http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13477.html"Cease-and-desist letters from musicians have rained down like confetti on Republicans over the years. But nothing compares to the virtual commune full of left-leaning artists who are mad at John McCain right now, though, in most cases, they have no legal basis to stop him from using their songs.
Let’s start with the band
Heart, whose thumping 1977 hit
“Barracuda” was blasted in the Xcel Energy Center just after McCain’s acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention as the vice presidential nominee, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, joined him amid dropping balloons. The song was meant as a cool tip of the hat to Palin’s nickname, “Sarah Barracuda,” when she was a cutthroat high school basketball star.
It could have been to the 2008 Republican ticket what Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow)” was to the Democratic ticket in 1992: a fun and inspiring anthem that would cue up and roll in voters’ heads to positive effect whenever they laid eyes on the vice presidential pick.
Instead, it backfired. The day after McCain’s speech, Heart’s labels, Universal Music and Sony BMG, released a statement asking the campaign to, well,
cease and desist.
“The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted permission,” Heart’s Ann and Nancy Wilson wrote on their website. “We have asked the Republican campaign not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.”
They weren’t. The McCain campaign responded by continuing to use “Barracuda” on the trail. “I feel completely f——- over,” Nancy Wilson wrote to Entertainment Weekly.
Van Halen is not happy, either. Right before McCain unveiled Palin as his vice presidential pick in Dayton, Ohio, his team played Van Halen’s
“Right Now.” A few hours later, the band’s publicist announced that
the campaign was never granted permission to use the track, and said that had permission been sought, it would not have been granted. Ouch.
And then there’s
John Mellencamp, who had his agent call the McCain campaign when he learned it was using
“Pink Houses” and “Our Country” on the trail in February. “John said to me, ‘Don’t they know whose songs these are? Please tell them who I am: a left-wing Democrat,’” said Bob Merlis, Mellencamp’s publicist.
Then John Hall, co-founder of the band
Orleans and coincidentally a Democratic New York congressman, asked the McCain camp to stop using
“Still the One” early this summer.
<snip>
On the Obama side? So far, no such trouble from the mostly left-leaning musicians whose songs he uses. An Obama campaign spokesman told Politico,
“We haven’t heard any complaints from any of the artists whose music we’ve used at any of our events,” and that includes Brooks & Dunn, whose anthemic country song “Only in America” was played just after Obama’s acceptance speech in Denver. Interestingly, that particular tune had been widely used by Republicans in previous campaigns.
<snip>
The biggest slap: In August, ultra-liberal singer/songwriter
(Jackson) Browne filed suit against McCain, the Republican National Committee and the Ohio Republican Party for using
“Running on Empty” in a TV ad that ran in Ohio and Pennsylvania mocking Obama’s suggestion that Americans conserve gas by checking their tire gauges.
Browne said the ad created the impression that he supports the campaign, which he emphatically does not. Damages sought could run in excess of $1 million.
The McCain campaign told Politico that questions about the ad should be taken up with the Ohio Republican Party. Lawrence Iser, Browne’s attorney, countered that there is evidence of a close working relationship between the Ohio GOP, the RNC and the McCain campaign. The matter is pending; all three defendants’ responses to the suit are due in late October.
As for
(Mike) Myers, last month the comedian/actor asked that the Arizona Republican Party take down a Web ad that used a
“we’re not worthy” clip from his movie “Wayne’s World” to mock Obama’s popularity. The ad was retooled without the “Wayne’s World” clip and re-posted. McCain’s campaign used a similar remedy after Warner Music in July asserted a copyright claim against YouTube for running a McCain fundraising campaign fave known as the “Obama Love” video. The video used
Valli’s hit “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” without permission. The campaign has re-posted the video, but without Valli’s croonings.
<snip>
For the most part, rather than being a legal issue, this is looking far more like a bad PR issue for McCain. Except for rapper Daddy Yankee, country singer John Rich (of Big & Rich) and “country rapper” Cowboy Troy, as well as some Christian singers, McCain seems to be striking out with musicians — publicly.
<snip>
One musician who is not upset is Roger Fisher, the Heart guitarist who wrote “Barracuda” along with Ann and Nancy Wilson 31 years ago.
“I don’t like having anger and resentment,” he said. “I would like to see this in a positive light. It’s positive for McCain in that he gets to use a great song. It’s positive for Ann and Nance because it allows them to shine a global spotlight on who it is that they do endorse. And it’s positive for Democrats because I’m going to donate some of the royalties I get from this to the party. It’s a way for me to turn the tables and have the Republicans financing Barack Obama.”
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
