It's what's for dinner
March 29, 2004
Via Howard, we learn that the 9th Circuit is set to hear oral arguments in an appeal of some Montana ranchers' challenge to the national beef checkoff program. Under this program, ranchers pay $1 per head of cattle to fund initiatives promoting beef. The program raises about $80 million each year.
A checkoff program funded those "Beef, it's what's for dinner" ads, which associated "Hoedown" (fromAaron Copland's ballet "Rodeo") with that phrase in the minds of millions of impressionable television viewers.
In order to free my readers' minds from that association (or to further reinforce it), enjoy an MP3 of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones playing Hoedown, from the Beacon Theater on November 24, 2000, with special guests Paul Hanson, John Clark, Andy Narell and Sandip Burman: Hoedown (MP3). Download the complete show from archive.org.
I'm still wondering how the Beef Industry got permission to use "Hoedown" in its ad campaigns? I believe those ads started soon after Copland's death, which means his estate must have granted permission. I can't imagine that a Jew who was accused of being a Communist in the '50s would want his image associated with the (All)-American Beef Industry. Copland must turn over in his grave every time those commercials air.
P.S. I like Bela Fleck and the Flecktones version of the song. I've never heard them play that before.
Posted by: Shannon on May 20, 2004 04:17 PM
I'm still wondering how the Beef Industry got permission to use "Hoedown" in its ad campaigns? I believe those ads started soon after Copland's death, which means his estate must have granted permission. I can't imagine that a Jew who was accused of being a Communist in the '50s would want his image associated with the (All)-American Beef Industry. Copland must turn over in his grave every time those commercials air.
P.S. I like Bela Fleck and the Flecktones version of the song. I've never heard them play that before.
Posted by: Shannon on May 20, 2004 04:18 PM