy, show me videotape of your statement saying that you will reject all "unreasonable" profit. Then show me your tax returns.
By all means, get satisfaction out of not buying a gigbag. I'm "revelling in" the fact that maybe some of the $15 I spent for "Chaos" will go to hunger relief. But if Paul uses some of it to buy toilet paper, I won't gripe about it. (I know, I know -- Paul probably has his toilet paper GIVEN to him by the International Toilet Paper/Kill the Trees Underground Movement.) If any of us truly thought about what our money could be used for, we wouldn't be buying much of anything.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:13 am

Yes, Dave, but he's so...VISIBLE.

And popular, and smarmy.

That's my second use of that word today.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 8:28 am

Aw, c'mon now...Hundred Pound notes make excellent toilet paper!

If Paul had decided to become a plumber, applied himself diligently to the trade and did great work for a decade or so, and then allowed his work to go 'downhill' so far that he could no longer even sweat a joint correctly, but now was able to charge a thousand times what he used to make...well then your point might be well taken. Things don't work that way in the 'bricks-and-mortar' world, however...and all my plumber friends (and I have quite a few) and I take great umbrage with your comparison...(love that word, umbrage).

I betcha there are plenty of Lexuses (Lexi?) parked in the lots of the corporations that manufacture land mines...decorum prevents my listing their names here...

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 9:23 am

No, list them, please -- it's your public duty, same as it's your public duty to trash Macca. Which do you think will serve a greater purpose? Let's see, so far you've taken umbrage at comments about drummage and plumbage. Well, I have plenty of songwriting friends, and they and I take umbrage at your perception of someone's ability to write "worthy" songs and your insinuation that by willingly taking cash for the product of their labors, they are somehow less than worthy than the writers who turn out pure slog at minimum wage. Maybe I don't like all of McCartney's songs these days either, but even if his songwriting skills rolled all the way down that hill you keep mentioning and fell off the edge of the flat Earth, they would still be far higher than those of many writers. And, no matter how much you say that McCartney let his skills decline or sold out and is grabbing all the cash he can, the fact is that you still don't know and never will know what Paul does with all his money after it gets into his bank account.

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 9:49 am

Not my public duty, but certainly within my rights...I'm pretty sure that I have never objected to anyone 'willingly taking cash for the product of their labors'...nor do I believe that's even close to the point here. To say that Paul's songwriting skills, as low as they may have fallen, remain higher than those of many others is not making much of a statement. I once had a boss (who was a bit of an imbecilic blowhard and quite full of **** much of the time) tell me that he had "forgotten more about construction" than I would ever know...aside from being dubious on it's face, that's a mighty peculiar boast.

And also (gee, I feel really uncomfortable pointing this out): the Earth isn't flat. You could look it up, along with the names of the aforementioned death merchants...

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 10:01 am

I'll bet Paul has forgotten more money than I'll ever make...

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 10:08 am

It's in his other pants, along with his integrity...

(Oh, man...I'm sorry, I just can't seem to quit gettin my 'jollies' from kickin' the poor guy while he's 'down')

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:04 am

What people have to say and how they say it says more about them than what they are talking about.

And if you figure what I'm trying to say, good on ya.

Though we sell our CD's though Not Lame, CD Baby and the like, we give em out at shows, cause we just wanna be heard (and nobody comes to our shows anyway).

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:12 am

That's admirable, Jerry! I applaud your generosity!

(Hope that's readable)

revolver323 · Post by **revolver323** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:17 am

Earth not flat? When did it sell out?

wayang · Post by **wayang** » Mon Sep 19, 2005 11:22 am

Not flat, not sharp...'natural'.