Monday, December 15, 2008

Art, Meet Commerce

In case you couldn't place it, that exquisitely Simon and Garfunkel-ish neo-folkie dittie that's all over the TV this season in those L.L. Bean ads is "Valley Winter Song" by Fountains of Wayne. From 2003's Welcome Interstate Managers, which more and more is beginning to feel like the Rubber Soul of its generation.



Although its been said many times, many ways...Adam Schlesinger is a goddamn genius.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I dunno about "the Rubber Soul of its generation", but I had an interesting experience with it. I musta given that record to 15-20 people, ranging from their teens to their fifties. Everyone loved it. It's an amazing record and is still one of my faves. A brilliant album from a great decade of music...

Kid Charlemagne said...

Absolutely right, this is a beautiful song. For some reason, I always get an America vibe from it tho'.

steve simels said...

reddyr:

I know what you mean about the album appealing across generational lines. Seriously -- it's like one of those "what's not to like?" records. Every song's a gem....

TMink said...

Yep, they rock, and I bought all their records I could find beacuse of the cool people on this website.

Thank you all so much.

God bless you every one.

Trey

Noam Sane said...

Rubber Soul? I recently listened to "Drive My Car" 7 times in a row at the insistence of my 7-yr old daughter. It was a 5-hour road trip, so why not. (She's now on a Kinks kick - this gal is growing up right).

Listening to the rest of the album on that trip, I became convinced that "The Word" is Ringo's finest hour.

As for "Valley Winter Song," what can you say other than it's an overt nod to Paul Simon and it's as close to perfect as songwriting ever gets. Genius? Yeah.