Friday Music Day

FMD: Music To Campaign By

6 Comments

I've always been interested in the song selections people use for campaigns (or walk up music for ball players, etc.), and the way some of those "don't use my music" battles play out.

There's a lot of classic rock used, it seems. Lots of yay-rah patriotism too. But I'd like to see song selections expanded, be more tongue in cheek, show some innovative policy proposals. You know, that kind of creative thinking.

So, for example, Rand Paul could campaign to The Clash's "I Fought The Law".
Billy Joel's "Great Wall Of China" seems like it might be apt for Trump.
There are certainly some campaigns focused on helping low-income workers that could just use They Might Be Giant's "Minimum Wage."

So drop your 10 and give us your creative campaign songs.

6 thoughts on “FMD: Music To Campaign By”

  1. Last Friday I meant to share a link to the New Yorker's recent profile of Leonard Cohen, but here it is today instead. Remnick fawns a bit too much at times, but it was still an interesting read and there's a good part about the relationship between Dylan and Cohen.

    Here's an excerpt that caught my attention:

    [Cohen] took some informal guitar lessons in his twenties from a Spaniard he met next to a local tennis court. After a few weeks, he picked up a flamenco chord progression. When the man failed to appear for their fourth lesson, Cohen called his landlady and learned that the man had killed himself. In a speech many years later, in Asturias, Cohen said, “I knew nothing about the man, why he came to Montreal . . . why he appeared at that tennis court, why he took his life. . . . It was those six chords, it was that guitar pattern, that has been the basis of all my songs, and all my music.”

  2. 1. Nine Inch Nails “All the Pigs, All Lined Up”* March of the Pigs
    2. Patsy Cline “Walkin' After Midnight” Heartaches
        a. Great Horned Owl “Pair Duetting”* (Cornell Essential Set)
    3. Sylvan Esso “Coffee” Sylvan Esso
    4. Emot “Garbage Tones” Emot
    5. Colin Stetson “All The Days I've Missed You (ILAIJ II)” New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

    6. So So Radio “Only One Who Gets Me” Dustcovers
    7. Underworld “Rez/Cowgirl (Live)”* Everything, Everything
    8. Father John Misty “I'm Writing a Novel”* Daytrotter Session, 5/23/2012
    9. Jurassic 5 “Jayou” Jurassic 5 EP
    T. WeTM “Birimbau”* Square Root of Negative One

    *Notes:
    1. I just watched the first episode of "Black Mirror" last night, so this title has a new meaning to me today.
    I really do like the way Reznor mixed in some sort of crowd noise to make this extended remix of the title track sound live-ish. Surprised this trick isn't over-used. I'm sure there are some more that have used it, but all that comes to mind is this and the KLF's so-called "Stadium House Trilogy" of singles.

    a. At first, I thought this was the intro to the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize?"

    7. I love the malleability of the lyrics here. The "chorus" is either "An eraser of love" or "And a razor of love" on repeat. Or both simultaneously. Both lyrics are flashed on the screen during the video. Another trick that I'm surprised isn't used more.

    8. "First house that I saw, / I wrote 'house' up on the door. / And told the people who lived there they had to get out / 'cause my reality is realer than yours'."

    T. First track on the album. The last track on the album is "Uabmirib", which is first part of "Birimbau" played in reverse.

  3. Trump's use of "You Can't Always Get What You Want" during a campaign with the two least-popular major-party candidates in history seems pretty on-the-nose.
    But I've never looked deeper than the surface and chorus on any song by the Rolling Stones.

  4. Two new tracks off RTJ3 are out. They're also playing First Ave on Valentine's Day. So that's right out.


    I told y'all suckers, I told y'all suckers.
    I told y'all on RTJ1, then I told ya again on RTJ2,
    and you still ain't believe me. So here we go, RTJ3

  6. 1. Crowded In The Wings -- The Jayhawks -- Hollywood Town Hall
    2. Untitled -- Social Distortion -- White Light White Heat White Trash
    3. Grand Canaria -- The Soundtrack Of Our Lives -- Instant Repeater '99
    4. Stop This Car -- Jonathan Richman -- Jonathan Sings!
    5. Take Me To The River -- Talking Head -- More Songs About Buildings And Food
    6. Restless Sinner -- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club -- Howl
    7. Neil Jung -- Teenage Fanclub -- Grand Prix
    8. Tangled Up In Blue -- Bob Dylan -- Blood On The Tracks
    9. She's Crafty -- Beastie Boys -- Licensed To Ill
    10. Long Distance Man -- Guided By Voices -- Sandbox

    B1. Kicked in the Sun -- Built to Spill -- Perfect From Now On
    B2. Mighty Big Car -- Fred Eaglesmith -- Ralph's Last Show

    If you like Neil Young, Tired Eyes playing at Turf Club Saturday night. See you there.

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