Musicians hate Trump, but he's not the only one who’s hit the wrong note with music used in a campaign.
|||By Paul Eksteen
It’s been a rough start to the week for US presidential hopeful Donald Trump.
After revelling in telling Obama, muslims and Mexicans where to get off, the Republican firebrand has been forced to swallow a few bitter pills of his own.
First, Trump got his rump kicked in the Iowa polls – the first presidential contest of his campaign – and now the music industry are lining up to take potshots at him.
REM frontman Michael Stipe left no doubt as to what he thought of Trump using the hit It’s The End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) in a bid to woo new voters.
“Go f**k yourselves, the lot of you - you sad, attention-grabbing, power-hungry little men. Do not use our music or my voice for your moronic charade of a campaign,” ranted Stipe.
The singer joins the likes of Adele, Aerosmith and Neil Young, who have all demanded that Trump not use their music at his rallies.
Legally, Trump can use any music he wants so long as it doesn’t imply that the artist supports his cause, so no problem there. However, considering the beating he has taken in the polls, any bad publicity will serve to compound his misery.
There is, however, a smidgen of consolation for Trump in that he isn’t the only one.
US politicians love a catchy jingle to support their White House ambitions, and quite a few have run afoul of the musicians concerned.
Republican candidate Newt Gingrich was spoiling for a fight in 2012, pumping up supporters with the Rocky classic Eye of the Tiger. Then the group responsible for the hit, Survivor, came out swinging and filed a lawsuit. Gingrich fought back, but ended up settling out of court.
Republicans, it seems, keep getting into trouble with their theme tunes. When 1996 candidate Bob Dole thought he could remake the Sam and Dave classic into “I’m A Dole Man”, the song’s copyright owners weren’t amused and threatened to sue.
Finally, what Republican list-of-shame could ever be complete without dear ol’ Dubya, George W Bush. During his 2000 presidential campaign, Bush used the Tom Petty hit I Won’t Back Down. He was served with a cease-and-desist letter by the song’s publisher, but unlike the other candidates in this sorry list, Dubya made it all the way to the White House.