I guess hate is More Than A Feeling for aging rocker Tom Scholz, former member of the band Boston. Scholz, it appears, is none too happy that presidential candidate Mike Huckabee was using his old Boston tune, More Than A Feeling on the campaign trail and he wants him to stop it.
Like John Cougar Mellenkamp — who got his leather pants in a bunch over McCain’s usage of one of his pop tunes — Mr. Scholz is another musician who imagines that people are so stupid that when they hear a song at a campaign rally, they must automatically imagine that the producer of the song supports the candidate in question.
As reported by the AP, Scholz sent a letter to the Huckabee campaign telling Huckabee to dump the song and Don’t Look Back.
“Boston has never endorsed a political candidate, and will all due respect, would not start by endorsing a candidate who is the polar opposite of most everything Boston stands for,” wrote Scholz, adding that he is supporting Democratic Sen. Barack Obama. “By using my song, and my band’s name Boston, you have taken something of mine and used it to promote ideas to which I am opposed. In other words, I think I’ve been ripped off, dude!”
Yeah… dude. Good thing he is a guitar player because thinker seems to be out of the question. (I can’t help it, but it just seems a little childish for a 60 some year-old man to be calling people “dude”)
But, here is the thing, Huckabee, a bass guitar player, has actually appeared on stage with a former member of Scholz’ own band. Boston band member Barry Goudreau has jammed with Huckabee in the past, so it is only natural that Huckabee felt he could use the song. After all, he had a member of Boston on stage with him!
Of course, the cantankerous Scholz even seems to claim that his old band mate is somehow not a real member of the band!
Scholz, who said Goudreau left the band more than 25 years ago after a three-year stint, objects to the implication that the band and one of its members has endorsed Huckabee’s candidacy.
I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that Scholz is such an uncivil, “dude,” though. He has a long history of suing people and feuding with band mates. So it isn’t surprising that this guy is in need of some distemper shots.
But, here is the real issue with these has-been rockers getting mad at Republicans who use their songs. Not one person at a campaign rally who hears some old rock standard blaring out of the loudspeakers will imagine that the band that recorded the tune supports the candidate. We Americans have grown up with rock-n-roll as the background music, the soundtrack if you will, to our lives. We hear the songs and we merely enjoy them (or not as the case may be). No further statement is placed into it than that. Do we imagine that if a discjockey plays a tune that the band supports the discjockey? The radio station? Even the city the radio station is in? No would be the answer to that.
So, I’d like to offer Tom Scholz some Peace of Mind. Your music is just entertainment, “dude.” Nobody but you takes it that seriously.
I have to say, though, that I’m glad that Scholz is a Man I’ll Never Be. How about you?
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5 users commented in " Another Aging Rocker Tells a Republican to Stop Using Song "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackI’m with Scholz and Mellencamp on this one. If businesses need to license songs for use in advertising campaigns, then so should politicians.
With politics, however, artists usually donate the use of their songs to the candidates they endorse. As such, it would stand to reason there would be confusion in this case.
It is my guess that your complaint has little or nothing to do with intellectual property rights, and has more to do with the fact that Mr. Scholz objects to your candidate’s message.
My complaint with your article has nothing to do with your albeit thinly veiled political agenda, and everything to do with the rights of the owner of the Intellectual Property to determine how their property can be used. The fact that you insinuate that Huckabee should be able to use the song without permission is a prime example of why we have a problem with people stealing music. People, including you, don’t respect the rights of the owner.
-jm
I found your comments unpersuasive either in your personal attack on Scholz or your attack on “has-been rockers”. Why should an author of any copyrighted work not speak out if the work is either stolen or licensed against his or her wishes? I thought Republicans were all about property rights! Sincerely, Brad Smith
So what you are really saying is that if somebody writes a song, and because in your eyes the author is a has-been, they then lose the right to control the songs use. Hmm, interesting that your self serving attitude speaks with greater volume than Boston ever used in concert.
Hey Dude,
Tom Scholz has all the right to protest the use of his song. And I don’t blame Springsteen for getting mad at people mis-using/mis-interpreting ‘Born in the USA’. Nor Mellencamp. Nor anyone else who objects to their property being used in ways in which they don’t like.
When I hear a song at a rally, I assume it is because someone actively chose the song - it didn’t pop out of the the iPod on shuffle. And thus the theme - and auteur - of the song are inextricably linked with the message the candidate is trying to impart. The performer/politician WANTS people to associate their positive feelings of the song with them. That an artists airs his feelings about this is neither novel nor questionable.
Tom Scholz is a great guitar player who wrote some songs that are still getting extensive airplay 30 years after they were written. In 30 years no one will remember much about Mike Huckabee. They’ll remember even less about his pedestrian bass-playing abilities. Unless of course they teach him some real skills in the re-education camp that we will send him to after the election.
To Warner Todd Huston,
Get a clue. You’re way off base here, both on the music end of things AND on Tom’s intelligence. You didn’t do your homework and should be banished back to freshman English. I read the use of ‘Dude’ in his remark as a way to lighten up a serious situation.
Next time you decide to make a personal attack on someone, think twice and don’t do it. Report the facts. Keep your opinions to yourself. I feel I wasted my time even reading this.
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