Know Your Rights?

Neil Young is just one of many, many musicians who have taken issue with the Commanchild-in Chief playing their songs at his stirring political rallies and campaign events. Everyone from Axl Rose to Prince's estate to Luciano Pavarotti have registered complaints, either formally or via social media. There's a frickin' Wikipedia (Frickipedia) page dedicated to "Musicians who oppose Donald Trump's use of their music."

A number of these have sent Cease and Desist letters. This year, Mike Mills of R.E.M. "threatened legal action over using 'Everybody Hurts' and 'Losing My Religion,'" perhaps because Trump was highlighting two of the weakest chart-toppers the band recorded, or maybe just because anything the band members believe in is being urinated upon by DJT on a daily basis.

A question for Gheorghe: The Barristers... is there any merit to such action?

(A question for me: have we already covered this before at G:TB and my memory is shot dead?)

I know that because of ASCAP, you have to pay a fee to play any copyrighted songs in public. Or

however you legal types would word that restriction. There's a reason the YouTube videos for our ORF Rock broadcasts (and the kick-ass licensed rock and roll we played) kept getting blocked. But Trump or any other candidate can get that out of the way with a simple payment. What happens when the people who own licensed material explicitly say "Don't play it"?

It's debatable whether it's a savvy move to play songs to inspire an arena of already-swallowed-the-cyanide-Kool-Aid sycophants and then get publicly lambasted by famous artists later. (That Wikipedia page is a humorous run-through of some of the responses, but not the most cutting.) Then again, I suppose it's just one more liberal elite artist about whom you can fallaciously wax indignant and victimized.  I don't know. The musicians are generally more clever than most candidates and are capable of jabbing with superior linguistic dexterity. But I also suppose that that's not always a draw.

This recent article on Neil Young's latest complaint makes reference to instances that sound like they have teeth. But I don't know. The Glimmer Twins, who sue people daily, are set to take aim. 

But here's where my eyebrows elevated in that article. It says:

Young, exasperated by Trump’s continued usage of “Rockin’ in the Free World,” “Like a Hurricane” and “Cowgirl in the Sand,” took to his official website last week to pen an open letter expressing his disdain.

Cowgirl in the Sand???  I obviously get Rockin' in the Free World for its falling-down-a-mountain-hilarious irony and Like a Hurricane to acknowledge Trump's response to Puerto Rico. But Cowgirl in the Sand?  What in Sam Hill?

Look, I need to be enlisted by every campaign to come up with the songs to play at these rah-rah gang-fellatio gatherings.  If you're going to piss off Neil Young, try: 

• Heart of Gold
• Tonight's the Night
• Comes a Time
• Don't Let It Bring You Down
• Don't Be Denied
• Long May You Run
• I Believe in You

Of course, what Trump should really play is:

• I Am a Child
• Helpless
• Old Man
• A Man Needs a Maid
• The Needle and the Damage Done
• Ohio
• Campaigner
• Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere

Eh. He'll probably just play "Cortez the Killer" down in the border states and tell them how tremendous it was.