Long Slide for an Out, Indeed

Album: The Del Fuegos, Stand Up, 1987

Acquired: This came from the Little Creek Navy Exchange.

Best Track: "Long Slide (For an Out)"

Lasting Memory: The Del Fuegos were one of the roots rock/Americana bands that Miller featured in a short-lived series of High Life ads in the mid-1980s. It's either this spot or the one with The Long Ryders that features the classic so-dumb-its-clever line, "I think rock 'n' roll music is folk music, 'cause it's music for folks." (Somebody tell me because the sound on my computer doesn't work.)

It also seems that The dB's and Cruzados were Miller pitchers. Was my musical taste shaped so fully by beer ads? Certainly my body has been lumpily crafted by beer over the decades. But just how deep into my psyche have the pilsner pushers sunk their hops?

We'll leave that question for a long night spent over short draughts. The real message of my only lasting memory of the Del Fuegos being that they were in a Miller commercial is that the band and its music made no other impressions on me. I've owned Stand Up for going on 21 years, and I've listened to it maybe 10 times.

The sound of every track on this album, as epitomized by this video for "Long Slide (For an Out)," is criminally overproduced bluesy country rock with slightly offkey vocals. Sort of like Bonnie Raitt. I hate the Bonnie Raitt sound. So this one's on me.

Obviously, the Del Fuegos could go more country or more blues or more rock when they wanted to, but on Stand Up, they stuck to a mish-mashy middle ground that just doesn't appeal to me. I do hope they got free beer from life for the fine folks at the Plank Road brewery, and according to the band's Wikipedia entry, all the Fuegos went on to distinguished careers, but on Stand Up, the boys from Boston took me on a long trip to nowhere.

And for those keeping score at home, Miller batted .500 on hooking me with its alterna ads. I love The dB's and The Long Ryders. The Del Fuegos and Cruzados leave me flat.

Up Next: Def Leppard, Pyromania, 1983