Do Stop

[michelej1]

[I do not believe this comment is accurate]

From idolator.com

http://idolator.com/5121118/no-3-a-v...by-vhs-or-beta

The long queue of disgruntled musicians might lead one to believe that rock stars have always sided with the blue states and given them free rein over their back catalog. But that is not the case, as Joan Didion once noted in her essay about the 1992 DNC “Eyes on the Prize” (collected in Political Fictions): “Tipper and Al Gore dance sedately on the podium. The preferred sound was not ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ [ed. note: FDR’s 1932 campaign song] but Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie’s request before the New Hampshire primary that the Clinton campaign stop using her song ‘Don’t Stop’ notwithstanding.”

Ultimately McVie relented, and the band even reunited for the Clinton inaugural ball. But while “Don’t Stop” ultimately soundtrack the Democratic victory then, as befits our playlist age, there is no one single song to offer as summation (try 73 hours and counting). As LA Times pop critic Ann Powers (and yours truly) finally confessed: "I can't even remember what Obama's official campaign song was." A Google search doesn't help with this either. Perhaps that's what Obama's detractors meant when they claimed that we don't know the man?

[jbrownsjr]

Originally Posted by michelej1

[I do not believe this comment is accurate]

From idolator.com

http://idolator.com/5121118/no-3-a-v...by-vhs-or-beta

The long queue of disgruntled musicians might lead one to believe that rock stars have always sided with the blue states and given them free rein over their back catalog. But that is not the case, as Joan Didion once noted in her essay about the 1992 DNC “Eyes on the Prize” (collected in Political Fictions): “Tipper and Al Gore dance sedately on the podium. The preferred sound was not ‘Happy Days Are Here Again’ [ed. note: FDR’s 1932 campaign song] but Fleetwood Mac, Christine McVie’s request before the New Hampshire primary that the Clinton campaign stop using her song ‘Don’t Stop’ notwithstanding.”

Ultimately McVie relented, and the band even reunited for the Clinton inaugural ball. But while “Don’t Stop” ultimately soundtrack the Democratic victory then, as befits our playlist age, there is no one single song to offer as summation (try 73 hours and counting). As LA Times pop critic Ann Powers (and yours truly) finally confessed: "I can't even remember what Obama's official campaign song was." A Google search doesn't help with this either. Perhaps that's what Obama's detractors meant when they claimed that we don't know the man?

I'd never heard that...

[David]

Seems highly unlikely. But what might have happened -- in the first few days or weeks of that campaigning -- is that Warner initially made a stink. I just doubt anyone in the band or even representing the band managerially would have cared, or even known about what the campaign was using in the very beginning.

And of course after some weeks & all the publicity, whoever or whatever initially made a stink would have had the "lightbulb go off," as Lindsey puts it.

[macfan 57]

I doubt this is true. Chris has said that she was thrilled that the President of the U.S. wanted to use her song in his campaign.

[aleuzzi]

Chris was honored to have had her song used. She did say, however, that she wasn't sure if she would have voted for Clinton if she had US voting rights.

I remember a blurb back in 1992, when Mick was asked if the Clinton campaign had sought the necessary permission to use the song. He said, "No. But it could be worse: it could have been used in a commercial for underarm charm." Not the exact wording, but close...

[macfan 57]

Originally Posted by aleuzzi

She did say, however, that she wasn't sure if she would have voted for Clinton if she had US voting rights.

I know. I suspect she may take after John in that regard. She's probably a bit more far to the right politically than I am.

[Ulpian]

Originally Posted by macfan 57

I know. I suspect she may take after John in that regard. She's probably a bit more far to the right politically than I am.

I am not so sure about that. If I recall, she said in an 04 Interview for ITM that, had she known about the way the Clinton presidency later went, she might not have been so supportive about letting him use the song. Something akin to, he may have been better to use 'Little Lies', or something? (I can't remember exactly what.)

It strikes me that if Christine is at all conservative politically, it would perhaps be fiscally. Socially, from what I am led to believe, she is fairly liberal.

[michelej1]

Democrats Celebrate to a New Tune , Daniel Zingale Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel...b_2102151.html

Posted: 11/12/2012 5:31 pm

Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" peaked at number three on the charts when I was still in high school. When I first heard it on my ball and chain radio in 1977, I was already into Democratic politics. Within three years, I would find my way into the 1980 Democratic National Convention as a 20-year-old delegate for Ted Kennedy in his run for the White House against Jimmy Carter. But it would be another 15 years before the upbeat pop song would enter politics, first as Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign theme song and then performed live by Fleetwood Mac at President Clinton's first inaugural ball.

For those years in between Carter and Clinton -- and for decades before that -- the undisputed theme song of the Democratic Party was "Happy Days Are Here Again," FDR's 1932 campaign song, composed in 1929 by Milton Ager with lyrics by Jack Yellen.

That song always seemed to tower over the popular music of my youth, carrying with it my parents' wartime stories and the enduring and haunting memories of millions of people lifted up from the Hoover depression into the prosperity of FDR's New Deal.

Like the Greatest Generation itself, that song's place in the Democratic identity struck me as beyond the reach of anything contemporary culture or politics could ever inspire among the Party faithful again. All the more so given the electoral record of the president it evokes -- four consecutive wins for FDR.

It would be 60 years from FDR's first election victory before any other Democratic nominee for president would complete two full terms of office. For Democrats, Bill Clinton's arrival meant winning was finally here again. And for America, so were the happy days of economic prosperity.

So it should come as no surprise if Clinton's theme song were to finally replace FDR's.

It may be hard for "Don't Stop" to strike a monumental historic chord in those of us who danced to it at the prom wearing leisure suits or Farah Fawcett hair-dos. But when I heard them playing "Don't Stop" at an Obama campaign rally, I wondered if it's different for kids who are in high school now. Perhaps the image of an 8-track tape player strikes them the same way a Victrola record player struck me.

I told my 18-year-old son I was writing a piece about Obama and the Democrats replacing a song from his grandparents' days with one from mine. He asked, "Isn't it about time?"

I think my son got it right.

The lyrics in both songs are about brighter days being here and ahead. But both songs are even more about leaving the past behind -- a core American impulse. One that was incapsulated in President Obama's "Forward," which framed a winning message for difficult times.

Christine McVie's lyrics "Yesterday's gone" and "Don't you look back" were just a 1970s incarnation of Jack Yellen's "You are now a thing of the past" and "We are rid of you at last."

In that American spirit, I for one am ready to let go of that song about a history I had only read or heard about, and be inspired by one now linked to better times I can recount directly to my own kids.

So, fellow Democrats, as we celebrate our victory, let's move on and make it official. And while we're at it, maybe it's time we think about hitting the refresh button on the Donkey as our party's icon.