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In the latest example of a recurring phenomenon, a Republican pol utilizing hip music on the campaign trail has gotten slapped down by the artist involved. This is per Emmarie Huttemann at the New York Times Caucus blog:
Representative Paul D. Ryan may love Rage Against the Machine, but the feeling isn’t mutual.
Tom Morello, guitarist for the politically outspoken rap-metal band, attacked Mr. Ryan, Mitt Romney’s running mate in a searing editorial for Rolling Stone.
“Paul Ryan’s love of Rage Against the Machine is amusing, because he is the embodiment of the machine that our music has been raging against for two decades,” Mr. Morello said.
Mediate’s Andrew Kirell reports that Ryan’s running-mate has had the same problem, as did John McCain in 2008:
Indie rock stalwarts Silversun Pickups have accused Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney of illegally using their 2009 hit song “Panic Switch” on the campaign trail without their permission. Wednesday afternoon the band fired off a cease and desist letter to the campaign, demanding Romney discontinue use of any of their songs….
Note to Republicans: musicians tend to dislike you — whether that be for political reasons or for fan-pleasing purposes — so avoid playing their music at any point during a campaign event because you will likely get called out, and you will likely be embarrassed.
Notable musicians Jackson Browne, Foo Fighters, John Mellencamp, John Hall, and ABBA (?!?!) all demanded Sen. John McCain quit using their tunes during his 2008 campaign; the Wilson sisters from Heart famously reprimanded Sarah Palin for using “Barracuda” to promote herself that same year. Former Florida Governor Charlie Crist was sued by his doppelgänger David Byrne for using a Talking Heads song in 2010. And, of course, George W. Bush made a fair amount of enemies in Mellencamp, Tom Petty, and Sting.
The whole phenomenon is a bit bizarre. Political event organizers probably don’t coordinate with actual candidates in figuring out how to get audiences all lathered up before The Maximum Leader appears. I’ll never forget attending a monster Election Eve Clinton-Gore rally just outside Atlanta in 1992, and gazing in awe at the spectacle of 100,000 excited Democrats shaking tiny American flags to the beat of John Lennon’s Black Panther-inspired (if somewhat ambivalently worded) “Power to the People,” as Clinton worked his way to the platform, leaving his introducer, my former boss Sam Nunn, up there doing the White Man Shuffle.
But clearly, if you are a Republican, better stick to Big & Rich or maybe even Lee Greenwood.
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TR on August 17, 2012 5:42 PM:
For people who claim to love property rights, conservatives sure don't seem to give a shit about musicians'.
c u n d gulag on August 17, 2012 5:59 PM:
If Jello Biafra of 'The Dead Kennedys' wanted to make a TON of money, he'd allow EVERY Republican Party candidate play "Kill The Poor!" at every meeting and rally!
But, sadly for them HE'S SUE THE LIVING SH*T OUT OF THEM IF THEY TRIED!!!
DisgustedWithItAll on August 17, 2012 6:14 PM:
Ryan clearly knows nothing about Morello. Harvard and very, very liberal. Plus an incredible guitarist of the shredding type.
Ryan? amoral dickweed.
AndThenThere'sThat on August 17, 2012 6:19 PM:
But clearly, if you are a Republican, better stick to Big & Rich or maybe even Lee Greenwood.
.....Or they could just play Cat Scratch Fever on an endless loop.
Neildsmith on August 17, 2012 6:39 PM:
I recommend R&R use Holst in their campaign appearances.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0bcRCCg01I
Gustav Holst - The Planets - Mars, the Bringer of War
mudwall jackson on August 17, 2012 6:46 PM:
not all is lost for republicans on the musical front. pat boone, i'm sure, has a man-crush on paul and mitt ...
paul on August 17, 2012 7:04 PM:
So if you or I unlawfully put someone on a playlist and broadcast their songs to thousands of people, we'd be on the hook for what, $100K a song?
Good thing copyright law doesn't fully apply to the rich.
