Sunday, February 17, 2008

HUCKABEE - NOT UP TO DATE ON EVOLUTION, ARTIST'S RIGHTS, MANNERS

You'd think that politicians - and especially republicans - would have figured out by now to check with an artist before using his or her music. From Reagan using Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." to McCain using John Mellencamp's "Pink Houses" and "Our Country," to bush using The Foo Fighters' "Times Like These," these guys (and/or their campaigns) never bother to ask the artists it if it OK to use their music. I would think, if you're a republican, you wouldn't use a rock song unless you ask (or unless it's by The Nuge, but "Wang Dang Sweet Poontang" probably wouldn't gain many conservative votes). Well, Boston multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/producer leader Tom Scholtz just publicly asked the batshit crazy repub to stop using "More Than A Feeling" - Tom likes Obama. In fact, huck, a bass player, has been playing the song on stage with some guy who was in Boston once (but who didn't play on that song), which sort of makes it seem like Boston endorses the guy. I'm not a huge Boston fan, but I recently got a reissue of their debut album, and it is pretty great. Now I'm more of a fan. Well done, Tom.