So You Wanna Be a Rock N Roll Star (Part 1)

While I have been down this rabbit hole of music, I have discovered this crop of candidates have strong musical ties. Hey, I know, this isn't serious stuff, but that was never my intent, and if you really want to find it, go back through my blog, and you will find some very insightful content, too.

You may have heard this four years ago, but Bernie Sanders released an album.

We Shall Overcome was released in 1987 and is a collection of spoken word and folk music.



The cassette (well, it was 1987) sold maybe 800 copies at the time.  It was re-released in 2014 as a CD and Digital Download and even got Bernie to the fringes of the Billboard New Artist chart in 2016.

It's not much, but I think it beats Tim Ryan's Spotify career (which largely falls under the threshold of 1000 listeners).

Musical talent?

NPR covered that original Sanders album when it talked to producer Todd Lockwood. "I realized pretty early on that Bernie is not a singer. That became pretty apparent right off the bat," he says. "You know, there are certain tricks you can do to correct people's pitch being off and stuff, but I was going, 'This is not really the road we want to go down.' "

Sanders would record again in 2016.  This time, as a nationally known counter-culture icon, he appeared on "Feel Your Guts", a single released by Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore which overlaid Sanders on top of an acoustic guitarscape.  Though Moore is known for noise, his ear finds a nice tune.

   
The limited run of 1000 was free for the asking if you had donated to the Sanders '16 campaign.

While we are on the subject of music, Bernie Sanders did actually get nominated for a Grammy.  Sanders and Mark Ruffalo narrated Sanders's book Our Revolution.

They would face tough competition from songwriter Shelly Peiken, Bruce Springsteen, and Neil deGrass Tyson, and the winner Carrie Fisher.

A win would have put him in the company of Carl Sandburg, Edward R Murrow, Everett Dirksen, Martin Luther King, Orson Welles, Maya Angelou, Sidney Pottier, and Presidents Carter, Clinton, and Obama; as well as Henry Rollins.

 Any talk of Music and Politics surely begins with Bernie, close personal friend of Ariana Grande, Cardi B, and Jack White, but it is not a monopoly.

Had things gone another direction, I would spend time here talking about Beto O'Rourke's musical career.

Largely recounted this Spring, Beto was in a band with Cedric Bixler-Zavala.  In an alternate universe, perhaps they would have stayed together and played in Cedric's bands At the Drive In and The Mars Volta. Critics who have listened to the band Foss bring up touch points like Fugazi, Guided by Voices and Pavement, and even bands like Rites of Spring, Government Issue and Sunny Day Real Estate.

That cover surely looks like one of the hundreds of Nirvana influenced bands of the day.

The Man can't stop the Music!

I would also certainly make some mention of John Hickenlooper who has a history of jumping onstage with Big Head Todd, Nathaniel Ratliff, and Old Crow Medicine Show, even jamming with Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead.

   

Long Haired Freaky People Need Not Apply 

Those guys are old news, though.  They've dropped out.

Instead, let's start our focus on Pete Buttigieg, who gives us tons of material. Pete has quickly put together a musical resume to match Bernie's. Pete's musical career highlight to date is jumping onstage to play piano with Ben Folds at a 2015 concert in Indiana.

   

This being that age, the AV Club dug up a letter that Pete wrote in 2003 as a student for the Harvard Crimson about the virtues of the Dave Matthews solo record.

That article also calls Eminem "arresting", notes Hail to the Thief's tonal shift, and said Sting latest song "Desert Rose" was "Millennium conscious".

In the alternate universe I mentioned above, Pete might be this generation's Robert Christgau and writing about the new Beto album right now.

As Pete's star rises, the media is attracted to his youth in a way they were attracted to Clinton and Obama.  The LA Times did an interview with him just on music.

From which we gather, Hail to the Thief is his favorite Radiohead album; and we see the musical progression of his life - starting with local radio playing Alanis Morrisette and Christian Rock, then discovering Creedence and Jimi, then jam bands; next, a gig playing the keyboard on "Magic Carpet Ride" for the High School Battle of Bands.

