On Monday, April 5, 1999 at 12:00:00 AM UTC-7, SteveYetter wrote:
Robert Plant holding your product, or any other celebrity holding your product (remembering of course that a celebrity is only known for being known, generally) is called "transfer of authority." Which is why
pitchmen for car companies don't necessarily have to be known for driving...just SOMETHING! Unfortunately, guitars have joined the general music world as big money makers for a lot of people who could care less
about music or guitars.
Fortunately, there are still real players involved in the guitar
"industry." It's nice to know that Jomack, the Martin Rep., AKA Joe Macnamara, actually can play the dang things, and very well.
As for Bruce Springsteen, I've seen him take a few swipes at the
strings now and then, but his bag is more about other things. Guitar is
just not his focus primarily ('till the ad copy photo shoot I guess). He
has succeeded in parlaying some kind of image into a marketable form,
and I prefer him to say, The Artist (formerly thought of as talented). 'Course I don't buy either's recordings, and I wouldn't buy a used car
from them either (or a guitar). But then, I've been accused of having a
sour grapes attitude and being a frustrated musician myself. Actually
I'm not all that frustrated. I'm twice the man Bruce or The Artist is, according to belt size, if nothing else.
-SY-
Gary Beckwith wrote:
I was flipping through the channels the other day, and there was a video
of the Boss doing a live show, playing Born in the USA. I swear, he was faking it. Of course, he was really getting into the singing, but every time they showed his guitar and hands, they were in the same position,
and it didn't look like any real chord to me.
Does anyone know for sure if he really knows how to play guitar?
This made me think about how manufacturers tout some musicians using
their instruments. Takamine has a picture of Bruce, Paul McCartney and Billy Joel on their home page. Joel is mainly a piano player, Paul
started out as a faker and eventually became mainly a bass player (and
was never really known for his guitar playing), and now Bruce appeared
(to me anyway) to be faking it on TV the other night. What does this
say about Takamine?
I was looking at a Washburn catalog the other day. They have a picture
of Rober Plant "holding" a Washburn guitar in it. He's not even a
faker, I don't even think he pretends to play the guitar. Why he is in
the catalog I don't know, maybe for people that don't even realize he doesn't play. I guess the picture would sell a few hundred guitars.
Gary
I have to agree with the idea of Springsteen faking it. I have never seen his hands in any other position other than an "almost E" chord.
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