Update: More Musicians Upset Over Political Usage of Songs

It looks like the controversy surrounding John McCain’s use of popular songs without the original artist’s permission is about to intensify. Yesterday I wrote a piece about various musicians whose songs had been used during the 2008 presidential campaign without their permission. According to Entertainment Weekly, Heart is now voicing their serious displeasure over the use of the band’s song “Barracuda”, both after the Sarah Palin speech on Wednesday and after McCain’s speech last night. Heart originally issued a statement yesterday afternoon (through their management) about Palin’s use of the song:

“The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission,” it read. “We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored.”

The Daily Kos and TMZ also questioned the use of the song immediately after Palin’s speech.

Apparently, the similarity between the songs title and Palin’s nickname (“Sarah Barracuda”) was too good to resist, and the McCain campaign ignored the wishes voiced by Heart’s management and played the song again last night. Predictably, this did not go over well with Heart co-founder Nancy Wilson, who personally responded with both a phone call and exclusive statement to Entertainment Weekly:

“I think it’s completely unfair to be so misrepresented,” she said in a phone call to EW.com after the speech. “I feel completely f—ed over.” She and sister Ann Wilson then e-mailed the following exclusive statement:

“Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.”

It will be interesting to see how this develops, including whether Heart will file suit, as Jackson Browne recently did, or whether the campaign will latch on to the song and continue its use in more of a theme manner. I mentioned yesterday, citing an Indianapolis Business Journal article, that some entertainment lawyers feel that the use of a song to the extent it becomes a theme greatly increases the chances that the general public would impute the use of the song as an endorsement by its artist. At the same time, there is also a strong First Amendment defense, since the songs use has generally been political in nature. Still, it may be possible Heart could gain a temporary injunction relatively soon, which could at least stop the further use of the song.

Here’s the video from last night, with “Barracuda” beginning around 1:35:

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~ by msalsbery on September 5, 2008.