Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/05/24/when-tom-waits-sued-frito-lay-for-paying-someone-to-imitate-his-voice.html
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And, learning nothing from the past, OpenAI has done almost the exact same thing to Scarlett Johansson.
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I think they just think that they can act with impunity, because they are the very important men who are shaping the future, and they can fuck over whoever gets in their way. They don’t give two shits about rules, regulations, or laws, because they see themselves as doing very important work that should not be interfered with by their lessers… 
They don’t care about history, they care about their agenda…
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It’s like no one had ever listened to anything by Tom Waits before coming up with this idea?
What’s their next plan a Zach del la Rocha impersonator advertising for Wells Fargo?
Now I have an urge to go and listen to Small Change.
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Yes. As noted here a couple of days ago and from where, perhaps, the OP found the Tom Waits story and then decided to post it as a front page post.
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I was freelancing animating at trailer shop in… checks IMBD… holy hell, 20 YEARS AGO?!? I don’t remember 20 years going by…
Anyway, it was a trailer for Kingdom of Heaven, a12th century crusades movie. The producer was dead set on using Stairway To Heaven as the soundtrack. Because of course he was.
There was nowhere near the kind of budget to license effing Zeppelin, so he ordered a “soundalike”. The trailer shipped with, like, random electric guitar power chords in a vaguely noodley Stairway to Heaveny motif for no goddam reason at all.
The moral of the story is that advertising is equal parts craven and stupid. So glad I got out.
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“Oh no, we wanted an ad that sounded like Cookie Monster! Cookie Monster and Doritos! It’s a natural combination!”
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Now i want them to re-release Salsa Rio Doritos, because i want to know what they tasted like.
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I borrowed this album once, and Step Right Up was my favorite song on it.
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My favorite line from that song:
The large print giveth
And the small print taketh away
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Apparently this was done on the fly. I dunno. If so, it’s brilliant…
Also, Levis wanted to licence Tom Waits original version of this track, but he refused. So they got Screaming Jay Hawkins to cover it. Which might be sneaky, but resulted in a fantastic cover and this gem,
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This thread got my ears aching for Big Time. You can watch it here:
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Incidentally, it is theorized that the woman on the cover of Small Change is Elvira (Mistress of the Dark), but she can’t remember.
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