This is one of the funniest/most cringe-poignant articles I’ve read recently. It’s ‘good medicine’ after a week when a good deal of media ‘news’ about candidates looked somewhat like a two parakeet flap-fest going on inside a single-legged trouser.
This article that bobbed across the ocean and landed on the shore of my desk, is about USA political contenders’ tastes in campaign music… from present snafus and gaffes, and going all the way back to indecent lyrics in the time of Abraham Lincoln.
It is fine in detail and written by a journo from Scotland, David Smyth. It ran in Scotsman.com a week ago. See CODA for the charming description of the picture above, also from The Scotsman.com which also has an online store in addition to its newspaper. God love the Scots for their wit and their wits.
Wail To The Chief
By DAVID SMYTH
POP AND politics never make easy bedfellows – but the US presidential primaries could yet come down to who has the best campaign music. Republican favourite John McCain bounded onto his podium on Super Tuesday, celebrating his strong lead, to the rousing strains of comeback classic the Rocky theme. Other candidates have been more original.
Barack Obama has justified his status as the choice of young people by choosing the coolest tunes, including Hold On, I’m Comin’ by Sam & Dave, Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours by Stevie Wonder and Ben Harper’s Better Way, with its bongos, droning sitars and lines including, “You have a right to your dream and don’t be denied”.However, he probably didn’t endorse the YouTube hit I Got a Crush … on Obama by Obama Girl, in which a barely dressed R&B singer writhes beside his posters and sings, “So I put down my Kerry sign/Knew I had to make you mine”.
Hillary Clinton is the one who made the biggest deal out of her campaign song, encouraging a public vote on her website and announcing the result via a cringe-making YouTube video parodying The Sopranos finale.“Everybody in America wants to know how it’s gonna end,” says husband Bill, somehow managing to be upstaged by a bowl of carrot sticks.
Sadly, the winner turned out to be Celine Dion schmaltz-a-thon You and I, a song with lyrics so basic that President George W Bush could have written them: “You and I were meant to fly/Higher than the clouds we’ll sail across the sky”.
Still, at least it sticks to vague, uplifting promises. In the past, politicians have made mistakes by failing to listen to the lyrics. In 1984 Ronald Reagan used Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA without realising the song is about his country’s poor treatment of Vietnam veterans.
Extreme Left-wingers Massive Attack’s Man Next Door was used by William Hague at the 2000 Conservative Party conference, despite containing the lines, “And he gets me down/He gets in so late at night/Always a fuss and fight”. The band retaliated with a statement saying, “How
dare they use our music to promote their bull****?”
Most musicians aren’t as keen to align themselves with political parties as D:Ream, whose biggest hit Things Can Only Get Better, was the sound of Labour’s 1997 landslide.
Unfortunately, politicians often don’t ask first. In 2004, Fatboy Slim created a stink for Labour by noisily protesting when they wanted to play his track Right Here, Right Now at their conference. In 1996, Republican candidate Bob Dole changed Soul Man to Dole Man, without mentioning it to Sam & Dave’s people. He failed to beat Bill Clinton.
Mind, today’s rows are tame when you consider Little Mac! Little Mac! You’re the Very Man, composed by Stephen C Foster for Abe Lincoln’s Democratic foe George McClellan in 1864: “Democrats, Democrats, do it up brown/Lincoln and his Nigger-heads won’t go down”, runs the second verse.
Somehow we prefer Celine.
CODA
The picture at the top shows traditional pewter hip flasks, either 4oz or 6oz capacity.
From £ 26.99 to £ 28.99 (about $54US to $58US)
“These traditional hand crafted Hip Flasks are made with a high polish finish and engraved with the world renowned Scotsman Thistle logo. Available in two convenient sizes…These flasks make a wonderful gift and can be used on numerous occasions from attending or participating in sporting events or for more social occasions, including keeping in a traditional highland sporran when the opportunity permits.”