Conn Organ - Turn on, tune in, drop out.

It's common to hear that modern electronics have us all locked into our own synthetic worlds. Blah blah blah. Comic books were the Great Cultural Evil too, at one time, so shut up. Anyway, this makes it really weird to read the copy for this Conn organ ad. "What a comfort to close off the world, let music spin out your dreams."

By comparison to our current capacity for tuning out, this domestic scene of musicalness seems downright gregarious. Look at the happy couple, actually sitting in the same room, listening to the same thing. It's frikkin' quaint. Check out the missus. She's not even using sheet music. What's she got going on there? Free form jazz? We'll decide in a minute.

Conn then goes on to repeatedly drive home the message that YOU, yes YOU SITTING RIGHT THERE could PLAY MUSIC! Stop looking for someone behind you. We mean YOU, idiot! By carefully poking our product, YOU can make MUSIC. Can you imagine, a useless dope like you, making MUSIC? Obviously, their target audience was the musical "outsider".

Here's a nice FaceTube video of a Conn Minuet. I don't think it's the same model, and it may be a little younger than the one in the ad, but it's close enough for me. The cabinet on the model in the video looks to be sixties or seventies, judging by the Early American styling. Do NOT miss the little button falling off at :49. I watched that part at least three times. To his credit, the guy doesn't miss a beat. Clearly, that's not the first time that's happened. He's pretty good. No sheet music, and very confident hands. Judging by the number of similar videos he's posted, he practices a lot.

It's scarier when he wears the mask.

I like the inset picture they included, just to prove that tired businessmen can PLAY MUSIC with THEIR OWN HANDS too. Look how happy he is, plunking out 76 Trombones by ear. So pleased with himself. "See honey, I'm a music-shian too!"

What this ad needs is some jokes. Oh how I wonder what they could be saying/thinking/playing. Doodley doodley doodley doodley....





Joke #1 - "...and I'll be sleee-ping aaaaat my siiis-ter's house to-niiiiiight, because Iiiiii want a dee-eye-vee-oh-are-see EEEEEEEEEEEE."

Joke #2 - "Honey, the gardener taught me a song today. Want to hear it? Okay, here goes. It's called 'Back Door Lover'..."

Joke #3 - "Our Father, who art in Heaven, please let my next wife will be deaf."

Joke #4 - "Honey, I wrote a song about us today. Want to hear it? It's called 'You Don't Pay any Attention to Me'. Honey?... Honey?"

Joke #5 - "What wonderful comfort to close off your wife, let music bounce off your earplugs..."

Joke #6 - After she got a few more weeks of practice, Don would try plugging the organ in for her. Baby steps.

Joke #7 - "Honey, the pool boy, roofer, mail man, gardener, and painter simultaneously taught me a song today....."