John McCain Just Can’t Catch a Break…Musically
There’s a certain art to picking the correct song for your presidential campaign.
An art that John McCain just can’t quite grasp.
McCain was admonished this morning by rock gods The Foo Fighters for his use of their song “My Hero” for his campaign. The use was unauthorized, but was obviously meant to highlight McCain’s war hero history and spread the message that he will be America’s “hero” if elected this November 4th (by the way, are you registered to vote yet? Several states’ deadlines passed this week! Make sure you’ve still got time!).
But it’s that sticky little “authorization” thing that’s getting him into trouble. In an statement issued by the Foos, they said “It’s frustrating and infuriating that someone who claims to speak for the American people would repeatedly show such little respect for creativity and intellectual property. The saddest thing about this is that ‘My Hero’ was written as a celebration of the common man and his extraordinary potential. To have it appropriated without our knowledge and used in a manner that perverts the original sentiment of the lyric just tarnishes the song. We hope that the McCain campaign will do the right thing and stop using our song — and start asking artists’ permission in general.”
This marks yet ANOTHER time the McCain camp has been told to stop using particular songs. Previously, McCain had attempted to use John Mellencamp’s “Pink Houses” and “Our Country” but was admonished by the liberal artist. Incidentally, Republican idol Ronald Reagan had wanted to use “Pink Houses” during his presidential bid in 1984 but was denied. Reportedly, Mellencamp’s reaction was “…has he listened to the song?” (Actually, that’s a good question…)
McCain then attempted to use “Right Now” by Van Halen, but was once again told by the artist to cut it out. Because right now, a band is seeing someone they don’t support use their song without permission (if you don’t get it, watch the classic music video). They also made sure to note that if McCain had asked permission, it would not have been granted.
Upon the announcement that Sarah Palin would be McCain’s running mate, an attempt was made to associate her with the Heart song “Barracuda” due to her high school nickname of “Sarah Barracuda.” Once again, the campaign was asked to stop, but this time they refused, leading to Heart to state “The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission…We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.”
The McCain camp was even sued by Jackson Browne for using his song “Running on Empty” in anti-Obama advertisements.
So…why the hell is this so hard? There are a number of artists in support of John McCain including Big and Rich (or at least half of them), Ted Nugent and even reggaeton star Daddy Yankee. So why not use THEIR music?
Better yet, if this is how the McCain camp handles things, what songs from staunch Obama supporters will he try to use next? “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen? “Only the Good Die Young” by Billy Joel? “Crash Into Me” by Dave Matthews? “Love Lockdown” by Kanye West? Fall Out Boy‘s current single “I Don’t Care?”
Well, he should at least stay away from The Hush Sound. That could get embarassing for him in the long run.
