Say it ain't so, Joe

It was one thing to hear Iggy Pop's Lust for Life, an ode to all things drug-culture related, used to advertise for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. I think it's weird, but Iggy is getting on in years and his drug-addled brain may have cost him some capacity for good artistic judgment.

Frankly, I love the Timpani foundation on Lust for Life, and when the commercials come on, I prefer to just enjoy the drums and overlook the bigger issues of selling out. The Who have made an entire career out of advertising, not to mention three, count 'em, three CSI theme songs. The songs are matched so perfectly to the shows that no real cringing is necessary.

All artists are not created equal. Joe Jackson is an enigma, a cerebral innovator with a bad temper. In the early 1980s, Joe dared to be different with a musical style that blew apart the prevailing styles of the day. He was the outsider's outsider, a sharp observer and documentarian of a changing Zeitgeist. Edgy. Innovative. Original. A Serious Artists who took himself more seriously than anyone else.

Shock and awe. There it was, a sound so strange being emitted from my television, I could not bear to take it in. My eyes could see, my ears could hear, but my brain could not process and my heart could not accept. There it was on prime time network television just this week: A Taco Bell commercial, Taco Bell, for chrissake, with Joe Jackson's 1979 classic, One More Time, from the amazing Look Sharp album, providing the jingle.

I have just known a new kind of pain.

Joe, I bought your last CD. I saw you the last time you came through town. Is it the money? Is it a need to stay in the public mind? Does somebody else own the rights to the music?

Argh! Why not something like chocolate, or ice cream, or a sweet car? Taco Bell?