Ever since William Ewart Gladstone high-kicked down The Mall to the tune of The Can-Can in 1886, politicians have relied on music to give their electoral campaigns populist oomph.
A good campaign track enshrines a candidate’s values, delivering a warm-and-fuzzy message of hope and communality in one easy-to-swallow musical sugar-pill. Trouble is, for that reason, all electoral anthems tend to be similarly bland and antiseptic; no-one wants to spook potential voters with, say, a deafening blast of The Prodigy’s Smack My Bitch Up. And that’s a real shame.
Still, some campaign songs are more potent than others. Here’s how some memorable ones measure up…
Barack Obama
When the Democrat hopeful announced his Presidential candidacy last February he took to the stage to the tune of U2’s City Of Blinding Lights. It’s since become his signature song, although it’s hard to see how its theme of urban exhilaration (it was actually written about New York) would strike a chord in say, rural Missouri.
Warm-fuzzy bit: The bridge to the chorus - “I’m getting ready to leave the ground.”
Suggested alternative:: Ian Hunter – The Outsider
Hillary Clinton
Obama’s weepy nemesis left it to her supporters to nominate a campaign song via an online vote. The runaway winner was Celine Dion’s arse-awful ballad You And I - thereby exposing the fundamental fallibility of the democratic process.
Warm-fuzzy bit: “I'm burning, yearning/Gently turning round and round/I'm always rising up I never/Want to come back down”. Sounds like Dion’s been at the MDMA smoothies again.
Suggested alternative: Scott Walker – Another Tear Falls
Tony Blair
It’s impossible now to view footage of Labour’s 1997 landslide victory without D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better blasting out of the jukebox in your head. D:Ream even played at the election night party at the Royal Festival Hall, an experience singer Pete Cunnah described at the time as “fucking brilliant.” Wonder if he feels quite so chuffed about it now.
Warm-fuzzy bit: Given that most of the song is gibberish, the chorus is the sole vote-winning element.
Suggested alternative: Henry Rollins – Liar
Bill Clinton
Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop became so closely aligned with Clinton’s 1992 victory, the President subsequently persuaded the band to re-form to play his inaugural ball in 1993.
Warm-fuzzy bit: “Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone.”
Suggested alternative: Nine Inch Nails – Closer
George Bush
Tom Petty threatened to sue George W Bush after the then-Presidential hopeful used I Won’t Back Down as his campaign song. Brilliantly, Petty then performed the song at opponent Al Gore's home minutes after he conceded the election.
Warm-fuzzy bit: “I’ll keep this world from dragging me down.”
Suggested alternative: Green Day – American Idiot
John Kerry
Striking just the right note of social harmony and measured patriotism, Bruce Springsteen’s No Surrender was easily the best choice of campaign song ever. If only Democrat John “Haunted Tree” Kerry had been able to muster a personality to match.
Warm-fuzzy bit: “With a wide open country in our hearts/And these romantic dreams in my head.”
Suggested alternative: Beck – Loser
12:33 PM | 11/01/2008
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