Heart to Sarah Palin: "Fuck Off!"
OK, OK, maybe I'm paraphrasing a little.
Still, the rock band Heart has told Republican VP candidate Palin to stop using their 1977 classic "Barracuda," even though it is the fantastically-unqualified Palin's nickname. Their record label, Sony/BMG, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the McCain/Palin campaign.
From the statement by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, founders of Heart:
This is not the first time McCain and/or his party have been asked by a recording artist to stop playing their music. In fact, during this campaign, this is at least the sixth time an artist has asked either McCain or the GOP to stop using their songs, as Republican politics and beliefs go against everything they stand for. John Mellencamp, John Hall of the band Orleans (now a Democratic congressman from New York), Van Halen, Jackson Browne, and Frankie Valli have all previously chastised McCain for playing their music without permission.
Oh, and actor Mike Myers forced McCain to take down a web clip earlier this year that used a scene from "Wayne's World" without permission.
This may seem like a trivial matter, but maybe there's a lesson to be learned here. Is it possible that McCain and Palin -- and the voters they are trying to court -- are not sophisticated enough to handle the subtlety of music lyrics?
I mean, Barracuda, as the Wilson sisters note, was intended to be a rant against the soulless nature of the music business. Isn't there, as they say, more than a little irony in the Republican party, the most corporate-owned political party in the history of the world, using it as an anthem? I can just see the empty-headed GOPers bopping along in their seats, not even realizing that the song is about their fat, white, corporate-owned asses.
For heaven's sake, Mellencamp's song Our Country calls on government to "help the poor and common man." Does that sound like something the Republican Party is particularly interested in?
I guess McCain really is the heir to Ronald Reagan, who blindly played Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" at rallies in 1984, until Springsteen asked the campaign to stop. Reagan and the other dullards around him thought it was a nice, patriotic song about how great it was to have been born in the USA.
If only they could have done something complicated like, oh, I don't know, listened to the goddamn lyrics, maybe they'd have figured it out.
But again, reading, subtlety, deeper meaning -- these are not part of the GOP's platform.
Still, the rock band Heart has told Republican VP candidate Palin to stop using their 1977 classic "Barracuda," even though it is the fantastically-unqualified Palin's nickname. Their record label, Sony/BMG, has sent a cease-and-desist letter to the McCain/Palin campaign.
From the statement by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, founders of Heart:
"Sarah Palin's views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. 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. (The 'barracuda' represented the business.) 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 there."Heh. I knew I always liked them.
This is not the first time McCain and/or his party have been asked by a recording artist to stop playing their music. In fact, during this campaign, this is at least the sixth time an artist has asked either McCain or the GOP to stop using their songs, as Republican politics and beliefs go against everything they stand for. John Mellencamp, John Hall of the band Orleans (now a Democratic congressman from New York), Van Halen, Jackson Browne, and Frankie Valli have all previously chastised McCain for playing their music without permission.
Oh, and actor Mike Myers forced McCain to take down a web clip earlier this year that used a scene from "Wayne's World" without permission.
This may seem like a trivial matter, but maybe there's a lesson to be learned here. Is it possible that McCain and Palin -- and the voters they are trying to court -- are not sophisticated enough to handle the subtlety of music lyrics?
I mean, Barracuda, as the Wilson sisters note, was intended to be a rant against the soulless nature of the music business. Isn't there, as they say, more than a little irony in the Republican party, the most corporate-owned political party in the history of the world, using it as an anthem? I can just see the empty-headed GOPers bopping along in their seats, not even realizing that the song is about their fat, white, corporate-owned asses.
For heaven's sake, Mellencamp's song Our Country calls on government to "help the poor and common man." Does that sound like something the Republican Party is particularly interested in?
I guess McCain really is the heir to Ronald Reagan, who blindly played Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" at rallies in 1984, until Springsteen asked the campaign to stop. Reagan and the other dullards around him thought it was a nice, patriotic song about how great it was to have been born in the USA.
If only they could have done something complicated like, oh, I don't know, listened to the goddamn lyrics, maybe they'd have figured it out.
But again, reading, subtlety, deeper meaning -- these are not part of the GOP's platform.
Labels: politics
1 Comments:
Unfortunately most people don't listen to lyrics. My favorite example of this is the Tommy Hilfiger commercial where they use CCR's "Fortunate Son" to evoke all that is good and whole about America. You hear the opening riff, and the opening lyric "Some people born to wave the flag, yeah that red white and blue".
Then for some reason it fades out before you get to the next lyric "It aint me, it aint me, I aint no fortunate son." and all its all to apropos anti-war glory.
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