For the first 40 years of my life I always knew what songs were at the top of the charts. But with the dominance of rap and hip-hop, I gave up listening to Top 40 radio. I have no idea what melodies are popular; I listen only to the oldies station.
Music was the soundtrack of the best years of my life, through my formative years and early adulthood, I was never without a transistor radio or a Sony Walkman.
Music is magically evocative flooding the mind with sights, sounds, feelings and emotions. There are some pop ditties that conjure up a magic moment in time: My first kiss, my first dance… There are other hits that bring back a certain period in my life. Any disco record reminds me of the freedom that comes from leaving your home and making your own mark in the world.
A singer/songwriter may own the copyright to his songs, and he is entitled to royalties for every record sold and for every time one of his hits is played in a movie or TV show, but his music belongs to the world.
“We Were Always Sweethearts” By Boz Scaggs is as much my song as it is Scaggs, it was the hit tune that was playing on my transistor radio when I tasted my first kiss.
The first five paragraphs of my essay were written to setup my response to the following Associated Press story:
“The chief songwriter and founder of the band Boston has more than a feeling that he’s being ripped off by Mike Huckabee. In a letter to the Republican presidential hopeful, Tom Scholz complains that Huckabee is using his 1970s smash hit song “More Than a Feeling” without his permission.
A former member of the band, Barry Goudreau, has appeared with Huckabee at campaign events, and they have played the song with Huckabee’s band, Capitol Offense.
Scholz, who said Goudreau left the band more than 25 years ago after a three-year stint, objects to the implication that the band and one of its members has endorsed Huckabee’s candidacy.”
Music transcends politics, and if Huckabee has played “More Than a Feeling”, only an idiot would interpret that as an endorsement of Huckabee by Boston. Huckabee has every right to play any song that captures his imagination.
This is not the first time that a rocker has complained about a presidential candidate playing one of his songs.
“Last week, McCain’s campaign agreed to stop playing John Mellencamp’s songs ‘Our Country’ and ‘Pink Houses’ at his rallies after the liberal rocker complained. Mellencamp had supported Democrat John Edwards, who recently dropped out of the race.” — Quotation from the Associated Press
Mellencamp and Scholz should be honored and happy that anyone is still playing their songs. This liberal is a big fan of Mellencamp, but if McCain played every single Mellencamp track at his campaign events, that still wouldn’t persuade me to vote for McCain.
All this politicization of music is giving me a headache, I’m going to try to find my old Boz Scaggs cassette tape that includes “We Were Always Sweethearts.”
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February 17th, 2008 at 4:02 pm
These THUGS can sing and play guitar as much as they want — They will be crushed this year, appropriately.