Wonkette
Last year, poor ol’ Johnny Walnuts spent 75 percent of his campaign either changing Sarah Palin’s runny diapers or apologizing to once-famous musicians for using their songs in campaign commercials that nobody watched. One of those musicians was Jackson Browne, who, like John Mellencamp, could have had a brilliant career as a composer of truck commercial jingles, but instead decided to waste his talents on being a liberal.
The Ohio Republican Party and the RNC used “Running on Empty” in a Web commercial supporting John McCain, and Jackson Browne was (rightfully!) angry that nobody had bothered to ask him if that was okay, so he sued McCain and the RNC and the Ohio Republicans.
Yesterday all parties announced that the suit had been settled, John McCain and the other folks apologized to Browne, and that is how Jackson Browne became the poster boy for long-forgotten musicians from the 70s who are grossly offended when somebody remembers they wrote a song or two once.
Jackson Browne settles with GOP [AP]
Running on empty indeed.
How stupid….not only did the Republicans steal a song they stole a song that was a sad and accurate portrayal of McCain’s campaign.
He should have gone with the song stylings of the Greg Kihn Band. Everybody loves Greg Kihn.
http://www.gregkihn.com/home_page.html
When is he gonna settle with the Amurican peoples for unleashing Sarah Palin on us?
It’s pretty sad that the two songs the RNC wanted were “Running On Empty” and “Barracuda” and they couldn’t even get them.
After this, McCain can move on to also settling with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band.
Who the fuck is Jackson Browne? Sounds like the name of a blaxploitation star.
I didn’t realize that Jackson Browne was around in 1868. Should have stuck to “Camptown Races” and “Jimmy Crackcorn.”
I dont know where I’m running now, I’m just running on
…
You know I don’t even know what I’m hoping to find”
In McCain’s defense, those two lines pretty much sum up his political career.
They should have went with McCain’s first choice of Dancing Queen.
Goodness gracious if McCain was elected we would still be in Iraq and Afghanistan instead of being in Afghanistan and Iraq. Sooo good that O’Bomber is in charge.
Paul Tardy: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8125547.stm It’s called “news” and it’s updated every few minutes or so.
He woulda had a better chance being lowered onto the stage in a rocket ship and dressed like George Clinton. The only way I’d woulda voted for him.
Scrodd: The very first autographs in my autograph book(do kids have them anymore)are from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I am not sure where I got them- maybe Steel Pier in AC? Don’t hold it against me- I was 12.
Whatever happened to Salvatore the Intern? At least, unlike Joe the Plumber, he actually did his job.
Gotta admit, there’s nothing like shamelessly co-opting the stylings of musical has-beens from the 70s to energize the Rethuglican base.
Aloysius: Nah. Too 80s.
McCain got shot down three times. Once in ‘67 by the Vietcong, in ‘08 by Barack, and again in 2009 by Jackson Browne.
I can’t keep up with what’s been going on
I think my heart must just be slowing down
Among the human beings in their designer jeans
Am I the only one who hears the screams
And the strangled cries of lawyers in love
Unfortunately, Beck wouldn’t let McCain use the ideal song for his campaign. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJN3PGqDRNg. The lyrics sound like one of Palin’s speeches and the chorus says it all.
When are they going to apologize to Bob Dylan for personifying “Idiot Wind?” And then there’s the awful commercial about how McCain selected Sarah Palin that was set to “Paradise by the Dashboard Lights” — fortunately nobody ever saw that one.
Advocatus_Diaboli: Jackson’s songs fit McCain pretty well. Here’s another:
People go just where they will
I never noticed them until
I got this feeling that it’s later than it seems
Or,
Are you there?
Say a prayer for the Pretender.
Who started out so old and weak
Only to surrender.
Jackson Browne not only beat down Daryl Hannah, but Johnny Mac too? For a crooning, aging lefty, he’s a bad ass!
