Sarah Palin

Sarah Palin Watch: Heart Says Don’t Play “Barracuda”

September 5, 2008 /
Heart and Sarah Palin

Anne (L) and Nancy Wilson of Heart perform at the ‘Idol Gives Back’ show at the Kodak theatre in Hollywood, California April 6, 2008. The rock group Heart, angry that its 70’s hit ‘Barracuda’ is being used as the unofficial theme song for Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, is biting back at the Alaska governor.

Heart (Anne and Nancy Wilson) have asked Team McCain and Sarah Palin to stop playing their song “Barracuda.” Barracuda was the nickname of the Alaska Governor when she played basketball.

The ’80s rock band Heart is not happy about John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin using their song “Barracuda” at the Republican National Convention. (When the Alaska governor was a high school basketball champ, her teammates nicknamed her “Sarah Barracuda.)

“The Republican campaign did not ask for permission to use the song, nor would they have been granted that permission. We have asked the Republican campaign publicly not to use our music. We hope our wishes will be honored,” the band said in a statement on Thursday.

But after McCain finished his speech accepting the GOP’s presidential nomination on Thursday night, Palin joined him on stage, and the song was used for the second time.

“I think it’s completely unfair to be so misrepresented,” Heart’s Nancy Wilson told EW.com after the speech. “I feel completely f—ed over.” She and sister Ann Wilson then e-mailed the following statement to EW:

“Sarah Palin’s views and values in NO WAY represent us as American women. We ask that our song ‘Barracuda’ no longer be used to promote her image. The song ‘Barracuda’ was written in the late 70s as a scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women. (The ‘barracuda’ represented the business.) While Heart did not and would not authorize the use of their song at the RNC, there’s irony in Republican strategists’ choice to make use of it there.”

Sheesh. Sarah Palin and the McCain campaign are not Al Qaeda.

As Flap said about the same damn thing when Jackson Browne sued the McCain campaign over his song “Running on Empty”: The danger for the LEFT in pursuing this tactic is for the RIGHT to organize boycotts of certain artists’ music.

Look what happened to Linda Ronstadt when she mixed politics and her performance in Las Vegas. There were massive walkouts during her performance and her gig was cancelled. Flap knows many Republicans who have long memories about artists who do hold political grudges.

And, the funny thing is that the Wilson sisters are making a ton of money on the re-emergence of their 1970’s song. Look at the charts from Amazon. At the time of this posting on Amazon.com, the song was the 97th most popular single MP3 download.

You would think from a purely business sense they would desire the free promotion Sarah Palin would give them.

Flap saw Heart at the Universal Amphitheater earlier this year. The tickets were given to Mrs. Flap by a mutual friend because they did not sell out the arena. Next time, Flap won’t bother – even for free.

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