Tuesday, September 09, 2008
By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Last week, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart laid the smack down on the McCain campaign for the unauthorized and repeated use of their 1977 hit "Barracuda."
The Wilsons begged the '70s-obsessed Republicans to stop using the song as a campaign entrance theme for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose nickname in high school was "Sarah Barracuda."
At least we can be grateful that Ms. Palin's friends didn't call her "Free Bird."
"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women," the Wilsons told Entertainment Weekly. "We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late '70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women," she said.
"While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it," the Wilsons went on to say. Since St. Paul was an irony-free zone last week anyway, that wasn't exactly the most compelling part of her argument.
Still, it was nice to find out that there is a deeper meaning to "You lying so low in the weeds / I bet you gonna ambush me / you'd have me down, down, down, down on my knees / now wouldn't you, barracuda?" than I suspected at the time. It makes me wonder what "Magic Man," their biggest hit, is really all about.
These days, political campaigns are digging through crates of '70s music more thoroughly than any rap producer ever did.
When Sarah Palin finished a speech in Ohio recently, Van Halen's "Right Now" kicked in. Oddly, the band was more embarrassed by the Republicans' use of their song than the return of David Lee Roth to the fold.
John Mellencamp groused earlier this year that he didn't appreciate the McCain campaign's use of his songs "Our Country" and "Pink Houses" to connect with the common people, either. Last month, Jackson Browne took his complaint to the next level by suing the Republican Party for unauthorized use of his '70s anthem "Running on Empty" in McCain advertising.
It looks like the staples of FM radio are in full revolt against the opportunism of the Republicans. For a party that used to believe that rock 'n' roll was of the Devil, they've been doing a lot of thievin' lately.
Fortunately, there's also a history of push-back by Democratic-leaning artists against Republican song poaching. Bruce Springsteen famously demanded that Ronald Reagan stop invoking "Born in the U.S.A." in his speeches during his 1984 re-election campaign.
Still, the unequal yoking of political songs is becoming a bipartisan temptation. The Obama campaign used Brooks & Dunn's "Only in America" to close out the candidate's historic nomination speech and convention two weeks ago.
Maybe the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers will have to intervene before things really get ugly. It's only a matter of time before beloved songs are used to taunt the opposition, debasing our classic rock heritage in the run up to Election Day.
Will the Republicans go nookular and use Cher's "Half-Breed" or the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" as part of a sarcastic October surprise? Will the Obama campaign respond with high-minded rockers like "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who and the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion"?
And what about the 527 groups? It's only a matter of time before someone aims Hall and Oates' "Rich Girl" at beer heiress Cindy McCain.
John McCain may suffer the indignity of being mocked by the Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes" or ABBA's "Waterloo."
Barack Obama could find himself hoisted on Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" or Frankie Valli's "My Eyes Adored You" before the dust -- not to be confused with "Dust in the Wind" -- settles.
Both campaigns will have reached an all-time low when Bristol Palin's fiance Levi Johnston has his integrity impugned by 10cc's "I'm Not in Love."
Classic rock is used by political consultants to lull voters into a false sense of identification with the candidate. It would be interesting to see how the electorate would deal with a 2006 Neil Young song that blared:
Let's impeach the president for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all of our money out the door.
But that's a song for another election.
Tony Norman can be reached at tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631. More articles by this author
First published on September 9, 2008 at 12:00 am
By Tony Norman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Last week, sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart laid the smack down on the McCain campaign for the unauthorized and repeated use of their 1977 hit "Barracuda."
The Wilsons begged the '70s-obsessed Republicans to stop using the song as a campaign entrance theme for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, whose nickname in high school was "Sarah Barracuda."
At least we can be grateful that Ms. Palin's friends didn't call her "Free Bird."
"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women," the Wilsons told Entertainment Weekly. "We ask that our song 'Barracuda' no longer be used to promote her image. The song 'Barracuda' was written in the late '70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women," she said.
"While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it," the Wilsons went on to say. Since St. Paul was an irony-free zone last week anyway, that wasn't exactly the most compelling part of her argument.
Still, it was nice to find out that there is a deeper meaning to "You lying so low in the weeds / I bet you gonna ambush me / you'd have me down, down, down, down on my knees / now wouldn't you, barracuda?" than I suspected at the time. It makes me wonder what "Magic Man," their biggest hit, is really all about.
These days, political campaigns are digging through crates of '70s music more thoroughly than any rap producer ever did.
When Sarah Palin finished a speech in Ohio recently, Van Halen's "Right Now" kicked in. Oddly, the band was more embarrassed by the Republicans' use of their song than the return of David Lee Roth to the fold.
John Mellencamp groused earlier this year that he didn't appreciate the McCain campaign's use of his songs "Our Country" and "Pink Houses" to connect with the common people, either. Last month, Jackson Browne took his complaint to the next level by suing the Republican Party for unauthorized use of his '70s anthem "Running on Empty" in McCain advertising.
It looks like the staples of FM radio are in full revolt against the opportunism of the Republicans. For a party that used to believe that rock 'n' roll was of the Devil, they've been doing a lot of thievin' lately.
Fortunately, there's also a history of push-back by Democratic-leaning artists against Republican song poaching. Bruce Springsteen famously demanded that Ronald Reagan stop invoking "Born in the U.S.A." in his speeches during his 1984 re-election campaign.
Still, the unequal yoking of political songs is becoming a bipartisan temptation. The Obama campaign used Brooks & Dunn's "Only in America" to close out the candidate's historic nomination speech and convention two weeks ago.
Maybe the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers will have to intervene before things really get ugly. It's only a matter of time before beloved songs are used to taunt the opposition, debasing our classic rock heritage in the run up to Election Day.
Will the Republicans go nookular and use Cher's "Half-Breed" or the Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" as part of a sarcastic October surprise? Will the Obama campaign respond with high-minded rockers like "Won't Get Fooled Again" by the Who and the Temptations' "Ball of Confusion"?
And what about the 527 groups? It's only a matter of time before someone aims Hall and Oates' "Rich Girl" at beer heiress Cindy McCain.
John McCain may suffer the indignity of being mocked by the Doobie Brothers' "What a Fool Believes" or ABBA's "Waterloo."
Barack Obama could find himself hoisted on Carly Simon's "You're So Vain" or Frankie Valli's "My Eyes Adored You" before the dust -- not to be confused with "Dust in the Wind" -- settles.
Both campaigns will have reached an all-time low when Bristol Palin's fiance Levi Johnston has his integrity impugned by 10cc's "I'm Not in Love."
Classic rock is used by political consultants to lull voters into a false sense of identification with the candidate. It would be interesting to see how the electorate would deal with a 2006 Neil Young song that blared:
Let's impeach the president for lying
And misleading our country into war
Abusing all the power that we gave him
And shipping all of our money out the door.
But that's a song for another election.
Tony Norman can be reached at tnorman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1631. More articles by this author
First published on September 9, 2008 at 12:00 am
