Jingling

I can tell my brain is rotting more quickly than I thought, mainly because the only music I have on my internal playlist right now is advertising jingles. You know what I mean, that mental harddrive that keeps rec-creating that Hendrix riff you partied to or the Clapton solo or - unfortunately - some kind of catchy pop musical hook over and over in your "head" until you say enough already. I reached that point a couple of days ago when I realized I was actually obsessing over local ad jingles, obviously reinforced by those old favorites, frequency and saturation via radio. 

The two that are competing for my attention right now are the Paul Masse commercials and the ballad about the Original Italian Bakery. The Masse commercial features a hot , sexy female voice belting out an uptempo chorus that sounds straight out of high energy road rock - "Just give me one more mile - I'm riding in style - In my Paul Masse ride". The production value - to me anyway - is way above the level you normally experience in secondary radio markets. It works, and the unknown vocalist definitely has a future.

The Original Italian Bakery "song" is at the other end of the spectrum, sounding like "The Big Rock Candy Mountain " (Which, again for what it's worth, was used successfully by LL Bean a few years back) with a hint of Hank Williams. " I love those pizza chips," The male vocalist warbles, " From the Original Italian Bakery", also mentioning something about smacking your lips. It's sort of like your typical broadcast advertisement "unplugged" Listening to it is probably close to what the mermaids sounded like to eighteenth century sailors, a melody that really makes you feel like humming along, or - of course - having pizza chips. I also like the organ and the chorus for Rhode Island Credit Union, since that's invaded my memory banks in the recent past  A lot of musicians got their start writing jingles, the most notable being Barry Manilow, who immortalized fast food before raking in millions from heavy easy listening rotation, not to mention the massive vertical billboard of him I saw on my repeat trips to Las Vegas, meaning he is still viable - and profitable.

I'm going to spend the next few hours re-tuning my synapses back to the blues and rock riffs typically stored there, but it's obvious I need to stop listening to so much talk radio before I spend all my disposable income on pizza chips.   .