President Obama’s campaign playlist is out; it is, unsurprisingly, unexciting.
I’ve already made known that were I ever to run for office, my campaign theme would be “Life During Wartime”—This ain’t no party/This ain’t no disco/This ain’t no fooling around—which may go a long way toward explaining why I will never be elected to anything.
More fun than coming up with campaign song-lists, however, is considering anti-campaign songs: all those tunes which would doom any possibility of election.
Some suggestions:
- Radiohead, “Creep”
- Beck, “Loser”
- Beth Orton, “Devil Is My Angel”
- REM, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”
- Talking Heads, “Road to Nowhere”
- Talking Heads, “Psycho Killer”
- Be Good Tanyas (Townes Van Zandt): “Waiting Around to Die”
- Mission of Burma, “That’s When I Reach For My Revolver”
- Velvet Underground, “Heroin”
- Bjork, “Army of Me”
- Birthday Party, “Release the Bats”
- Any song by Serge Gainsbourg
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, “Papa Won’t Leave You, Henry” (Terrifying. . .)
- Smiths, “Unhappy Birthday”
- Wilco, “I Am Trying to Break Your Heart”
- Butthole Surfers, “Pepper”
- Bruce Springsteen, “Atlantic City”
- Bob Marley, “I Shot the Sheriff”
- Thee Headcoatees, “Don’t Want to Hold Your Hand”
- Bruce Cockburn, “If I Had A Rocket Launcher”
- Loretta Lynn, “The Pill” (Sigh. . . )
- B-52’s, “Dance This Mess Around”
- B-52’s, “Hot Pants Explosion” (Just because)
- Dead Kennedys, “Let’s Lynch the Landlord”
- Nina Simone, “Mississippi Goddamn”
- Rolling Stones, “Shattered”
- Semisonic, “Closing Time”
- X, “See How We Are”
- X, “Hungry Wolf”
- XTC, “Dear God”
- Sam Roberts, “Where Have All the Good People Gone”
- Christine Fellows, “Roadkill”
- Violent Femmes, “Kiss Off”
This could go on and on—feel free to drop your own suggestions.
Anyway, it would be awesome if someone were willing to use any of these songs—now that person would be someone I’d want to have a beer with.
AbsurdBeats 
I myself would advise any male candidate from using Gary Puckett and the Union Gap Band’s song,”Young Girl”
Ha. That’s the spirit!
I also just thought of Van Halen’s “Running With the Devil” and Pink Floyd, “Run Like Hell.”
Man, I’ll be able to spin this out for awhile. . . .
rollin’s band liar or slayer reign in blood?
Yep, death, blood, hell, Satan, sex—all would work fine against one’s electoral prospects.
Coupla’ more: AC/DC, “Highway to Hell”; Daniel Lanois, “Sleeping in the Devil’s Bed”
james brown say it loud
off topic but:
http://frontrow.bc.edu/program/maddow/
maddow on life during wartime
Depends on the politician…
Clinton – A Small Cigar – Jethro Tull
Bush (II) – The Hampster Dance – Hampton the Hampster (if the first 10 seconds doesn’t tell you why…)
Lincoln – A Night at the Opera – Queen
Nixon – Somebody’s Watching Me – Rockwell (alternate:Voices Carry, Til Tuesday)
Reagan – State of Confusion – Genesis (or Phil Collins?)
WHHarrison – 30 Days in the Hole – Humble Pie (alternate: We’ve Only Just Begun – Carpenters)
Ford – I Tumble For You – Boy George
Kennedy – Brain Damage – (Pink Floyd, not Eminem)
OK, that was a little over the top.
Kennedy – I don’t Want To Live On the Moon – Shawn Colvin
Obama – Illegal Alien – Genesis (you said anti; I hope he doesn’t use this one!)
I better quit before I get in trouble. Whoops…
Ooh, bad—by which I mean, good.
Slowin’ the songs down…too much to think
About?
http://onion.com/H7yyTR