Fan Fare
Entertainment behind the scenes
Martin Scorsese shifts from film to fragrance
Martin Scorsese has followed in the footsteps of Baz Luhrmann and Jean-Pierre Jeunet to shoot a commercial for Chanel, with a little help from his pals the Rolling Stones.
The 60-second spot for Bleu de Chanel, featuring French actor Gaspard Ulliel (“Young Hannibal”), kicks off the first major men’s advertising campaign and fragrance launch for Chanel since 2004. The campaign is due to be launched in September, with Chanel undoubtedly hoping the A-list ad gets plenty of social-media play.
Ulliel stars as Hector, a rebellious young actor who has been catapulted into fame but refuses to conform to the lifestyle expectations imposed on him by his new-found stardom. The advertisement takes place during a press conference held by the actor but is intercut with various images of his past and the relationships he had. His memories lead up to the precise moment in which he finds himself.
Scorsese once again taps into the Rolling Stones catalog, this time digging up a real oldie, the band’s raucous 1965 cover of the Larry Williams shouter ”She Said Yeah.” Many of Scorsese’s films, including “Casino,” “Goodfellas,” “The Fan” and his Oscar-winner “The Departed,” used Stones tunes, and Scorsese shot the band’s 2008 concert film “Shine a Light.”
Reggae, violins, ballads mark Rolling Stones night on “American Idol”
It was Rolling Stones night on “American Idol”, and as Simon Cowell remarked at one point, lots of Stones fans would likely have turned off their TV sets (assuming they had been watching in the first place).
If wild horses hadn’t dragged you away in the first hour of violin and soft ballad versions of classic hits like “Ruby Tuesday” and “Beast of Burden” , Tim Urban’s acoustic reggae treatment of “Under My Thumb” was by far the strangest. “Very bizarre,” said Randy Jackson. Even good-natured Ellen DeGeneres could muster nothing more encouraging than, “It didn’t wow me.”.
Susan Boyle takes over reins of “Wild Horses”
Maybe “Salt of the Earth” would have been a more appropriate choice for a Rolling Stones song, but everyone’s favorite underdog Susan Boyle seems to have wowed the masses with her tasteful cover of the rock band’s “Wild Horses.”
The powerful ballad about love and loss is the first single from the British talent-show heroine’s upcoming debut album, and she previewed it for U.S. viewers during Wednesday’s episode of “America’s Got Talent.”
Rolling Stones fans ‘Star’-struck by censorship
(Corrects Bob Ludwig’s first name in paragraph 10)
Rolling Stones fans are a grumpy lot these days.
The band has not toured since August 2007, triggering a painful withdrawal period for acolytes of the death-defying rockers; a CD reissue program turned out to be an anticlimax; and now the Stones’ new label has censored one of their raunchier tunes.
Universal Music has licensed the rights to the group’s post-1960s albums, and released the first batch three weeks ago: remastered versions of “Sticky Fingers” (1971), “Goats Head Soup” (1973), “It’s Only Rock ‘N’ Roll” (1975) and “Black And Blue” (1976).
Fans were initially thrilled about the prospect of the new reissue program, contemplating discs jam-packed with bonus material. That soon turned to disappointment and then outrage when it emerged that any outtakes, demos and other goodies will stay in the vaults.
The previous remastering program took place in 1994, when the band was signed to Virgin Records, and those discs remain the gold standard. (Universal has held back the reissue of 1972′s “Exile on Main Street” until early 2010, promising “wider plans for this title.”)
But sharp-eared fans at the Web site It’s Only Rock n’ Roll have noticed a difference between the Universal and Virgin versions of “Goats Head Soup,” and they are not thrilled. In the groupie put-down “Star Star,” a vulgar synonym for the female genitals has been obscured, as has a reference to late actor John Wayne.
Both phrases were obscured when the album first came out in 1973. In fact the album’s U.S. release was delayed by several months because Atlantic Records, the group’s label at the time, wanted to drop the song completely. Moreover, the Stones were forced to change the original title, which has always been heard in its full glory, chanted about 65 times during the song.
The Virgin reissue restored both the naughty word — which begins with a “p” — and the John Wayne reference to the couplet “Yeah, I’ll make bets that you’re gonna get John Wayne before he dies.”
So who’s to blame for the problem? No one is talking: That includes publicists for both the Rolling Stones and Universal, as well as officials at Marcussen Mastering Studios, the Hollywood firm handling the Universal reissues.
It’s likely Marcussen worked from the tapes supplied by the Stones camp. At least, that’s what happened with the Virgin Records program, says mastering engineer Bob Ludwig, who handled that project.
“Sometimes the clients intentionally want us to change things,” Ludwig said via email, recalling that the Stones requested a “small number of … little changes,” such as restoring Sonny Rollins’ extended sax solo on the “Tattoo You” track “Slave.”
“When I did the re-mastering I was told that Keith (Richards) really got into it and set up a vinyl turntable, had someone re-buy all the original vinyl issues, and did lots of comparisons,” Ludwig said.
If Universal ends up recalling the album or refunding fans, it shouldn’t break the coffers at the world’s biggest record company too much. The reissued album has sold fewer than 100 copies in the United States, according to a music industry source.
Iggy Pop, Ronnie Wood to play at booze-free L.A. event
Punk rock icon Iggy Pop and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, no strangers to drug and alcohol abuse, will perform at a fundraiser in Los Angeles next month for musicians struggling with their addictions.
Pop, who turns 62 later this month, will be a “special guest” at the fifth annual MusiCares MAP Fund dinner/concert at Club Nokia May 8.
Rolling Stones reissue program omits bonus tracks
The Rolling Stones are once again reissuing all their post-1971 studio albums, but fans hoping for bonus tracks won’t get any satisfaction.
Instead Universal Music Group, which took over the band’s catalog last year, said on Thursday that 13 of the albums would simply be remastered. Special, undisclosed plans were underway for a 14th album, the band’s 1972 opus “Exile on Main Street,” which will come out later in the year.
Keith Richards vs. Mick Jagger, part 96?
Even if Keith Richards did not vote for Mick Jagger in Rolling Stone magazine’s recent poll of the 100 greatest singers of all time, all is apparently peace and love with rock’s longest-wed couple.
The Rolling Stones guitarist was one of 179 high-profile voters in the survey. They had to choose their top 20 singers in order, and the magazine has published some of the ballots on its Web site (http://www.rollingstone.com/photos/gallery/24160218/the_100_greatest_singers_inside_t/photo/1).
