Rocking the campaign trail

[Refugee 7]

While former U.S. president Ronald Reagan was beloved by conservatives, he was generally reviled by those on the left, including much of the rock ’n’ roll community. Strange, then, that Ronnie was the one to usher in the era of the rock-song-as-campaign song.

Up until 1984, candidates for high office in North American tended to avoid using rock music to pump up the crowds at rallies, conventions and speeches. Some — like Richard Nixon — even used ad agencies to custom-write songs for their campaigns.

In ’84, though, Reagan’s people (starting with conservative writer George Will, who thought that Bruce Springsteen might actually endorse Reagan) wrongly interpreted Born in the U.S.A. as a patriotic song and began using it at rallies. Springsteen — a longtime registered Democrat — was most annoyed and asked that they cut it out. Meanwhile, Democrat Walter Mondale chose Bill Conti’s Gonna Fly Now, the theme from all the Rocky movies. How cliché.

The 1988 campaign was a real snoozer with George Bush’s This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie —who was ironically a life-long socialist — facing off against Michael Dukakis and Neil Diamond’s America.

Leave it to Bill Clinton to shake things up again by introducing Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop in 1992, a song that became inseparable from every Clinton who has campaigned for office ever since. Bob Dole couldn’t do any better than a reworked version of the Sam and Dave song, Soul Man. “Dole Man” was downright embarrassing.

Things evolved dramatically for the 2000 election. Al Gore’s Democrats enlisted some Canadian help from Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet, which was augmented by The Call’s Let the Day Begin. Meanwhile, current U.S. President George W. Bush countered with Right Now from Van Halen — but only after Tom Petty threatened to sue over the Republicans’ appropriation of I Won’t Back Down. (In a classic screw-you move, Petty performed the song for the party faithful just minutes after Gore conceded.)

Bush went country in 2004, latching on to Brooks and Dunn’s Only in America, while John Kerry picked Springsteen’s Never Surrender in between shots of CCR’s Fortunate Son, a calculated shot at W’s ability to avoid serving in the army.

Next time: In 2008, things are even more interesting than ever on both sides of the border. But once again, there have been controversies. Next week we’ll find out which candidates rock the most — or the least — irony?