According to the journalists at Good Morning America, having liberal singers lash out for using their songs is something that happens to “all” politicians. In reality, it tends to happen to Republicans. George Stephanopoulos and Matt Dowd on Wednesday discussed Mike Huckabee settling with the band Survivor for using Eye of the Tiger without permission.
Stephanopoulos opined, “This kind of thing happens all the time. Musicians get prickly about politicians use their songs.” Dowd responded with examples that included a Republican, a Republican and a Republican: “It sure does. In 1984, Bruce Springsteen stopped Ronald Reagan from using Born in the USA. I remember in 2000, Tom Petty did a cease and desist for a song I Won't Back Down for George W. Bush.”
He added, “It happened to John McCain with Jackson Brown in 2008.” On June 7, 2015, Jan Crawford hyped the latest “dust-up between the musician and the politician.” However, she added, “rare is the Republican candidate who isn't told to stop the music – even if...they paid licensing fees."
Crawford wondered, “Why is it it's always Republicans who are getting slammed by the musicians for using their songs?” This certainly offered more clarity than the segment on GMA.
A transcript of the segment is below:
GMA
6/29/16
7:44LARA SPENCER: We're going to go now to former Republican presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee paying through the nose for using a certain song without permission at rally he held for Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis. Take a look.
[Clip of Huckabee, Kim Davis and Eye of the Tiger playing in the background.]
SPENCER: All right, we all know the song Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. There’s Matt Dowd. He’s joining us. And Matt, how much did Huckabee have to pay and why did he have to pay?
DOWD: Well, as you remember that Eye of the Tiger was made famous in Rocky 3. He had to end up paying, it looks like around $25,000 because of copyright infringements. He didn’t get the rights to the song and so he had to settle out of court. It looks like he ended up Mike Huckabee ended up the same fate of Clubber Lang at the end of Rocky 3. Knocked out on this one.
STEPHANOPOULOS: This kind of thing happens all the time. Musicians get prickly about politicians use their songs. In fact, it became a running joke on Veep this season.
[Clip of Veep.]
STEPHANOPOULOS: Now, Enya is a new one, but this does happen all the time, Matt.DOWD: It sure does. In 1984, Bruce Springsteen stopped Ronald Reagan from using Born in the USA. I remember in 2000 Tom Petty did a cease and desist for a song I Won’t Back Down for George W. Bush. It happened to John McCain with Jackson Brown in 2008.
SPENCER: I see Becky chuckling in the top box. Matt, I want to ask you, you’re savvy politically, how important are these songs? Do they make a big difference?
DOWD: These songs are real important. They create the pomp, circumstance, pageantry and symbolism in the course of the campaign. These songs started in 1840, Tippecanoe and Tyler Too was a song. Happy Days are Here Again is a song FDR used. High Hopes, John F. Kennedy used in the course of this. These become a real part of it and I have a suggestion for a song for this year, which is Patsy Cline Crazy, which is a reprise of the Ross Perot song.
