Because rock musicians are by and large liberal and conservative politicians largely, uh, aren't, sometimes getting permission to rock out during your campaign to the sort of music meant to get your red Republican blood flowing can be a problem. To wit, Sarah Palin ran into trouble when she tried to soundtrack her campaign to Heart's "Barracuda," as the Wilson sisters are unapologetically opposed to the Governor's policies and banned her from using the song, ever. The same thing happened more recently but with regard to "Fair and Balanced" news station Fox, who were using Maroon 5's music until they received a curt diss from lead man Adam Levine.
The weird thing is that a shit ton of music is actually perfect for Lincoln's party, and some of it even nearly almost works. Here's a small sampling.
Aaron Lewis - "Country Boy"
This crossover track featuring Staind vocalist Aaron Lewis talking about how he smokes weed and sold his soul to the devil may not seem like the most obvious choice for Republican hopefuls, but it's all about redemption and ignoring Big City Temptations in favor of your friends, family, overalls, and wrapping yourself in the flag. At the end, you even get a mini-lecture about guns to the tune of "Glory Glory Hallelujah."
The Young Cons - "Young Con Anthem"
David “Serious C” Isaac Rufful and Joshua “Stiltz” Andrew Riddle (a.k.a. The Young Cons) aren't "good" at "rapping," due to their fumbling with speaking over a beat and trying to rhyme with phrases like "capital gains tax," but it's not the worst attempt we've ever heard at making music with a message, just kind of an oddball one...did they really put their heads together and decide simultaneously that what the world needed was a style of rap that name-drops Ronald Reagan like he's Biggie?
First Love - "Game On"
Best case scenario? Someone writes a song just for your campaign. This song by family band First Love was written and recorded in a fever for the Super Tuesday push for presidential hopeful Rick Santorum. From their YouTube page: "We wrote ["Game On"] Sunday night March 4th til 3 in the morning & woke up on March 5th to finish it. We rushed to the studio about 30 minutes after it was done and recorded it!" Two and a half minutes, folksy and a little country, catchy...hell, it's not that bad of a song. Of course, the lyrics are weird. "Oh, there is Hope for our Nation again/ Maybe the First time Since we Had Ronald Reagan," they sing, apparently forgetting the 12 years of Bush administrations (sr. and jr.) we've had to endure, but you can't blame their for selective memories - we're trying to forget, too. We could also parse this line - "We've got a Man who Understands /that God Gave the Bill of Rights" - by wondering aloud who else actually thinks God delivered the Bill of Rights like the Ten Commandments or something, but that's dull. After all, we should just be glad this isn't half as bad as the altogether unlistenable "Bush Was Right."