There is an estranged symbiotic relationship between music and politics, the two often becoming intertwined, and yet are so often at odds with each other. Politicians see musicians as a gateway to the conscience of young voters and endeavour to flatter their naïve and idealistic world outlook to exploit this vote. Whereas musicians see politicians as beady eyed masochists of all creeds and perversions, high on power, low on decency and bereft of conscience, the plain and ugly antithesis of the artiste…or something similar.
And so, with this weighing on the mind like a pillow on the face at a Dignitas clinic, It Started With a List decided to have a brief glance back and list a few instances where marriages between politics and music have been more reminiscent of a childcare custody battles, seven of them since you ask.
David Cameron and Paul Weller
It is an old adage that you should never meet you heroes, but even the worst case scenario of that statement anticipates only becoming the subject of barely concealed contempt, it takes a turn to the nightmarish when it is a accompanied by a vitriolic verbal bashing. David Cameron may have been able to convince many people that he is the reformed face of Conservatism, capable of turning water into carbon-neutral wine but Paul Weller cannot be counted amongst those. Responding to the Tory leader and Old Etonian’s revelation that his favourite song was The Jams 1979 literal take on class war ‘Eton Rifles,’ Weller said ‘Which part of it didn’t he get? It wasn’t intended as a f***king jolly drinking song for the cadet corps.’ Before planting further nails in the mast that holds his red flag by adding that Boris Johnson was ‘a gibbering idiot, like Tim Nice-but-dim,’ and that Margaret Thatcher should be ‘shot as a traitor to the people.’ Unlike Cameron, Weller clearly doesn’t find it very comfortable on the fence and began performing the song live again after a 15 year hiatus to further prove the point and in the hope Dave C gets it in the eye.
Beethoven and Bonaparte
In the 18th century Beethoven set about writing his 3rd symphony under the working title ‘Heroic: Napoleon Bonaparte,’ in honour of the then mere ruler’s part in upholding the values and principles of the French revolution. The composer was however very unimpressed when the pint-sized despot Napoleon decided to shun the ideals of the new founded French Republic in favour of nepotism and dictatorship in declaring himself Emperor unelect. An enraged Beethoven destroyed all the draft print copies of the piece which held the title ‘Bonaparte’ and renamed it with the withering title, ‘Heroic Symphony: Composed to the memory of a once great man,’ and went to great lengths at all subsequent public performances of the piece to lambaste him as a ‘tyrant.’
Gordon Brown and The Arctic Monkeys
It may rank as one of the most ill-advised bits of PR fluff of modern times, Brown was then a politician renowned for being a safe pair of financial hands (posthumous guffaw to that one, eh); as interesting as anyone can be when synonymous with that moniker, claiming that on his Ipod were the first megastars of the myspace age and storytellers of teenage life in the grim north The Arctic Monkeys, then an upcoming phenomena on the edge of the public conscience. What might have been a throwaway remark as part of an attempted image makeover for the newly positioned PM, was made an embarrassing issue when he couldn’t name a single track by the band in a subsequent interview, only able to recall that they are ‘very loud,’ he then had to further admit that His iPod contained largely political speeches and Coldplay, though perhaps some credit should be awarded for voicing his dislike for James Blunt. Brown tried to quip off his gaffe the following week in Parliament with ‘It will not be a surprise to you to learn I’m more interested in the future of the Arctic circle than the future of the Arctic Monkeys,’ but most had already had a laugh out of it by then.
Robert Mugabe and the Musicians of Zimbabwe
There isn’t much right in Zimbabwe at the moment and the ‘democratically’ (while reading democratically you must make the apostrophe implying finger wagging thing for emphasis) elected leader Mugabe hasn’t confined his deft touch to the economy. Zimbabwean musicians are stuck in the catch-22 situation of having their music banned from being played on the radio (all of which are state owned) if they don’t support Mugabe’s Zanu PF party by accepting invitations to play at their rallies and write glorifying songs, however if they do play at the rallies they are all but certain to become instantly unpopular with their fans for seemingly supporting the unpopular and repressive regime. One way around the reluctant artistic community Zanu PF tried, was to rerecord and faintly modify old songs of colonnial dissidence whose stance echoed the anti-west sentiments of the regime, by long deceased artists and then attribute the writing credits to loyal government ministers, when some of the family and friends of the original artists pointed this out and tried to stop the practice, Zanu PF responded by amending the country’s copywrite laws and rounding up all the physical copies of the original recordings and destroying them.
