In an interview with Neil Young in AARP by Edna Gundersen, he discusses what happened with the Beck NFL Ad Controversy.
AARP: Beck’s cover of your song “Old Man” for an NFL ad caused a stir because you have always refused every offer to commercialize your music.Neil Young: "It was mismanagement.
It was presented to me not correctly, and I didn’t make the right decision. I love Beck. I didn’t know he was doing a football commercial with my song. I don’t think he knew it was a commercial. Somebody made money off it, and it wasn’t me. I don’t want to get paid.
I wish it had never happened. Accidents happen."
Yep, accidents will happen. More coming below ...
Full interview @ "Neil Young on His New ‘World Record,’ Beck NFL Ad Controversy and Converting Kanye to Climate Action | AARP by Edna Gundersen.
As you may recall earlier this Fall, the Beck NFL ad sparked a bit of a flare up on the long running controversies involving artists selling out for commercial purposes.
Neil Young's 1988 "This Note's for You"
At the time, Young posted a photo on Instagram, showing him holding a beer bottle with a label that reads, "SPONSORED BY NOBODY" without a caption.
The photo posted on IG is from the video for the 1988 Bluenotes song "This Note's for You" in which the musician parodied fellow artists (like Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, etc.) who used themselves and their songs for product and company advertising.
We here at TW proceeded to pile on the grief and implicate Merck Mercuriadis, founder of Hipgnosis Songs Fund Limited in the fiasco.
So thanks for clarifications Neil and all apologies to Merck Mercuriadis and Hipgnosis. "Accidents happen." (Incidentally, look for a major financial analysis on the subject as an exclusive here @ TW in 2023.)
More on our earlier cautions about "risking the "family jewels" which was actually addressed directly by Neil Young himself on NYA. (Also, please note some of our clarifications on this subject after the giant hullabaloo/kerfuffle in 2021.)
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ReplyDeleteI think Beck should have been more careful, a bit more circumspect. The NFL is a soul-sucking corporate monster, everything that Neil Young has spent his life and music resisting on every possible front. Frankly, I think he should remove himself from the Grammy Nominations, as they are also a joke and have intentionally ignored Neil over the years. His subsequent nominations are, in my view, the result of Grammy nominators making some realization that the whole thing is about music industry insiders and money making. So, we have a two-headed monster: the NFL and Grammies. Barf chunks all around. If Beck has a spine, he will withdraw.
ReplyDeleteBeck is always good. Hes like Beastie boys but one guy. Fun. Irreverent. Hooky. Whats not to like. If ole Neil says it was a mistake. Whatever he says.
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