Pete envisions a dream inaugural headlined by Radiohead, Dave Matthews, and Lin-Manuel Miranda, before saying he doesn't want to get too far ahead.

Along the way, he discusses the BMG Music Club, Allison Krauss, Spoon, Waylon, Prine, Beethoven, and Vaughn Williams.  There's also Gershwin, Rage Against the Machine, Pharrel, and Hendrix, and from what I can tell, this is most likely the first album he bought:

 
Richie Sambora is the Many More

 That string of April interviews brought the headline that Phish might be playing the Buttigieg Inaugural Ball, though he did admit Radiohead might not be the right type of celebratory music. (They did record a track called "National Anthem").

There's plenty written about how much Pete loves Phish and Dave Matthews, though it has been discussed so much, that even Slate wrote an article claiming that Pete is a "guy who likes Phish", but not an actual Phan.

.  

Hey, does anyone know if the President has to take a drug test? 

I doubt anybody has generated more music related headlines this Election cycle, even Bernie. There is nothing more Peak 2019 than when Lil Nas X turned Pete down on a remix of Old Town Road.

   

Is Baby Shark available? 

I can't blame Pete.  

Lil Nas X (after topping the charts) had collaborated with artists as varied as Billy Ray Cyrus, Young Thug, Keith Urban, and South Korean Boy Band megastars BTS.  

Still, when Pete wanted to duet with X at a Buzzfeed live event, he got shot down. 

Buttigieg was pitched on a preliminary idea of appearing via video, reciting the lyrics to “Old Town Road” in some form of a collaboration with the surging pop star. But according to sources, the plan was foiled when Lil Nas X rejected the proposal. The singer was not opposed to Buttigieg personally, sources said, but instead told BuzzFeed News that he did not want to be seen as endorsing a particular candidate in the race. As a result, the sources said, the idea was dropped and Buttigieg did not participate in the event. 

Around this same time, Pete sat down with Blair Garner for an interview.  Garner hosts an overnight syndicated country music show.  No surprise to see Pete appear in unlikely locales, as he had went on Fox News, and had even talked about attending Bob Vander Plaats' Family Leader Summit. 

Cumulus shut the interview down, and Garner released this statement:

  Nothing Buttigieg said during this interview can be objectively interpreted as overtly political, partisan or objectionable. And yet, a few hours after Blair announced the interviewed, he sent out another update, “I’ve been told that the interview cannot air. … I was very proud that a presidential candidate of any party valued our show to the degree that they would ask to be a guest. Regardless of the outcome, it’s cool to know that the show was on the radar of someone on that level. We must be doing something right. Just to be clear, I would have also enthusiastically welcomed the opportunity to have any candidate, including President Trump, as a guest. It was simply that Mayor Pete showed up, and made the ask.”

The interview was later uploaded to Soundcloud. 

 Music is a major part of Modern Life, and  so journalists are always asking questions, especially as we look to see the more human side of candidates.  Even then, Pete's musical background is still weirder than most. In that round of questioning, Pete said he played the Didgeridoo.

 

Time to get out those Yothu Yindi albums again 

The Buttigieg Musical instrument meme has come up again, getting new breath at the end of October.  Posting Pete Pics with guitars, bass, piano, and harmonica is way cool.

   

Pete knows Music but he knows Lyrics, too.

When asked to describe his approach to politics in April, Mayor Pete said it can be best summed up by the song Everlast's "What its Like".

   

That 1998 song was the solo album from the leader of House Of Pain went to #13.  

Later in the interview, he said he Didn't Want To Miss A Thing and he Truly Madly Deeply wanted to Get Jiggy With It, but if he only ended up with a Semi Charmed Life, then his Heart Will Go On.

Anyway, with that, I probably need to move to some of the other candidates, so watch this space for Part 2.  

I do need to close up the file on the South Bend mayor, and make sure I got in everything I had planned- the Didgeridoo, Lil Nas X, Ben Folds- and so I end with this- the most musical moment of Pete's campaign, which isn't Pete with an instrument, or even him displaying his circa-Y2K musical knowledge.  

It is the very funny Aaron Nemo from the Colbert Show on how to say Buttigieg.