The Republican Party in General
There may not tend to be too many left leaning, liberal minded Americans but those who are tend to be pretty splendid musicians, which has often caused problems for the Republican Party when trying to find campaign songs that aren’t by semi-evolved country artists or P Diddy, in fact the Republican Party seems to have received more music related cease and desist legal notices than Napster. It all began when Ronald Reagan used Bruce Springsteen’s seminal ‘Born in the USA’ for his 1984 re-election campaign without realising that the song was about Vietnam veterans being let down by the system on their return from war or that ‘The Boss’ wasn’t a Republican, undeterred by the significance of these facts Reagan continued to use it as his theme and claimed Springsteen’s music supported his ideals for America, (despite polite protest and wry comments from the Springsteen camp that this wasn’t the case) and he would go on to win the election in part due to the patriotic fervour of his campaign. However Springsteen (rueful of not being more vocal in his opposition at the time) has now dedicated the song to the Barack Obama campaign and given his vocal support to the Democrat President’s campaign. There haven’t been many Republican candidates since who haven’t stoked the ire of musicians, John McCain was rebuked by Dave Grohl and of course Wubya inspired loathing and amusement to musicians around the globe with his slapstick Hitler routine, don’t expect a greatest hits album in relation to the Republicans anytime soon
…ironically during his run on the Whitehouse Obama became probably the first politician to turn down support, having to issue a public statement distancing his campaign from a Pro-Obama song written by rapper Ludicrus because of perceived misogynistic remarks in the lyrics. An unequalled muso-political precedent it would seem.
Margaret Thatcher and LiveAid
Bob Geldof has been maligned in the past for his crusading in the political sphere, however if you view his efforts in context of what he came up against first time around with LiveAid, you might be more forgiving for him being too chummy second time around, since…Margaret Thatcher gave a lot to music, albeit largely as a figure of hatred and ridicule but that is still a greater gift than any she has given to charity. No greater example of this exists than her involvement in the original Live Aid which amounted to initially refusing to repay the 15% VAT levied on the Band Aid single which a member of her own cabinet at the time felt implored to remind her ‘was intended for Africa’s starving children, not the the Bunters of the treasury,’ and then subsequently spent the money the government pledged towards the campaign on two helicopters to drop the aid off, which were swiftly turned over to military service after they’d completed their task.
Madonna and the Nuclear Waste Industry
No shortage or musicians have leant their support and time to charitable causes such as global poverty or lost dogs homes, few though have taken it upon themselves to find a solution for the disposal of Nuclear waste, even the Fun Lovin’ Criminals restricted their garbage service to the household variety. And It doesn’t even take the average person, whom by definition should have a grade D in GCSE Physics, to surmise that a ‘mystical liquid’ from a Ukrainian lake, empowered through ‘meditations and the consciousness of sharing’ has a similar scientific standing to the belief that the moon is made of cheese and that the earth is shaped like Elvis’s left elbow. Of course though Madonna is not cut from the same earthen cloth, which might be why in 2006 along with husband Guy Ritchie, ‘relentlessly pursued’ the issue with government officials about the liquid which was supposedly brimming with Kabballah powers that could neutralise radioactive waste. One official commented, ‘it was like a crank call…the scientific mechanism were just b*ll*cks basically.’ They did succeed in getting British Nuclear Fuels to investigate it though, however a company which once deemed it acceptable to rent out nuclear waste transport containers to supermarkets to haul milk around the country after a quick going over with ‘household cleaning products,’ couldn’t find any beneficial effects to the liquid.
-David Ellis
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