Last week, I wrote a piece about the music on Mad Men. It focussed mainly on the season 5 premiere episode. There was a significant amount of music in there and it was fairly meaningful. However, it was written before last sunday's episode (Season 5, episode 7 "Lady Lazarus") had aired, much as this one has been written before episode 8 airs. I stay a few days behind the show for technical reasons I won't get into, but it sure came back to bite me in the ass last week. I mentioned how the show never really tackled the Beatles, despite them being the biggest band in the world in the time period of the show. "Lady Lazarus" however, had an entire subplot about choosing the music for an ad and not only mentioned the Beatles, but Megan Draper buys her husband a copy of The Beatles Revolver and licensing fees be damned, they play "Tomorrow Never Knows." This reportedly cost a cool quarter million to license. Possibly why you just don't see them too often.
"When did music become so important?" Draper asks as the search for the perfect song for the ad continued. Of course music was important before The Beatles, but with them it was moved to the center stage. Draper feels completely out of touch because he doesn't really care about the band. Out of touch is really the last thing you want to be if you're an ad man, so when his wife gives him the record, he puts it on without hesitation. A bit of confusion maybe, but not hesitation.
"Tomorrow Never Knows" is really weird track to choose for a lot of reasons. First, it's a weird track. It's renowned for it's use of layers and layers of effects. Looped tapes, backwards guitars and psychedelic lyrics. It's an album full of songs instant recognizable to even non-Beatles fans. "Elenor Rigby," "Yellow Submarine," "Got To Get You Into My Life," the list goes on. Instead, Megan said to start with the last song on the album and the song that would transition straight into the sound of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. For a man who feels stuck in the past, she opted to show him what the future will be.
But that's the end of the episode, what about the song that company chose for their ad? The ad is for Chevalier Blanc and the Hard Day's Night style hysteria it might cause. The company says that they want the fun and craze of The Beatles without the lofty price tag. Their choice is "September In Th Rain," a song written 30 years prior to when the show takes place. The Beatles had in fact recorded, but never released a demo of that song in 1962. The song does sound like the band, but in their early days. this makes the choice of "Tomorrow Never Knows" all the more relevant. Just 5 years prior, which is within the time frame of the show's earlier seasons, this was what the biggest band on the planet sounded like. By this time, however, the band had moved so far past that period that they no longer even sound like the same group.
The world is moving forward, a common theme on the show. For the first time though, we're seeing a crack in Don Draper's armor. The superstar of the advertising world can no longer connect with the people he is marketing to. Interesting stuff.
No comments:
Post a Comment