Campaigning with fresh beats

Republicans have a hard time finding a campaign theme song, notably because you'd be hard-pressed to find a musician who's not a lefty.

The New York Times published an article Friday discussing how both the Romney and Gingrich campaigns had to stop using songs after artists complained.

Jackson Browne successfully sued the McCain campaign in 2008 for using his hit "Running On Empty" without his permission. Tom Petty wrote a letter to Michele Bachmann last year asking her to stop using "American Girl" at campaign events.

So what are Republicans to do? Sure, there are a few exceptions to the musicians-are-liberals rule — the Romney campaign got permission from Kid Rock to use "Born Free." George W. Bush used "Only In America" by Brooks and Dunn for his re-election campaign.

Republicans could go the public domain route — recorded music, once the copyrights expire, can be used for free.

Using "This Land Is Your Land" may not get the crowd revved up but at least you can't get sued for it — though Woody Guthrie would surely be rolling over in his grave. 

Country musicians have been much more supportive of Republican candidates. Lee Greenwood has consented to the use of "God Bless The U.S.A." for campaign events.

Thousands of Americans violate copyright laws every day — from elementary school lip syncs to YouTube lyric videos to warm-up music at athletic events. But it's different when copyrighted music is played at public events in front of hundreds or thousands of people, or used in campaign videos.

The New York Times noted that the rock group Survivor sued the Gingrich campaign for using their only hit "Eye of the Tiger," alleging that Gingrich, who himself owns over 40 copyrighted works, knew it was unlawful.

You can't blame artists for not wanting to conflate their music with politics, especially artists whose work is apolitical. When music is played for campaign events, many assume that the artist is supportive of the candidate — Bruce Springsteen shot back at Ronald Reagan for using "Born in the U.S.A." in 1984.

Ideally, you want a theme song that's upbeat and gets the crowd going. But with Republicans' choices scarce, the candidates this primary season have adopted some odd choices. 

Rick Perry used Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" — upbeat, yes: but with lyrics like "we're going off the rails on a crazy train," it may not have been the most inspiring.

Maybe Republicans should look back to when candidates had their own original songs for their campaigns. Franklin Roosevelt had "Row, Row, Row With Roosevelt." Dwight Eisenhower had "I Like Ike." The Kennedy camp was able to convince Frank Sinatra to change the lyrics to "High Hopes" to support the candidate.

These songs may not get the crowd going like "Born In The U.S.A." or "How Do You Like Me Now?," but candidates will avoid having to pay big bucks — the McCain camp settled out of court with Jackson Browne — or making an embarrassing public apology — like former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist via YouTube to David Byrne for using the Talking Heads' "Road To Nowhere" in a commercial without permission.

Or, you know, the GOP candidates could be a little cooler and they wouldn't have this problem in the first place.