I’m seeing it reported in multiple places that not only did the McCain campaign not get permission to use Barracuda, they’ve already received one cease and desist for using it before this.

I think they should figure out a way to get the Wilson sisters into an anti-McCain ad.

Not only did the GOPers once again misunderstand the lyrics to a song applied to a politician, they also used the song without asking for permission, and now Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart have asked them to stop using it.

Interestingly, in the linked article their statement says that the “barracuda” in the song represented the corporate music industry of the late 70s.  Which makes it even more inappropriate, actually.

(Why haven’t they learned their lessons?  First, ask someone who has a soul to read the lyrics to a song to see if they’re actually applicable to your candidate - “Born in the USA”, just to pull one out of my ass, is a horribly inappropriate song to try to use with Ronald Reagan.  Second, ask permission from the owners of the song before you use it.  This is not a hard lesson to learn, folks.)

Yeah, an ad that highlights the above-the-law nature of Bush/Cheney/Abrahmof(sp) and ties the current RNC McCain abuse of copyright in to counter the change meme.

I’ve heard that “Barracuda” is actually Ann Wilson’s angry response to the rumors that she and her sister Nancy were not sisters, but lesbian lovers.

FYI, they use it because her nickname when she played high school basketball was Sarah Barracuda.

I still laugh when I see yellow ribbons tied around trees. The song is about a convict.

I’m really waiting to see U2’s Bullet the Blue Sky to be used because someone totally misread the last line:
Pounding on the women and children who run into the arms of America

Compared to “Born in the USA” for didn’t-actually-read-the-lyrics GOP boneheadedism, this is unfurtunately minor.

On a totally unrelated note, Johnny B Good isn’t actually about a fellow named Johnny who was trying to “be good.”  Also - FACT - McCain - NOT from Leezianna!  Scandal!

FYI, the nickname was given to Palin before she became actively involved in politics, and not by Rethugs, and was used to describe her play on the basketball Court.

Giv uz bak R songz!

Van Halen’s “Runnin with the Devil” is strangely appropriate when I see the media covering a prominent GOP politician out for a jog.

They used the song because her nickname as a highschool athlete was “Sarah Barracuda” because she was aggressive or something. I wouldn’t read too much into it and I don’t think the GOP does either. Remember, they used “Born in the U.S.A.” for Reagan’s reelection campaign. They obviously didn’t read the entire lyrics of *that* song.

Thank fucking Jebus.  Ann Wilson has the strongest female voice in rock and I love her. Hearing “Barracuda” come on gave me a moment of panic, thinking the sisters must be some closet wingnuts.  So happy to hear about the cease and desist order.  My inner child is calm again.

I heard the Rethugs were thinking about playing that Los Bravos song over video of Barack dancing on the Ellen show, but decided it might be perceived as racist.

After this point, they really strain the metaphor of barracudas and cute dolphins to the breaking point, so I won’t torture you.

But then you miss this awesomely appropriate couplet!

If the real thing don’t do the trick
You better make up something quick

I still laugh when I see yellow ribbons tied around trees. The song is about a convict.

Actually the yellow ribbon as rememberance of a loved one away from home is based on an old oral tradition that goes back at least to US clavary officer days and songs like “she wore a yellow ribbon” (co-written and performed by the Andrews Sisters)... so while that one song may have taken the theme and inspiration from a story of a man who was returning from prison, the symbol has always been more encompassing. My grandmother has stories about ribbons around trees in most yards during the second world war (but she did say they all ended up grey and sun-bleached whatever color they started) which certainly pre-dates the 70’s.

Auguste’s suggestion was “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You” by Frankie Valli, to remind everyone of McCain’s roving eyes.

Hey! It was more layered than that - the song was also in the Deer Hunter, which has its resonance for both Palin and McCain!

Sigh. Somehow I think I’m the only one who truly understands my awesomeness. Now I know how writers for the Corner feel.

They used the song because her nickname as a highschool athlete was “Sarah Barracuda” because she was aggressive or something. I wouldn’t read too much into it

I’ll tell you what I’m reading into it:  COMPLETE CONTEMPT FOR THE RULE OF LAW, considering that the Wilsons’ attorneys had already informed them that the artists did not give permission for the use of the song.

