Loading ...I contributed a few blurbs to Spin’s October feature “Strange Bedfellows,” which detailed the odd nexus where rock music and politics convene. One entry was about the first copyright-snubbing cut-up artist Dickie Goodman and his 1973 assemblage “Soul President Number One.” In it, the first “soul” president is elected, quotes Barry White and the Temptations, and appoints Superfly to head of the FBI. Here’s Dickie’s skewed take on the 1980 presidential campaign:
Posts Tagged ‘John McCain’
No. 80: Andrew WK, “McLaughlin Groove”
Mon Dec 8 2008 by Mike Barthel
Who would have thought, back in March, that it would seem plausible to take down the right wing through mockery rather than righteous indignation? Andrew WK, of course. He took an exchange from The McLaughlin Group in which loudmouthed conservative talk-show-host John McLaughlin speculated on the possibility of John McCain’s accidental death (while misquoting Carl Sandburg and predicting that “the next man on the moon will be Chinese”) and turned it into an anthemic demonstration of how anything sounds true when it’s yelled loudly enough.
Why Politicians Can’t Use Pop Songs
Tue Nov 4 2008 by Mike Barthel
Whatever you think of the man, it’s fair to say that John McCain has not been able to catch a break in this election. I’m not talking about the self-inflicted wounds, but about all the things over which he genuinely had no control, like the economy tanking, a hurricane hitting New Orleans on the first day of the Republican convention, and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki agreeing with Obama’s pullout plan. The campaign has been a sort of running joke of failure for McCain, and one of the best was how musicians kept objecting to his campaigns’ use of particular songs. Heart, Bon Jovi, the Foo Fighters, Survivor, John Mellencamp, and half of Van Halen were among the musicians who objected, and the campaign has largely given in to their terroristy demands. This would seem to be another strategic (tactical?) blunder, but the results of a study done by my partner Rachel Arnold and me suggests, rather, that politicians aren’t just uninformed about music–they don’t care about music. And as long as that’s true, these sort of musical gaffes are going to continue.
Major Label May Just Be Desperate Enough To Sign Joe The Plumber
Thu Oct 30 2008 by Maura
Inexplicable symbol-with-legs Samuel Wurzelbacher–known to the news media as “Joe The Plumber,” even though his name isn’t Joe–has decided to go all Hollywood, presumably because he isn’t licensed to perform plumbing operations in his home city and probably never will be after all the antics he’s engaged in since being thrust into the national spotlight. He’s signed with a Nashville-based PR firm to “create new media opportunities,” and one of the ideas knocking around their office is–wait for it–Joe maybe signing with a major label’s Nashville arm. Even though he can’t really write songs. America: Land of opportunity, especially if you have a “strong political point of view”!
