Well, Charlie Crist Knows Where He’s Going. But he doesn’t know where he’s been.
And Charlie Crist knows what he’s knowing, but he can’t say what he’s seen. And he’s not a little child, and he knows what he wants. And the future is certain, give Charlie Crist time to work it out.
There are several classic cases of mis-appropriating songs for political use. Ronald Reagan had a tangle with Bruce Springsteen after praising the song “Born in the USA”, and hilariously enough hoping for his endorsement. Reagan turned around and tried for John Mellancamp and “Little Pink Houses”. These, at least have some grounds to interpret in a strange broad patriotic manner — to put another way: if you’re not paying attention to the lyrics, you can relay your proper signal to “Middle America”.
Rush Limbaugh adopted the Pretenders song “Ohio” for his opening theme song. It is just the opening riff and we never get to the voice of Chrissie Hynde — currently a spokesperson for the group “PETA”. While the song rails against over-development and ultimately goes against the policies advocated by Limbaugh, there is a kind of vague feeling of loss that can be defined in cultural terms by Limbaugh. “What’s the matter with Ohio?”
But things get a little bit weirder with that one:
“Last month, Hynde finally got Limbaugh to pull the song but then did an about face on Aug. 18, telling him that he could use the song if he donated all the royalties to the animal right’s organization PETA, after PETA campaign manager Dan Mathews told her Limbaugh had a soft-spot for animals. She fired off the following missive to PETA to let them know of the recent developments. “In light of Rush Limbaugh’s vocal support of PETA’s campaign against the Environmental Protection Agency’s foolish plan to test some 3,000 chemicals on animals, I have decided to allow him to keep my song, ‘My City Was Gone,’ as his signature tune and to donate all proceeds from the deal to further PETA’s efforts in that regard””
This seems a bit of a cop-out: I don’t think Hynde has a say, but is just invented a rationalization for herself. I don’t know if I believe Limbaugh, either.  In the end, the key is that the part of the song that is integral to the show elides past the lyrics.
I remember Al Gore using the Van Halen song “Right Now”, which is politically appropriate because the song is just this weird panoply of generic ultimately meaningless slogans. It sounds good to have the sense of urgency, though.
This just does not make any sense.
David Byrne is suing the governor of Florida, alleging that he used the Talking Heads’ 1985 single “Road to Nowhere” without permission or proper licenses.
On the most basic of surface levels, without delving into the meaning of the lyrics, the song is titled “Road to Nowhere”. Charlie Crist certainly has mastered that “Vision thing”, hasn’t he?