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Topic: K-Mart - where's the steel gone!!!? |
Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 5:19 am |
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Who's heard that K-Mart commercial, 'I found love....etc, etc'? When I first heard it, there was steel all over the track - now there seems to be a re-mix and there's fiddle instead of PSG!
RR |
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 5:34 am
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Roger.. surprised??.. not me... We've been discussing that sort of thing quite a bit lately... It seems the steel is getting bumped a lot these days... either that or like my wife says , i'm just a bitter nasty old man looking for something to get mad at!!  ... Actually I haven't heard either commercial, but no I would not be surprised if some pinhead in a suit said ditch the steel and get a fiddle in there.... bob |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 6:27 am
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I would be absolutely SHOCKED if that pin head in the suit even KNOWS WHAT A STEEL GUITAR IS.
They know a SOUND. Take anything -- 70's rock, 'smooth jazz', even rap!!! Add a steel guitar and people say -- COUNTRY. Why? That's what it's been asked to do for the better part of a century. Even moreso than fiddle.
There have been times when making it COUNTRY has been a GOOD THING, but good is in the ear of the beholder. AND what is perceived as country by the masses has changed over the past few decades.
What the exec REALLY (probably) said was, "Get rid of that WHINY THING."
We must realize that our perception of steel guitar is far different from the exec, producer, engineer -- even other musicians and LISTENERS. For many of us, a good steel part is not icing on the cake, it is a PREREQUISITE FOR GOOD MUSIC. Alas, we are decidedly in the minority on that opinion.
We must just live with it. For whatever reason, public interest in the steel guitar sound ebbs and flows with time. Enjoy it when it's hot -- endure it when it's not.
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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps
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Bob Carlucci
From:
Candor, New York, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 7:42 am
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Larry... I hear what you are saying...
Many years ago I did a rock session... Nice "alternative" tune,kind of "americana" if you will.. I was hired by the band , on a major label[only time on a "real" label] to do two songs in a major national studio[only time in a "real" studio too!}.. Bearsville in Woodstock NY. The producer was driving me friggin CRAZY , do it THIS way /do it THAT way... and all the while the guy that wrote/and sang the tune LOVED everything I did, and was red faced with anger at the way the producer kept saying he did not want it to sound "too country".. First of all I'm not even really a country player, it didn't sound even REMOTELY country.. but as usual the pinhead with all the " talent" got his say .. in the end, DESPITE the pleas of the guys that wrote and performed the music, the producer hacked,picked and deleted all my best work and what was left was so down in the mix as to be inconsequential... The PERFORMERS and WRITERS had NO say.. they wanted THIER music to have the steel prominent on just this one tune on an album of 10 songs or,,, however the producer [hired by the record company] knew better.. the steel parts were sacrificed.. can't have it sound "too country" .. now can we...bob[This message was edited by Bob Carlucci on 18 October 2005 at 10:12 AM.] |
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Theresa Galbraith
From:
Goodlettsville,Tn. USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 7:54 am
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Roger,
I've heard 2 different ones here in Nashville and they have steel. |
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Chris Lucker
From:
Los Angeles, California USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 8:02 am
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Larry,
the exec rarely has to make a decision on something like that. A commercial on an account like that is focus grouped to death. A focus group panel probably got off on the tangent that the music in the "background made K-mark sound hokey or hick -- like Arkansas Wal-Mart." You can understand K-Mart's sensitivity about Wal-Mart and how they may want to do something to position themselves against the store they are losing the race to. Define and capture a different market share.
Chris
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Steve Dodson
From:
Sparta, Tennessee, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 8:10 am
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I think the producers in order to be able to produce an Artist,or even be called a producer. Should be a Qualified and Past Session Player and Musician himself. Pete Drake would be an example here. Pete might not have been able to burn a Steel Guitar like Buddy or Paul. But Pete had a lot of Steel guitar as well as the other musicians in his sessions.And he did some nice comercial playing himself.
[This message was edited by Steve Dodson on 18 October 2005 at 09:13 AM.] |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 8:22 am
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Guys - my 'post' was just a little tongue-in-cheek, and I have at least a tenuous grasp of how the 'suits' make the control room decisions on these matters. Maybe I should have substituted a  for my .... There was a touch of 'Devil's advocate' in there, too.
I just thought a bit odd that they went to the trouble of creating that very creditable track, obviously meant to be 'country' (the guy's a good singer, too), only to take out the steel after a couple of weeks' airing and substitute the equally country-sounding fiddle 'lead'. So, Larry, I agree with you, but this one went from 'country' to, um, 'country'.
I got used to being a musical curiosity in the London studios once I took up steel guitar, and I lost count of the times that the other guys (who previously just knew me as a guitar-player) would ask me to 'knit me a sweater while I you're sitting there...'
Maybe the steel mix is still lying around and could be back. Theresa's hearing it, so it's apparently alive and well in Music City.
RR |
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Jack Stoner
From:
Kansas City, MO
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 8:35 am
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Sometimes they run different commercials or different background tracks in the commercials in different parts of the country. May be the case with the K-Mart Ads. I watch the Tampa stations and I've heard the K-Mart commercials but haven't really paid attention to them.
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Ted Solesky
From:
Mineral Wells, Texas, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 9:34 am
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| Well, what we could do is boycott K-Mart. Hold up signs sayin, 'give the steel the part or we're going to Wal-Mart'. |
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Jack Dougherty
From:
Spring Hill, Florida, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 10:18 am
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Hey Guys and Gals..
Let's not get our fruit of the loom underware in a knot...In one segment of one of the ads the "fruit group" was listening to a play back of said song in which one of the "fruits" states "Where's my steel part"
Actually a funny ad in that at least some one was aware there was even a steel in the song...So cheer up!! Steel players are a virus...and there is no cure for that yet..
JD
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There is no such thing as too many steels!! Zum D10 8/8
Electronics.. constant state of flux[This message was edited by Jack Dougherty on 18 October 2005 at 11:18 AM.] [This message was edited by Jack Dougherty on 18 October 2005 at 11:19 AM.] [This message was edited by Jack Dougherty on 18 October 2005 at 06:46 PM.] |
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Fuzzy Plant
From:
Winter Haven, Florida, USA
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Posted 18 Oct 2005 11:02 am
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Hey Bob; That sounds like it might have been Al Grossman at Bearsville. I lived not very far from Bearsville for quite awhile. There were other independant studios in the Woodstock area that probably would have done just as good a job as Bearsville, and for less $$$.
Bobbe said in one of his emails, if you want to record as you wish, and not be told you can't, you need to get into an indy, not the big name studios. Wise counsel !
Fuzzy |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 12:05 pm
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Attention K-Mart shoppers!
For your shopping pleasure, we have replaced the whiney steel guitar with a scratchy fiddle.
Thank You for shopping at K-Mart!
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 19 Oct 2005 8:59 pm
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Every time I hear it here in the Bay Area, it has the steel guitar playing loud and clear.
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Carter D10 9p/10k, NV400
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Mark van Allen
From:
Watkinsville, Ga. USA
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Posted 20 Oct 2005 3:52 pm
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It's runnig with steel here in the atlanta area. Maybe it's a red state- blue state thing...  |
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Larry Bell
From:
Englewood, Florida
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Posted 20 Oct 2005 4:56 pm
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I've concluded that they have two versions. I just heard the version with steel and I live 100 miles or so from Roger.
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Larry Bell - email: larry@larrybell.org - gigs - Home Page
2003 Fessenden S/D-12 8x8, 1969 Emmons S/D-12 6x6, 1984 Sho-Bud S/D-12 7x6, 1971 Dobro, Standel and Peavey Amps
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