Monday, August 15, 2011

Somewhere an Ad Man is Giggling over the Pogues

Okay, so we all love the Pogues. Tunes that get stuck in our heads and have us bopping around all day wanting to drink with friends and sing loudly. But somewhere an Ad Man is laughing.

I've been told that I "tivo" out commercials when watching TV and in a way I do. I know I don't want a new car, nor do I care what the latest battery powered hand soap dispenser is (nevermind I think that's absurd), so in general I do my to do list til the show I'm watching comes back on. However this week I noticed a car commercial. It was the music. Then I saw it again, and laughed, laughed hard and now laugh every time I see it.

It's a Suburu commercial showing a hockey mom with four adorable red headed hockey playing boys in the back all in Kelly Green. Mom does a great job cheering from the stands, the boys give it all they got, fall asleep on the way home as she smiles indulgently into the rearview mirror. Good job, Suburu. Really. It's a good commercial.

Here's the rub:
The Pogues song playing in the background that everyone loves is If I Should Fall from Grace with God. It's a high energy song about death and burial. Yeah. Really. The death and burial preferences, along with a lovely verse about leaving noble warrior dead ancestors in their places of burial. I know. But really, it's a great song.

So why is the Ad Man and your humble writer laughing? Because the commercial is all about the vehicle's safety. I don't think Suburu knows how funny it is to have a "top rated safety" plug tacked on to the end of that song.

For your edification here is the video, followed by the lyrics, followed by the really cute car safety commercial. Now seriously, "No doctor can relieve me" and "The angels won't receive me" is truly funny in this context. Forget about the murderous ghost and the corpse laying on top of ya! Someone slipped something over the folks at the ad agency. Enjoy!



If I should fall from grace with god
Where no doctor can relieve me
If Im buried neath the sod
But the angels wont receive me

Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

This land was always ours
Was the proud land of our fathers
It belongs to us and them
Not to any of the others

Let them go, boys
Let them go, boys
Let them go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

Bury me at sea
Where no murdered ghost can haunt me
If I rock upon the waves
Then no corpse can lie upon me

Its coming up three, boys
Keeps coming up three, boys
Let them go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry

If I should fall from grace with god
Where no doctor can relieve me
If Im buried neath the sod
But the angels wont receive me

Let me go, boys
Let me go, boys
Let me go down in the mud
Where the rivers all run dry



Now, sing it all day long! I know you will.

1 comment:

TJ said...

I searched you up because that Pogues song is such a powerful ear worm. Thanks for the comparison of the commercial to the actual song - completely subversively ironic.

Gotta say though - reading the lyrics about going under the sod really trigger thoughts of the bog man for me.

Super powerful song, even if misrepresented in a the car commercial, the song sells that story of the boys playing hockey.