Presidential Groove: Weekend Update

Here are the biggest music related news items since we last met.

Your Top Story:

John McCain runs into music issues.

APPLETON, Wisconsin (Reuters) - Would Abba take a chance on him? Republican presidential front-runner John McCain is not so sure and said he opted against playing the 1977 hit "Take a Chance on Me" by the Swedish group at his campaign rallies because of licensing and other concerns.
"It's more difficult to play 'let's take a chance on me' than I thought," the four-term Arizona senator told reporters aboard his campaign plane.
"It gets expensive in a big hurry and if you're not careful you can alienate some Swedes," he joked. "If word gets out to Stockholm that we're using Abba music, then there'll be a worsening in U.S.-Swedish relations."
The hit disco song, which begins "If you change your mind, I'm the first in line," could sum up McCain's courtship of the powerful conservative wing of the Republican Party.

McCain also ran into issues using the theme song to "Rocky".

After playing the anthemic horns of the "Rocky" theme song at his rallies, the owner of the song's copyright telephoned the McCain campaign to politely complain it was being used without permission, McCain said.
"It wasn't a formal complaint or a letter. Someone just called on the phone and said 'Hey, that's our property,'" he said.

Follow-up story: Will.i.am follows up the popular Obama- themed YouTube video "Yes, We can" with a song called "We are the Ones".

The video is based on a line Obama delivered in a speech: "We are the ones we've been waiting for," and it features folks like Jessica Alba, George Lopez, Luis Guzman, Ryan Phillippe, John Leguizamo, Kate del Castillo, Malcolm Jamal Warner and Macy Gray.

Clinton backers respond:

Not to be outdone, the Clinton campain this week released its own Mexican cumbia, a Latino campaign theme song called "Hillary, Hillary Clinton," and featuring noted Tejano musician Johnny Canales. Latino supporters of Clinton in the Washington area also created a Spanish music video, called "Oye Hillary."

From the YouTubes:

Check out Roy Zimmerman and his song "Superdelegate". Like that? "Eine kleine Barackmusick" is even better.

Behold the Power of Obama? Checkout this Bollywood-themed video.

Let's not forget the GOP. There's Huckabee Girl.

On a more serious note:

In Ohio, Bill Clinton has been taking the stage to the Top Gun song "Danger Zone". In Texas, he is being accompanied by a Mariachi band.

Melissa Ethridge has changed her support from Clinton to Obama.

When he's not promoting his new album "Love grenade", Ted Nugent is writing a weekly article about the Presidential campaign for the Waco Tribune-Herald.

Finally:

This New Republic blogger speculates Obama is Jay-Z, Hillary is Cam'Ron

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: Hillary Clinton

Who?: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY)

Musician supporters: The Clinton family should know the power of music more than most. Who can think of the 1992 election and not picture Fleetwood Mac performing "Don't Stop Thinking about tomorrow".

Hillary supporters include: Madonna, Janet Jackson, Katherine McPhee, Melissa Ethrdige, Gail Zappa (Frank's widow), Merle Haggard, Babyface, Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow (listed in Wikipedia, although I have also seen him listed as a Biden and a Ron Paul supporter), Quincy Jones, Clarence Avant, Berry Gordy, Carole King, Carly Simon, and 50 Cent.

That's a guest list any awards show would be envious of.


On the Record: Hillary has inspired Merle Haggard to write a song about her and lament "Why don't we put a woman in charge".

Hillary's YouTube supporters have a counterpoint to 'Obama Girl' with 'Hott4Hil'.

On her myspace, Hillary says her last music purchase was Carly Simon's Into White.

Hillary famously had her campaign song picked by voters on her website. "You and I" by Celine Dion won. Other options that were on her shortlist, but did not win were: KT Tunstall "Suddenly I see", SmashMouth "I'm a Believer", U2- "City of Blinding Lights" and "Beautiful Day", The Temptations- "Get Ready", Jesus Jones- "Right Here, Right Now", Dixie Chicks - "Ready to Run", Shania Twain - "Rock this Country", and the Staples Singers "I'll Take You There".

Will Hillary answer my question "What music are you currently listening to?": Want a quick answer to why Edwards took second in Iowa? I got a personal answer from the Edwards camp, and the Hillary camp sent an automated e-mail. The e-mail is addressed "Dear Friend" and states "Thank you for your message. I have received thousands of emails from people all over the country. Your comments are very important to me and I am excited that so many people are joining our conversation about how to change the direction of the country. Unfortunately, due to the high volume of comments, I am unable to respond to each email individually." beroe addressing ways that you can contribute to her campaign.