Presidential Groove: Weekend Update

Headline story:

The biggest music-related Presidential campaign story thus far has been the Obama/will.i.am video.

So, no surprise there is a John McCain parody video.

Even two.

Hillary Clinton has her own video response.

Other big stories this week:

Barack Obama wins a grammy for Best Spoken word album.

Tom Scholz from the band Boston asks Mike Huckabee to quit playing "More Than A Feeling".

Campaign theme articles:

An interersting and amusing article about campaign songs, and how the lyrics of the songs don't match the intent.

Clinton has regaled her backers with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' "American Girl", doubtless to evoke the image of a patriotic, down-home candidate.
But the lyrics tell an altogether different story of seeing a dream slip away: "God, it's so painful/ Something that's so close / And still so far out of reach."

Another article on theme songs used in this campaign.

(Clinton) offered nine songs to vote on, but many overzealous readers supplied their own suggestions, including Elton John's The Bitch is Back, Foreigner's Cold As Ice and The Rolling Stones' Sympathy for the Devil.

Assorted articles from this week:

Pitchfork ran an article on John McCain's daughter and her music bloggery.

Songwirter/satirist Tom Lehrer endorses Obama:

I asked Lehrer if there was anything he'd like to add, in this chat, about the current president. After a bit of pause he said, "Just tell the people that I am voting for Obama."

Wonkette reports that Paula Abdul endorses a female for President.

Wonkette also featured this picture of Barry Manilow fans for Hillary:

Have a good week.

Weekend Update

Top Ten Recent Stories

• Merle Haggard was on the Bill Maher show and said that he was disappointed that after he wrote "Let's Put a Woman in the White House" that Hillary went to Nashville to get other songwriters to write songs about her. Merle also joked about Hillary going on Willie Nelson's bus.
• Stevie Wonder campaigned for Obama in California
• The remaining members of the Grateful Dead were reuniting to campaign for Obama.
• A video put together by will.i.am of the BlackEyed Peas, and featuring Herbie Hancock, Common, John Legend, and Nicole from the Pussycat Dolls was a huge hit. The video which combined Obama's speech with music and sung vocals got 1.9 million views.
• Kim Gordon from Sonic Youth supports Obama
• The Beatles support Obama. Well, if Elvis supported Duncan Hunter...
• Speaking of the Beatles
• Arlo Guthrie is supporting Ron Paul
• John Mellencamp tells John McCain to quit using his songs. You'd think that making campaign appearences with John Edwards would have given some clue where Mellencamp's allegiances lie.

and lastly, the biggest music-related story of the last two weeks..

• In case, you didn't see it on every major news outlet, Obama Girl didn't vote for Obama. In fact, she didn't even vote at all.

Presidential Groove: John McCain

Who?: Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)

Musician supporters: n/a

John McCain On the Record -

McCain famously sang "Bomb Iran" to the tune of the the Beach boys' "Barbara Ann".

He also famously points out he wasn't at Woodstock.

McCain oddly is on the record as a big fan of the group ABBA. This article asks McCain what's on his iPod and he says "“Dare I say ABBA. Everybody says, ‘Ehhh, ABBA.’ Why is that? ABBA was the largest selling (recording act ever). Nobody likes them but they sold more records than anybody in the history of the world, including the Beatles. But everybody hates them. (But) you’re a no-class guy if you like ABBA. Why does everybody go see ‘Mamma Mia?’ Hypocrisy! Rank hypocrisy! I’m not embarassed to say I like ABBA, ‘Dancing Queen.’”
More from McCain. If elected, “the background music would be ABBA in the elevators all over the White House.”"

This blogger suggests a couple of Cuban campaign songs. I think he's being saracastic, but the music is good.

This blogger uncovers the secret of McCain's hold music - Melissa Manchester.

McCain's daughter suggests that he listens to Lauryn Hill.

Will John answer my question "What music do you listen to?": I was sorta hoping for an answer from the Straight Talk Express, but no dice. Perhaps, he is too busy surging up the polls, perhaps too embarrassed by his love for Swedish pop. In any case, the McCain website is very explicit in stating that you can send in questions, but John is very busy and probably won't answer. Which he didn't. Which is why he does not get our endorsement.