An evolution of McCain’s Campaign through Music:
Announces Prez Bid: “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again”
Wins GOP Nom despite a shitty primary campaign: “Eye of the Tiger”
Flounders before Convention: “Running on Empty”
Announces the Queen Grifter as VP: “Barracuda”
Flounders on US Economy: “Money”
Campaign sinks under weight of collective stupidity: “Dazed and Confused”
Losing to the Muslin: “The Reject”
Current Status: “I’m a Loser Baby, why don’t you shoot me”
How come Springsteen didn’t sue Reagan for stealing his anti-war, sucks to be an American anthem for his campaign stops.
SayItWithWookies: “Paradise By the Dashboard Lights.” Hahahaha! Verily, “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” would have been infinitely more appropriate.
Classic mock.
Poor Old Johnny M,
Sounded sad upon the campaign trail, he moved a million votes to Obama.
Our fathers cried and rant along and we’d blame Bush.
Now you’ve lost, so lost, now I must say more than ever.
Go Toora Loora Toora Loo-Rye-Aye
and we can vote just for Palin.
Seriously, who was the nitwit who thought it would be a good idea to use that song?
Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot that being Republican means being intellectualy incapable of recognizing irony.
Cape Clod:
See 50 GREATEST CON ROCK SONGS.
Looking at the straight talk express going off the road
Looking back at the years kissing Bush’s butt
In sixty-eight I was thirty-one and sittin in a tiger cage
I dont know what Im running for, Im just running to lose
Running on - running on empty
Running on - running blind
Running on - running into the sun
But Im running behind
(Hey, didn’t even need to mess with the chorus)
What? Why no Alice Cooper? Huh? “Elected” would have gone perfectly….
Hate to be anti-snark, but we’ve got to pick targets accurately: Jackson Browne is a good musician, songwriter and singer. Actually, Jackson Browne wrote dozens of good songs, his songs are still played on the radio, he’s pretty damn popular, he still tours every now and then, and his songs, besides being melodic and full of good guitar riffs, were actually intelligent and were about real issues, emotions and ideas–they are far better songs than most of the crap out there today. Besides “Running on Empty,” which is still played regularly on the radio and which was actually recorded live at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, Md., Browne also wrote and recorded “Doctor My Eyes,” “Rock Me On the Water,” “Song for Adam,” “Take It Easy” (co-written with Glenn Frey), “These Days,” “For a Dancer,” “Before the Deluge,” “The Pretender,” (NOT the Foo Fighters song, but an original of his) “Here Come Those Tears Again,” “The Road,” “Rosie,” “The Load-Out/Stay,” “Hold Out,” “Somebody’s Baby,” “Lives in the Balance,” and many others. If we should pick on anyone here, it’s McCain and his cronies.
thefrontpage: “For a Dancer” brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.
thefrontpage: I just saw Jackson Brown last week at an outdoor venue in Vermont. He had two v-e-r-y hot young black women as his back up singers, hot hot hot.
I like his new song ‘Drums of War”….he is an excellent poet, not a great singer-
and thats why he has two v-e-r-y hot women singers on stage with him live.
Paul Tardy: Oooo. Burn.
Aloysius: according to his website, on July 4 he sang “take me out to the ballpark” in San Francisco…what the hell song is that? Is that similar to one of those fake birthday songs they sing at restaurants because they don’t have the rights to “Happy Birthday to You”?
thefrontpage: and don’t forget my fav, “Cocaine” running all round my brain. Ah JB! He was a cutie.
takes12no1: True story: JB concert in Seattle, yes in the 70’s, at the end of Cocaine with everyone yelling for more “here’s a verse you won’t hear recorded: Last night my girl said honey I wanta lick, Sure girl hand me the tweezers I’m gonna find my dick, Cocaine Cocaine running all around my brain.”
Advocatus_Diaboli: actually, it wass sarah that was running on, and on and on and on… the snowbilly never knows when to STFU.
thefrontpage: Next,,, someone will grab Doctor My Eyes for that anti-heatlhcare reform movement.
The moral: Rip off Warren Zevon!
Well, I went to the doctor
I said, “I’m feeling kind of rough”
“Let me break it to you, son”
Your shit’s fucked up.”
I said, “my shit’s fucked up?”
