“Hmm, what about “California Gurls”? Nah, I’m gonna go with “Takin’ care of business.” -Meg Whitman (Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got the Killers to play at one of his rallies, undoubtedly upping his hipness quotient. (
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Listen to the political speeches Tuesday night, but you probably won’t hear a campaign theme song as pointed as this one: “Fire’s comin’/ Swords are comin’/ Pistols, guns and knives are comin’/Fears are comin’/Tears are comin’/Plague and pestilence is comin’/ Hatin’s comin’, Satan’s comin’/ If John Quincy not be comin’!”
So ran the words to “Little Know Ye Who’s Comin’,” the campaign ditty issued by John Quincy Adams warning voters against rival Andrew Jackson.
Note to Carl Paladino: Time to dust off this song? Your name has the same number of syllables as John Quincy Adams! Your opponent is named Andrew! Whaddya got to lose?
Sure, Jackson bested Q. in a landslide, but pols continue to use songs to create a party atmosphere out of fiscal rectitude or international trade.
Yet picking out just the right song for your campaign is less likely to be a stairway to heaven than a highway to hell.
“Politicians want to create an emotion that strictly belongs to them, something their supporters will become instantly involved with,” says Democratic political consultant Hank Sheinkopf.
“It’s kind of a secret language. Obama’s use of Ben Harper’s ‘Better Way’ was a good choice. It made his supporters say, ‘Wait a second, we’re talking about the same thing.’ [Bill]Clinton’s ‘Don’t Stop’ was sufficiently old enough to use for the baby boomers, it was sufficiently hip enough for the younger generation and it told the World War II generation that their time was over.”
More often, the campaign theme song makes it look as if the pol can barely run a PA system, let alone a state or a country. Ronald Reagan used a September 1984 New Jersey speech to laud an inaudible-to-everyone-but-him “message of hope” in Bruce Springsteen’s scalding post-Vietnam anti-anthem “Born in the USA.”
Or ask Hillary Clinton, whose camp put Billy Joel’s “Greatest Hits” in the CD player with the intention that “New York State of Mind” would play as she launched her 2000 Senate race. Instead, she found herself taking the stage to the self-abuse aria “Captain Jack.”
The same album led to a similar stumble by Paladino, who, during the party at his primary-night victory, used Billy Joel’s “You May Be Right.” Sample lyrics: “I may be crazy/but it just may be a lunatic you’re looking for!” Or, you know, not.
According to campaign guru Michael Caputo, Paladino’s camp loves The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” because of its applicability to Andrew Cuomo: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” (Cuomo’s camp didn’t respond to a request for its musical choices.) On the stump, Team Carl has been using Tom Petty’s defiant “I Won’t Back Down” because, Caputo adds, “the lyrics are especially poignant — especially when it comes to New York City tabloid coverage of his campaign: ‘In a world that keeps on pushin’ me around/ but I’ll stand my ground and I won’t back down.’ ” That gives Paladino something in common with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand: Her re-election campaign has also been using Petty’s song.
Fellow Senate candidate Jay Townsend (the Republican running a forlorn attempt to unseat Chuck Schumer) picked the “Glee” cast’s version of “Hello Goodbye” because, says Jay’s wife, Rebecca Darlington Townsend, “This is his first foray into the limelight. It made sense to say hello.” But the choice carries another meeting — as when you say “Hello?” to a strange notion, in this case the likelihood that Schumer would run unopposed. “It was as if to say, ‘I can’t believe there is no one running against Schumer and HELLO, this is a no-brainer,’ ” says Darlington Townsend. “Goodbye” is left for Schumer to say to his quixotic rival on Nov. 2. (Schumer’s team also didn’t respond to a request for its favorite tuneage.)
This year, graying Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made himself look (slightly) cooler when he lured the Killers to a Vegas rally to play Nevada’s 1932 state theme song, “Home Means Nevada” — which includes the line, “Oh you certainly will agree with me/It’s the place of a thousand thrills.” And that was before they opened the Elvis Chapel!
Even cooler choice: Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train,” used by Texas conservatives in a campaign commercial to mock Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White’s part in a Houston rail scandal.
Trying to match that spirit but winding up rocking like a church lady, Delaware Republican Christine O’Donnell has gotten support from the theme song and music video “Pledge of Allegiance” by Rock Peters (hey, dorks get to vote too!). It combines the production values of a 1982 used-car commercial with the musical skill of a prom band. Lyrics:
“Christine O’Donnell is from Delaware/And for lower taxes she’s the one that cares!”
The music video identifies her opponent, Democrat Chris Coons, with an American flag that has a hammer and sickle instead of the field of stars. (Her driver’s license may say, “also trained on broomstick” but Coons wrote an opinion piece for his college paper called “Chris Coons: The Making of a Bearded Marxist”).
As for those who worry about O’Donnell’s views on private sexual matters, she’s apparently changed her mind: The song promises she’ll “stimulate the private sector.” Ooh, baby!
O’Donnell’s rival for title of the honey in the Tea Party is former “American Idol” contestant Krista Branch and her new song “I Am America” by her husband, Michael, a pastor. It carries a dual Judgment Day/Election Day spirit (set off against a synth beat worthy of mid-’80s Depeche Mode) and a red-meat message: “I’ve got some news, we’re taking names/We’re waiting now for the judgment day . . ./Your god is power you have no shame/Your only interest is political gain.”
Sounds like pure Ayn Rand, whose Kentucky fan Rand Paul was using two songs by Rush (Admitted Canadians! Where’s your patriotism, buddy?), “Tom Sawyer” and “Spirit of Radio,” at campaign rallies.
Paul gets extra points for quoting from “Spirit of Radio” — “Glittering prizes and endless compromises/Shatter the illusion of integrity” — in his speeches. No problem, right? Everyone knows Rush’s drummer-songwriter Neil Peart is himself an (Ayn) Randian.
Rush’s lawyer sent Paul a cease-and-desist letter, but said he wasn’t taking a political stance, merely defending property rights in a way that would have done Ayn Rand proud. The band, the lawyer said, would “do this no matter who it is.” Canadian bands in general seem to maintain a studied neutrality when it comes to election campaigns, perhaps sensing that the entire country could be overrun by the superior military forces of, say, New Hampshire. Another Canuck group, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, avoided comment when both the Al Gore and George W. Bush campaigns used its songs on the stump — respectively, “You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet” and “Takin’ Care of Business.” So Republicans and Democrats, Harvard and Yale graduates agree on the importance of droppin’ G’s and panderin’ to the workin’ class.
BTO popped up again in California, where former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, has used the song at rallies. Backfire! Rival Jerry Brown’s campaign started suggesting she was too cozy with business. Similarly, Charlie Crist, the Republican-turned-Independent candidate for Florida senator, tried to use David Byrne’s bouncy existentialism in “Road to Nowhere” to ding Republican rival Marco Rubio in a campaign spot. Byrne sued for $1 million, protesting, “I’m a bit of a throwback that way, as I still believe songs occasionally mean something to people.”
If Crist had been reading the papers, he might have learned that Jackson Browne sued under similar circumstances when John McCain used “Running on Empty” in a campaign commercial mocking Barack Obama’s energy policy.
Disappointing tens of fans who had continued to buy his records in the ’80s as he supported Marxist Nicaragua, Browne cited profit above politics. “I’ve had an idea of how my songs are protected and how money is collected and how making a living as a musician works for my whole career,” Browne said as he accepted an apology and an undisclosed sum, “and it’s great to have it affirmed.” It was a lawsuit that stunned the world . . . which was dumbfounded by the news that Browne was still alive.