American Sounds: A little music with your politics - music at political conventions

National Review, Sept 11, 2000 by Jay Nordlinger

The big question on everyone's mind at our political conventions is: What music are they going to play?

Well, this may not be the biggest question, but it is an interesting one nonetheless. Music has been part of our politics since the beginning-fifes and drums and all that. At the conventions, aficionados like to speculate about what music the organizers will play for certain speakers. (Sometimes-in fact, usually-this speculation is mischievous.) They also like to divine hidden meaning in the music that those organizers have, in fact, chosen.

This choice, though minor, is not inconsequential: Get it just right, and the speaker has a lift; get it wrong somehow, and you weigh him down.

Gerald Ford provides an interesting case (really). For him, they have always played "Hail to the Victors," the University of Michigan fight song. Problem is, the song features the word "hail," sung over and over, always accompanied by the thrusting out of an arm. When a stadium, or an arena, gets rockin', it looks unnervingly like the rally at Nuremberg.

For Jimmy Carter, they often played "Marching Through Georgia," until the candidate complained that this was, after all, a northern song, celebrating the South's-particularly Georgia's-most ignominious hour.

When Ronald Reagan entered a hall, they usually used "California, Here I Come," which was a little awkward, because-at least in 1976, 1980, and 1984-he was trying to get to, or return to, Washington, D.C., not wanting to be sent "right back where I started from."

This year, too, contained its share of musical fun. At the Republican convention, John McCain strode out to the theme from Star Wars, reminding people that he had used imagery from this movie during the primaries ("I'm Luke Skywalker, trying to get out of the Death Star"). For the Texans, there was a lot of "Deep in the Heart of Texas," along with "The Yellow Rose of Texas"; they both make for rousing convention numbers.

The Republicans' cutest moment, however, came when Congressman Vito Fossella walked out to talk about Social Security reform. The music? "When I'm Sixty-four."

And the GOP, bless its flag-waving heart, has found a bona fide anthem: Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the U.S.A." They have used it for the past five presidential campaigns, and it holds up surprisingly well, especially in emotion-charged settings. This must be the most successful marriage of song and party since "Happy Days Are Here Again" and the Democrats. If the Republicans play their cards right, they will be firing up "God Bless . . ." for another generation at least.

At the Democratic convention, Hillary Clinton was greeted with "New York, New York," a somewhat dicey choice: It emphasized that she is a newcomer to the state, hoping to "make it." For her husband, the president, they played terrible, electronic, fascist-sounding music, to accompany his terrible, fascist-seeming entrance through the unseen (except on gigantic video screens) corridors of the arena. Talk about Nuremberg; some of us wondered whether Leni Riefenstahl had died (she has not).

Clinton ended his speech with the admonition "Don't stop thinking about tomorrow," whereupon, with sure timing, the convention-meisters blared the Clinton theme from 1992 and 1996 (Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop . . ."). This has been an effective song for the president, as every politician wants to be thought of as forward-looking. ("Coming to America" seemed not to work for Michael Dukakis in 1988, but then, to be fair to the song, Michael Dukakis seemed not to work as a candidate.)

Caroline Kennedy got, naturally, "Camelot," which was not really appropriate to a political convention. The song is simply too fruity, too light, too nothing. Her uncle, Senator Ted, however, was accorded the perfect song for his entrance: "You're Still the One." It is a terrific pop number anyway, and it delivered exactly the message the Democrats sought for their liberal lion, forever a convention favorite.

For Joe Lieberman? Not "Hava Nagila," as one Lieberman-weary wag had speculated, but the theme from Chariots of Fire. This music, easy to swallow at first, soon turns treacly and cloying-not unlike the candidate. But millions love the Chariots theme, and the movie happens (well, probably not happens) to feature a Jewish athlete who overcomes discrimination.

Finally, the Big Kahuna, Al Gore: He enthused his way through the crowd to the strains of syrupy, stringy, vaguely patriotic-sounding music that evidently was composed specially for this event. If his fall campaign is not better than this music, the Republicans have little to worry about.

Speaking of politics and music, there has recently been released an album that should belong to political junkies everywhere: "Presidential Campaign Songs, 1789-1996," available from Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. The songs are performed by the veteran folk artist Oscar Brand, and they are not only instructive, but a sheer delight.

Given the confines of a single compact disc, there is no room for the losers; only winning candidates are represented here (with the exception of Henry Wallace; folkies-being lefties-cannot help themselves). The songs are rich and varied. They are uplifting, obnoxious, tender, wicked, hilarious, and probably libelous. Many of them use popular tunes (such as "Yankee Doodle"); some were written by noted composers (such as Stephen Foster-for James Buchanan). So numerous were the ditties composed for political campaigns that parties would publish whole books of them, for a single political year (as in, The Republican Songster for the Campaign of 1860).