Hurrah For Chris Knox.
I think it was the summer of 1989 when my friends at KCOU, Carrie and Sarah, went off to New Zealand to spend a few weeks over a summer (yes, they were that cool; yes, I was that jealous of the experience.) They came back with all sorts of stories about the amazing Kiwi music scene, but even better, a ton of NZ vinyl. They knew I was a hardcore Sneaky Feelings fan, so they were sweet enough to bring back "Dunedin Double" and "Send You" among other treasures.
They also brought back an album called "Seizure" by Chris Knox. "He's the Tall Dwarfs guy," I remember Carrie or Sarah mentioning at the time. The Dwarfs were the kind of band I was on the side of without actually liking. They were a little to dissonant and deliberately weird for my tastes, but I dutifully listened to the Knox solo album and totally fell in love with it. A few years later I found it on CD at Vintage Vinyl, and I've had that copy ever since.
Before I talk about the Chris Knox song that you've all heard now at least a dozen times, I'll mention that until this year Knox was best known for writing the greatest indie rock love song ever, "Not Given Lightly". He wrote it for his wife Barbara, and the lyrics are exceedingly personal...which perversely gives them a universal appeal. The song is unabashedly adoring of "John and Leisha's mother", and Frente had a minor hit with it, and the song gets its fair share of play at weddings and such in the southern hemisphere. A few TV ads in New Zealand have also used it, and Knox admits to having made more off royalties to that one song than he's made off anything else in his 30-years plus music career. Here's some "Not Given Lightly" for you:
I saw Knox play a gig in the basement at Cicero's back in '96 or so, and it was pretty terrific, but I also got the sense that the poor guy was living and touring off a shoestring budget, sleeping on floors where he could, cheap motels when he couldn't, flogging his CD's and such to get enough gas money to make the next show. Down in New Zealand, he's something of an indie legend, with almost every band there able to trace lineage right back to him (through his stint as house producer for Flying Nun Records) and the Tall Dwarfs.
This is a guy who has more than paid his dues for the past thirty years or so, ok? And he's a good bloke, too, so there's that.
Anyway, eventually sometimes good things happen to good people. About a month ago at a friend's house watching baseball, I hear a song in a commercial that sounds familiar, but which I can't place. I know the freaking song, but from where? It reminds me of living in Chicago, but that's all I have. Over the next week or so, I see the commercial at least another 5 times on various networks, and finally it clicks.
Holy shit. Heineken Beer is using Chris Knox's "Its Love" in their North American ad campaign!
I'm sure there are purists out there who can't stand it when their indie rock heroes "sell out" and let an ad agency use their music to flog a product...but I'm not one of these guys. On the contrary, I'd love to see deserving musicians and artists be actually able to make a living doing what they do best, and if that means getting your tunes in a commercial, then so be it. Frankly, a good portion of the sell out accusers are getting their tunes from whatever torrent club has replaced Oink, so if an artist needs to turn to other revenue streams to make ends meet, so be it.
With Knox, you get a guy who has given his life and his blood and sweat for music, and he's not getting younger, and I doubt there's a retirement plan or 401k for New Zealand indie rockers. Here's hoping the royalties off this ad campaign set him up for life, and here's hoping that maybe people discovering the song on youtube and elsewhere maybe even buy one of Mr. Knox's excellent solo discs.
By the way, here's the full version of the song in the commercial:
They also brought back an album called "Seizure" by Chris Knox. "He's the Tall Dwarfs guy," I remember Carrie or Sarah mentioning at the time. The Dwarfs were the kind of band I was on the side of without actually liking. They were a little to dissonant and deliberately weird for my tastes, but I dutifully listened to the Knox solo album and totally fell in love with it. A few years later I found it on CD at Vintage Vinyl, and I've had that copy ever since.
Before I talk about the Chris Knox song that you've all heard now at least a dozen times, I'll mention that until this year Knox was best known for writing the greatest indie rock love song ever, "Not Given Lightly". He wrote it for his wife Barbara, and the lyrics are exceedingly personal...which perversely gives them a universal appeal. The song is unabashedly adoring of "John and Leisha's mother", and Frente had a minor hit with it, and the song gets its fair share of play at weddings and such in the southern hemisphere. A few TV ads in New Zealand have also used it, and Knox admits to having made more off royalties to that one song than he's made off anything else in his 30-years plus music career. Here's some "Not Given Lightly" for you:
I saw Knox play a gig in the basement at Cicero's back in '96 or so, and it was pretty terrific, but I also got the sense that the poor guy was living and touring off a shoestring budget, sleeping on floors where he could, cheap motels when he couldn't, flogging his CD's and such to get enough gas money to make the next show. Down in New Zealand, he's something of an indie legend, with almost every band there able to trace lineage right back to him (through his stint as house producer for Flying Nun Records) and the Tall Dwarfs.
This is a guy who has more than paid his dues for the past thirty years or so, ok? And he's a good bloke, too, so there's that.
Anyway, eventually sometimes good things happen to good people. About a month ago at a friend's house watching baseball, I hear a song in a commercial that sounds familiar, but which I can't place. I know the freaking song, but from where? It reminds me of living in Chicago, but that's all I have. Over the next week or so, I see the commercial at least another 5 times on various networks, and finally it clicks.
Holy shit. Heineken Beer is using Chris Knox's "Its Love" in their North American ad campaign!
I'm sure there are purists out there who can't stand it when their indie rock heroes "sell out" and let an ad agency use their music to flog a product...but I'm not one of these guys. On the contrary, I'd love to see deserving musicians and artists be actually able to make a living doing what they do best, and if that means getting your tunes in a commercial, then so be it. Frankly, a good portion of the sell out accusers are getting their tunes from whatever torrent club has replaced Oink, so if an artist needs to turn to other revenue streams to make ends meet, so be it.
With Knox, you get a guy who has given his life and his blood and sweat for music, and he's not getting younger, and I doubt there's a retirement plan or 401k for New Zealand indie rockers. Here's hoping the royalties off this ad campaign set him up for life, and here's hoping that maybe people discovering the song on youtube and elsewhere maybe even buy one of Mr. Knox's excellent solo discs.
By the way, here's the full version of the song in the commercial:
posted by Chris H. at 1:55 AM
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