MikeN on August 17, 2012 7:04 PM:
And don't forget the biggies: Reagan trying to use Springsteen in 1984, and being slapped down by the Boss himself.
DCSusie on August 17, 2012 7:34 PM:
Give. Bryan's anti abortion and anti birth control stance perhaps he should go for a old Sinatra recording of 'The Lady is a Ttramp.'
Nick on August 17, 2012 7:53 PM:
Ryan is such a doofus ... NO ONE could possibly believe he is a fan of Rage Against the Machine. He probably thought it would 'hip him to the kids' by naming a 'beat combo' as a fave. Especially one named 'Rage Against the Machine' -- get it? The GOVERNMENT is the machine that all really with-it conservatives (remember their list of top wingnut songs?) must rage against! And Ryan -- Galtian superman -- picked right up on it!
These people MUST be defeated. For so many, many reasons.
exlibra on August 17, 2012 8:01 PM:
For people who claim to love property rights, conservatives sure don't seem to give a shit about musicians'. -- TR, @5:42 PM
Isn't just musicians' property rights they seem to hold in disregard; it's everyone's but their own.
Years back, the kid of the neighbours on the right of us, and the kid of the neighbours on the left decided it was too much trouble to push their bikes 3 yards to the street to ride and visit with one another, so they kept riding through our backyard, leaving tire marks in the grass and trampling all the flowers which ringed our property. My husband tried talking to the parents, to no avail -- "they're just kids, what's the big deal?".
So, my husband put in a fence, and the kids began to ride through the property of the neighbour to the back of us. All three neighbours -- good Republicans, naturally -- were * incensed*; how un-neighbourly can you be??? Two of them stopped talking to us after I laughed in their faces and told them that, in *commie Poland*, we always put up fences to protect our property from people who didn't seem to know the difference between "mine" and "yours".
Renai on August 17, 2012 9:30 PM:
What about their own crooning loonie, Ted Nugent.
His song Stanglehold, gets their message across.
IF YOUR HOUSE GETS IN MY WAY BABY
YOU KNOW I'LL BURN IT DOWN
Romney/Ryan
Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
Steve P on August 17, 2012 10:02 PM:
Romney uses Kid Rock's "Born Free" for his rallies.
It's a good bet that Mitt has NEVER SEEN Kid Rock:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGhPjXj0UEo&feature=fvwrel
Which is a shame, since he might pick up a style note or two: "My name is MITTTT!!! MITT, Baby!"
Anonymous on August 17, 2012 10:33 PM:
Man, now I'm dying to go to a Ryan event wearing my old Rage Against the Machine concert T-shirt. It's the one with a big picture of Che Guevara on the front:
http://www.rarerecords.com.au/photos/21355-2.jpg
N.Wells on August 18, 2012 12:41 AM:
The heck with music, the R's should just show Jenna Jameson movie clips. Apart from her being a fan of republicans, that'd heat up the crowd, get all the flag wavers standing at attention, and give the morally righteous something to get all uprighteous about.
heckblazer on August 18, 2012 1:17 AM:
Oops, I accidentally posted anonymously about the t-shirt.
Paul on August 18, 2012 4:12 AM:
The frontman of RATM is a Zapatista Mexican Seperatist. I'd love to see Ryan circle that square.
MuddyLee on August 18, 2012 10:18 AM:
Don't forget the white power bands favored by the guy who shot up the Sikh temple recently. There's also Rush - I will choose free will - isn't that an ayn rand reference? Plus there's the Rush/Rush Limbaugh nomenclature connection. Hank Jr was also very anti-Obama, even claiming that he didn't win the electoral college - maybe they could use some of his stuff - but since a lot of it is about drinking and womanizing and smoking pot, this may not be acceptable to Mitt. But he does have the song that says I like to ride my horses and shoot my guns....
joe on August 18, 2012 11:03 AM:
slightly OT but you worked for Sam Nunn? anti gay bigot? who almost sunk the Clinton presidency over gays in the military? nice. thanks. Nunn is a dick. the worst kind of blue dog. the personal is political. you don't get a pass.