15 February 2008

[zeitgeist] Tom Scholz Doesn't Heart Huckabee; Kenya Hearts Obama Beer

1368. Caught in passing – two more reasons election season seems like institutionalized insanity. Remember, when the going gets weird, the weird go to the big time:


1. [Insert Overused "I Heart Huckabees" Joke Here, followed by classic rock pun]


According to Rolling Stone, the Huckabee campaign has been using the 1976 Boston hit "More Than a Feeling" as an unofficial campaign signature, even murdering it multiple times onstage live (I've heard the sound file) with Huck's ironically-named band,  Capitol Offense, sometimes using a former Boston band member who was sometimes given credit as being "the guy who actually did it". RS reported that the composer of the song – and the owner of the rights – Boston founder Tom Scholz – has learned of the borrow, and the harshing thereof is certainly more than just a feeling:



I wrote and arranged More Than a Feeling, engineered and produced the recording, and actually played all the guitars on that BOSTON hit as well as most of BOSTON’s songs, not the person holding a guitar in your promotion who identified himself as being “of BOSTON.” Your claim that this was “the guy who originally did it” is a bit mystifying since he never played on that recording, nor has he been “of BOSTON” since he left my band over a quarter century ago, after performing with us for only three years.



Would it have killed Huck to ask permission? As a semi-pro musician, he ought to have some idea that it never pays to borrow someone's work without proper permission, or at least attribution. I mean, they teach this stuff in community college graphic design courses. Trust me, I know.


The money quote:



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!



Tom Scholz, as it happens, supports Obama. Speaking of whom ...


2. Cool, Crisp Senatorial Refreshment


We've heard via the BBC that a popular beer in Kenya – where Barack Obama's father came from, and where his grandfolks live – called Senator beer, has been nicknamed Obama beer. The BBC:



According to the BBC's Muliro Telewa in Nyangoma Kogalo, a local beer called Senator has been nicknamed "Obama" in honour of the Illinois politician.



And the video (CNN):





Enjoy your election season!


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