When I read about Heart being upset about the campaign appropriating “Barracuda,” I wondered—“Why not try to use John Cale’s song by the same name?”  Granted, it’s a lot more mellow and less recognizable, but it might be nice to remind the voters that, regardless of the outcome of this election, “the ocean will have us all.”

But then I realized that if the McCain campaign was going to use a John Cale song, it would have to be “Fear is a Man’s Best Friend.”

Since the GOP has decided to be reborn as the party that respects womens agency and autonomy (snark) you would think it would behoove them to listen when two women muscians say no you may not use our music.  I guess the only woman we should listen to has the last name Palin otherwise you just don’t count.

I’ve always thought that Suicide by Motorhead would be an excellent descriptor for republican governance and environmental policy. Usually, when I bring up the depth and emotional resonance of Kilminster’s songwritting, people just pat me gently.

She wore, she wore, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore it for her lover in the West Calvary!
Calvaryyyy! Calvaryyyyy!
She wore it for her lover in the west Calvary.

Can’t fault the yellow-ribbon-for-return meme. It’s got deep roots.
But then again, the yellow ribbons is ALWAYS meant to indicate a longing for the return of the loved one. Which means “Support the Troops; bring them home” is WAY more in keeping with yellow ribbon traditions than the whole “make them keep fighting because otherwise the dead died in vain” crap the GOP spews. Which would explain the flag and camo ribbons instead of yellow ones.

Actually, Amanda, this particular Heart song is an upraised middle finger not to a man but to the barracuda-like corporatist record company who treated the Wilson sisters like the helpless, stupid women who should just shut and make records and quit worrying their pretty heads about the business end of things.

Not really the sort of thing you’d think the Pubs would want in that context, even more than your theory of it being about what a pig of a man McCain is.

Really, I think it works fine for me either way. 

Listening to Palin’s going on about how Small Towns Produce The Best, Hardest Working Americans in her speech, I really wouldn’t have minded “Tiny Town” by the Dead Milkmen at all. :D

(And I live in a small town. She can kiss my ass.)

How about the first half or so of Pink Floyd, “Run Like Hell”?

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run,
Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run.
You better make your face up in
Your favorite disguise.
With your button down lips and your
Roller blind eyes.
With your empty smile
And your hungry heart.
Feel the bile rising from your guilty past.
With your nerves in tatters
When the cockleshell shatters
And the hammers batter
Down the door.
You’d better run.

Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run,
Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run, Run.
You better run all day
And run all night.
Keep your dirty feelings
Deep inside…..

It gets into National Enquirer space after that, so I abbreviated….

The Clash’s “Wrong ‘Em Boyo” has good all-purpose lyrics for republicans, to wit:

“Why do you try to cheat?
And trample people under your feet
Don’t you know it is wrong?
To cheat the trying man
So you better stop, it is the wrong ‘em boyo

You lie, steal, cheat and deceit
In such a small, small game
Don’t you know it is wrong?”

that reminds me of how my brother and I used to mutate the words to John Cougar’s “Small Town”, veterans of small towns that we were.

An appropriate song to bring up here, of course, since Mellencamp is another rock musician who told McCain not to play his songs.

I’m going to suggest “Frijolero” by Molotov

“Don’t call me gringo,
You fuckin’ beaner
stay on your side
of that goddamn river
don’t call me gringo,
You beaner.”

The yellow ribbon may have an older origin, but the Tony Orlando song was the one that was played.

Since the Repukes are all about the unintentional Irony, i say they should start using FEAR’s “Let’s Have a War (so you can go and die)” it would be the most honest thing they ever did.

