Published on 09/9/2008

This week, Ann and Nancy Wilson, better known as the singing duo Heart asked the GOP to stop using their rock anthem Barracuda to promote vice presidential running mate Sarah Palin, making this the third time this year the GOP has been asked by a singer to stop using their music. John Mellencamp asked McCain earlier this year to stop using two of his songs at political rallies, and Tom Scholtz of Boston asked the Huckabee campaign to stop playing More Than a Feeling.

If this sounds familiar, that's because it is. This very same week in 1996 Bob Dole received his own cease and desist letter over his use of the R&B classic Soul Man.

Is there an echo in here?

If this sounds familiar, that's because it is. This very same week in 1996 Bob Dole received his own cease and desist letter over his use of the R&B classic Soul Man.

Isaac Hays and David Porter, the authors of Soul Man threatened to sue the former U.S. senator and presidential candidate if his campaign didn't stop using an alternate version of the song, in which supporters sang out "I'm a Dole Man," by September 11, 1996.

"Nobody gave any permission here," Hays said in an interview with the New York Daily News in 1996. "As a U.S. Senator, he ought to know that you can't do that. It also bothers me because people may get the impression that David and I endorse Bob Dole, which we don't."

Is this a coincidence?

I didn't think so either.

So what were the Republicans thinking? Actually, they're just following tradition.

In 1984, Ronald Regan invoked Bruce Springsteen's hit Born in the USA as a message of hope during his re-election campaign. (Never mind the fact that it's an anti-war anthem. But then again, Regan may have been suffering from Alzheimers at the time. So you can't exactly blame him if he was a little fuzzy on details.)

And lest you think the Democrats are innocent in all of this, The Clinton campaign didn't seek permission from the disbanded Fleetwood Mac before using their song Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow. The difference in this instance was that the various members of Fleetwood Mac actually supported Clinton. (The extra attention didn't hurt the band members either. They subsequently reunited and went on to play for Clinton's inauguration. As they say in basketball: no blood, no foul.)

So what's really going on here?

If you look at it, art and politics (and in some cases, propaganda) have gone hand-in-hand for a long time.

As far back as the Renaissance, artists would find powerful patrons to support them in exchange for commissioned pieces of art. One of the most notable of these is Michaelangelo's painting on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. (If you really want to suffer for your art, try spending four years lying on your back while painting a ceiling.)

During the founding of America, Francis Hopkinson (The guy who possibly stood over Betsy Ross's shoulder asking annoying questions during the sewing of the first American Flag) wrote satirical songs and essays in support of the Revolution and mocking the British Colonials.

More recently, highly popular World War I anthems Over There and It's a Long Way to Tipperary were used both as marching songs during WWI and to stir public sentiment in favor of the war. Over There was incorporated into the World War II movie Yankee Doodle Dandy starring James Cagney.

While in the midst of the Great Depression, the government sponsored artists to paint public works as part of the WPA. (But no chapel ceilings.)

Prior to World War II, Hitler hired German Filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl to create Triumph of the Will, a documentary of the 1934 Reich Party Rally. (In Germany today, public screening of the film is prohibited. When you make the most critically acclaimed propaganda film of all time, that'll happen).

In his later career, founding member of the Beatles John Lennon expressed his activism through songs including Give Peace a Chance and Imagine.

But getting back to music and presidential rallies.

Legally, the use of any music at a political rally falls under the gray area somewhere between copyright and fair use.

There are 321 candidates for president. (Yes, that's right. 321. Most of them are either Republican or Democrat. But Ralph Nader wins the Ooh look! A butterfly! award for being registered with five separate parties.) Since each presidential rally plays multiple songs, it's doubtful that every single presidential candidate gets permission to run every single song they play. If every presidential candidate held at least one rally, and every rally played at least two songs, that's 642 songs.

Obviously the presidential candidates are just being sensitive to the owners of popular songs like God Bless the USA. Surely these performers must have very busy schedules around election time. That's got to be the reason that the candidates don't bother to ask permission. They're only trying to think of Lee Greenwood!

(I didn't have time to ask any of the candidates if their staff seeks permission before playing music at a rally. However I'm betting the worst abusers are the candidates for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Peace and Freedom. Any name that incorporates the word liberation makes me think of men in army fatigues, cigarillos clenched firmly in their teeth, scaling the compounds of corporate music and "liberating" mp3s for their political rallies.)

In the end, it may come down to a question of etiquette. In the case of the Huckabee campaign, while Scholtz asked them to stop playing Boston's music, his former band mate, Barry Gordreau was the one playing the song for Huckabee. (Miss Manners definitely doesn't cover this kind of faux pas).

In the future, candidates may just have to consider the political leanings of the musicians before playing their music. The safest bet for the GOP may just be to stay away from anthems featured in Guitar Hero, and do as George W. Bush has in past elections: stick with flag waving anthems such as Brooks and Dunn's Only In America.

Then again, given Bush's troubles with another country music act, The Dixie Chicks, maybe not.