Travelin’ in Ladies’ Garments

Bob Dylan and the Art of Commercial Affiliation

Guitars, cars, computers, yogurt, whiskey, chainsaws and more

“My Blues is Too Sacred. I Wouldn’t Sell Flour.”

“A lot of musicians have always been proud to have commercial affiliation. Sonny Boy Williamson sold flour. I can’t imagine Sonny Boy saying, ‘My blues is too sacred. I wouldn’t sell flour.’ Jimmie Rodgers sold biscuits. Sheryl Crow sells hair dye. More power to her.”

“And Jackie, have you ever seen a Victoria’s Secret ad?”

~ Bob Dylan, responding to an email criticizing Sheryl Crow’s “Not Fade Away” Revlon commercial. Theme Time Radio Hour, 2007

The legend goes that an angry Bob Dylan once called a radio station after hearing a Dylan sound-alike hawking cut-out bin protest songs. When told it was from a comedy album —1972's National Lampoon “Radio Dinner” — Dylan reportedly replied, “Well, you people shouldn’t play it anymore unless you say it’s a joke.”

That was two decades before Dylan’s songs — sometimes Dylan himself—began appearing in commercials promoting products from the mundane (guitars, harmonicas, cars, beer, whiskey, computers, yogurt, a clothing…