If the Republicans wanted to use a Pink Floyd tune to sum up their positions and their agenda, they could (again ignoring the satirical/ironic aspect) go with the second version of “In The Flesh”

Are there any queers in the theater tonight?
Get him up against the wall
(crowd:)“AGAINST THE WALL!”
And there’s one in the spotlight
He don’t look right to me
Get him up against the wall
(c) AGAINST THE WALL!
And that one looks Jewish!
and that one’s a Coon!
who let all of this riff-raff into the room
There’s one smoking a joint!
and another one with spots!
if I had my way
I’d have all of you shot!”

that or “Waiting for the Worms”

Really, the first thing I thought of when I heard she was called “Sarah Barracuda” was the actual fish.  You know- sharp teeth, but distracted by shiny objects, and will run like hell if you swim aggressively toward them.

Ooooh, I like the FEAR idea, The Crapture.  I can’t believe that didn’t come to mind for me.

If you are going to use FEAR “I don’t care about You”, has always been my suggested song

Do we know for certain that the Wilson sisters, um, actually own the rights to the song?  Otherwise, we’re kind of booming off without all of the facts, no?

How about “Breakin’ the Law” by Judas Priest?  Unfortunately for McCain and Palin, I really doubt that the openly gay Rob Halford would have any interest in letting them use his music.

In a way it’s too bad for McCain that Johnny Ramone is dead.  He was one of the very few authentic wingnuts in rock’n'roll.  And don’t you think “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Cretin Hop” (“I wanna go for a whirl/With my cretin girl”) and “I Wanna Be Sedated” would each fit the McCain/Palin campaign to a “T”?

When thinking about the Rethug energy plan, I couldn’t get Wire’s “Drill” out of my head.  Although the lyrics are surrealistic, the coda of “Drill, drill drill”  caught me.

“ask permission from the owners of the song before you use it.  This is not a hard lesson to learn, folks.”

Especially for the party that claims to be all about property rights and responsibility and castigates us as socialists, commies, moochers, leeches, appropriators, parasites, freeloaders…
As always of course, the laws don’t apply to them.

99 Problems by Jay-Z.

No wait.

Money Power Respect, by Li’l Kim.

“Born in the USA”, just to pull one out of my ass, is a horribly inappropriate song to try to use with Ronald Reagan.

I think it was completely appropriate for Reagan and his era ... just not in the way that Republicans thought it was.

Ms Kate

Around her neck she wore a yellow ribbon
She wore it in the springtime, and in the month of may
And if you asked her why the hell she wore it
She wore it for that young Marine so far far away.

Sam Vimes (Terry Pratchet fan?)

She wore, she wore, she wore a yellow ribbon, she wore it for her lover in the West Calvary!
Calvaryyyy! Calvaryyyyy!
She wore it for her lover in the west Calvary.

I think your thinking of 2 different songs.
The first is a parody of “Tri-Color Ribbon”, an old Irish rebel song.  Her love was a rebel martyr so she wore a tricolor ribbon round her hat for “my love that I never more will see”

The second was the unofficial theme song of the US Calvary
19th century American Calvary wore yellow, Artillery Red, and Infantry Light blue trim, so the yellow ribbon for “her lover in the US Calvary”

I’m pretty tone deaf so they may be the same melody but the sound different to me

But the whole yellow ribbon-support the troops thing started with the Iran hostage crisis, the Tony Orlando song was played constantly on the radio then

I really have a yen
To go back once again,
Back to the place where no one wears a frown,
To see once more those super-special just plain folks
In my home town.

No fellow could ignore
The little girl next door,
She sure looked sweet in her first evening gown.
Now there’s a charge for what she used to give for free
In my home town.

I remember Dan, the druggist on the corner, ‘e
Was never mean or ornery,
He was swell.
He killed his mother-in-law and ground her up real well,
And sprinkled just a bit
Over each banana split.

The guy that taught us math,
Who never took a bath,
Acquired a certain measure of renown,
And after school he sold the most amazing pictures
In my home town.

That fellow was no fool
Who taught our Sunday School,
And neither was our kindly Parson Brown.
We’re recording tonight so I have to leave this line out.
In my home town.

I remember Sam, he was the village idiot.
And though it seems a pity, it
Was so.
He loved to burn down houses just to watch the glow,
And nothing could be done,
Because he was the mayor’s son.

The guy that took a knife
And monogrammed his wife,
Then dropped her in the pond and watched her drown.
Oh, yes indeed, the people there are just plain folks
In my home town.

