Top 5: Safe Republican anthems

By | Friday, September 12, 2008

• Print
• [-][+] Font Size
• E-Mail Alerts
• Tell a Friend
• Got a Question?
• You Report
• Click-2-Listen

Campaign soundtracks inevitably pose problems for Republicans. Jackson Browne, Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, John Mellencamp and Van Halen (well, three-fourths of it, anyway) have objected to the McCain-Palin campaign's use of their hits. In 1984, Bruce Springsteen famously repudiated the Reagan re-election campaign's use of "Born in the U.S.A." One can only go to the pop-country well so many times. And suspected sympathizers such as ZZ Top and Charlie Daniels have been coy about their party affiliation. Where's a Republican pol to turn for an anthem from a politically "safe" artist?

1. Alice Cooper — The face-painted, snake-wielding, Republican-friendly one spends as much time these days golfing in Arizona as he does onstage. His 1973 track "Elected" is tailor-made for the campaign trail. On close inspection, the song is actually a mordant slam on electioneering, but nuance has never stopped politicians from flogging the slacker anthem "Takin' Care of Business" to death.

2. Lynyrd Skynyrd — "Simple Man," with its anti-materialistic message, is a perfect match for Sen. John McCain's "Country First" message of service over self: "Forget your lust for the rich man's gold/All that you need is in your soul." We offer no advice, however, on how to avoid the Stars 'n' Bars-displaying band's George Wallace baggage.

3. Gene Simmons — Let's not get into the thicket of the other members of Kiss and their political opinions. We'll play it safe with the hawkish Mr. Simmons' 1978 solo album. It has a heckuva lot of risque content, but let's zero in on "True Confessions" and its message of self-sufficiency, not to mention a subtle dig at Sen. Barack Obama's celebritylike appeal: "I'm not your social security/I'm not your star opportunity."

4. Sammy Hagar — The ex-Van Halenite is his own man, with solo material that's ripe for Republicans. "Not 4 Sale," for example, bolsters Sen. McCain's anti-special-interests rhetoric — and it might shore up his vulnerability on the whole married-to-an-heiress, anything-less-than-$5-million-is-middle-class issue: "My friend's worth a couple million/and he's as miserable as any man can be."

5. Ted Nugent — Mr. "Kill it and grill it" surely must have found a soul mate in caribou-killing Gov. Sarah Palin. Yet we can't point to a single Nugent track that's totally safe for campaign consumption. We recommend "Motor City Madhouse" at Michigan appearances only.

Click here for reprint permissions!
Copyright 2009 The Washington Times, LLC

Do you have another point of view, photos, audio, video or more information about a story?