Well, I don’t see how–”
He said, “The shit that used to work–
It won’t work now.”
thefrontpage: Amen. I would also like to add “Fountain of Sorrow” and “The Crow on The Cradle”, one of the most haunting songs ever written.
Walnutz should have went with Slayer, God Hates Us All
Harold_Ignoramis: Dis ‘Running on empty” all you want, but ‘Barracuda’ (still) rooools!
thefrontpage: Yeah, that pretty much proves Sarah’s point. Apart from that annoying ‘Running on empty’ song, that annoying ‘Doctor my eyes’ song, and that annoying ‘Take it easy’ song, I haven’t heard of/don’t remember any of those (though I’d guess they all have pretty much the same tempo and melody). And yes, I was alive and grooving in the seventies.
Saw this story yesterday, so last night I went home and downloaded Running on Empty. Not that I listen to Jackson Browne, but I thought spending a $1.29 was the least I could do to show my solidarity with someone who successfully sued the RNC. Thank God it wasn’t Michael Bolton who sued.
Aloysius: They just don’t write ‘em like that anymore. No they don’t. No no.
thefrontpage: Thanks for gettin’ it said. Not to mention his cover of “Stay.”
sezme: Hey Hey Hey you guys! If you want to be all “your favorite band sucks” go to Metafilter. This is Wonkette!
Now JB can sue the C Street boys for their performance art interpretation of Lawyers In Love. As for Palin, forget about which Meat Loaf song is right and give her the whole album -she definitely qulaifies as a Bat Out Of Hell.
The whole history of Republicans and music is just so puzzling. Are they all tone deaf? Time after time they try to borrow music from artists who are clearly aligned against Republican politics, and time after time they embarrass themselves:
The aforementioned ironic misappropriation of Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”
Van Morrison having to politely “correct” Dubya’s inauguration planners by saying, in essence, “Um, no, you obviously have me mistaken for someone who would perform for that moron” (leaving, appropriately, Asleep at the Wheel as the inauguration headliner).
Or my personal favorite, the orchestra at the 1992 Republican National Convention performing Jerry Herman’s “The Best of Times,” from “La Cage aux Folles” - the same convention where Pat Buchanan used the podium to denounce homosexuals and launch a culture war.
Other examples too numerous, but I’ve exhausted my Wonkettwitter character limit.
thefrontpage: Agreed. Anyone who can write such a fantastic song about masturbation (”Rosie”) shouldn’t be condemned to snark in THIS forum…
Does this mean that he and Jack Cafferty are gonna get the band back together and start touring again?
God I hope so!
riverside68: was probably a nice segue into “Rosie”
But rosie you’re all right — you wear my ring
When you hold me tight — rosie that’s my thing
When you turn out the light — I’ve got to hand it to me
Looks like it’s me and you again tonight rosie
One Yield Regular: Exactly! you beat me to the draw.
Why the hating on Jackson Browne, SKS?
Jackson Browne plasters on makeup like a trollop, the cunt.
“Lives in the Balance” makes me want to bomb everyone and everything.
Why didn’t someone sue over McCain’s use of “Somebody’s Baby” whenever Sarah Palin paraded out her family?
thefrontpage: God, you are old. I am 35 and the only Jackson Browne song title you mentioned that I recognize is “Take It Easy,” and that’s only so that I can change it quickly if I come across it on the radio. That only old people really know or like Jackson Browne is part of the joke on McCain. He was clearly courting the AARP voting crowd and only the AARP voting crowd by choosing Jackson Browne. Jackson Brown, Don Henley and Phil Collins are all easy listening crap that makes my ears bleed out of funk-less, vanilla-music boredom.
Off topic, to be sure, but what is that fucking picture? Looks like Glenn Beck zombie (I know, redundant)and it’s freaking me out!!! Please never post it again!!!
El Pinche: If he’d actually done that, I would have considered voting for him
Nah. Still wouldn’t.
Mad Farmer Manifest: Jackson Browne was put out in Denver because he refused to suck dick.
Cape Clod: Being a Republican means never having to say your wrong.