Tom Lehrer

Lucretia McEvil?

Faith No More
Introduce Yourself (1987)
We Care A Lot

We care a lot about disasters, fires, floods and killer bees
We care a lot about the NASA shuttle falling in the sea
We care a lot about starvation and the food that Live Aid bought
We care a lot about disease, baby Rock, Hudson, rock, yeah!

We care a lot about the gamblers and the pushers and the geeks
We care a lot about the crack and smack and whack that hits the street
We care a lot about the welfare of all the boys and girls
We care a lot about you people cause we’re out to save the world

YEAH!

And it’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it

We care a lot about the army navy air force and marines
We care a lot about the SF, NY and LAPD
We care a lot about you people, about your guns
about the wars you’re fighting gee that looks like fun

We care a lot about the Garbage Pail Kids, they never lie
We care a lot about Transformers cause there’s more than meets the eye

We care a lot about the little things, the bigger things we top
We care a lot about you people yeah you bet we care a lot,

YEAH!

Well, its a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it
And it’s a dirty song but someone’s gotta sing it
 
More from artist :
Faith No More

More from album :
Introduce Yourself

The whole “use it without permission” shitbagginess is just another variant on the usual “silly rabbit, the rules in capitalism aren’t for the capitalists!” game.  My own personal “favourite” example is watching corporate executives who scream about the sanctity of contracts always try to lever open & renegotiate union contracts, or plunder pension funds which were committed under previous contracts and covered by contract law and reasonable expectations doctrines in equity.  If government tried to do one tenth of that crap they’d be whining from the mountaintops about “socialism” and “the market”. 

Basically, listening to executives talk about the market is like listening to American trade representatives talk about “level playing fields”; what they really mean is that they want the whole fucking field tilted so that the ball always goes into their opponent’s net.  It’s all just ideological lies draped over MeFIRST!

I got a song for Sarah Palin:

There’s one sure way, Johnny
You can leave your mark
Johnny’s gonna die
Johnny’s gonna die
Na na na na

Johnny
Johnny
Johnny
JOHNNY

Bye bye

Ever wonder how musicians from Seattle wound up being a Canadian band from Vancouver? Oh yeah. Many people of draft age moved to Canada in the late ‘60s to avoid Viet Nam. Doesn’t it undercut their message a little bit to steal from Draft Dodgers? (And a thank you from this Canuck for all the wonderful talented people you sent this way. Some of my best friends, etc. etc).

Spelling flame in progress:

Calvary <> Cavalry.  The first is the hill on which Jesus suffered and died (according to The Bible).  The second is mounted troops

yep, I make that mistake each and every time, to the point that if I accidentally spell it right I go back and change it

I do the same thing with the name Isaac, just cant seem to stop myself from changing the double “a” to a double “s”

gordbrown, there might be more Seattleites heading your way depending on what the result in November is.
Me for one.

How could we possibly forget the Pet Shop Boys?

You can tell I’m educated, I studied at the Sorbonne
Doctored in mathematics, I could have been a don
I can program a computer, choose the perfect time
If you’ve got the inclination, I have got the crime

I’ve got the brains, you’ve got the looks
Let’s make lots of money

She’s a female Republican politician.

Donna Summer’s “She works hard for the money” is accurate on more than one level…

I am waiting for someone to use “Harper Valley PTA”
the only question is which side.

The RNC were hoping PUMA’s would hear “Barracuda” as “Barackuda”.

I don’t know anything about Republican theme songs, but S2 of “The Office” is excellent stuff and a much better way to spend your time than listening to her.

“The McCain campaign respects intellectual property rights,” spokesman Brian Rogers said. “Accordingly, prior to using ‘Barracuda’ at any events, we paid for and obtained all necessary licenses.”

Given that the Republican convention spokespeople originally claimed that they showed a picture of Walter Reed Middle School instead of Walter Reed Medical Center totally on purpose and then had to back down, I think I’m going to want to see their copy of the license before I believe them.  They’ve been caught in so many stupid lies that I wouldn’t be surprised if this is yet another one.