The Rolling Stones have enlisted the music publishing organization BMI to issue a warning to Donald Trump, demanding he cease and desist using their songs at his rallies. It is not the first time they have asked, and it comes on the heels of the Tom Petty Estate issuing a similar demand.
“This could be the last time President Donald Trump uses Stones songs,” a statement cheekily began, as reported in Variety. The statement continued, “BMI [has] notified the Trump campaign on behalf of the Stones that the unauthorized use of their songs will constitute a breach of its licensing agreement. If Donald Trump disregards the exclusion and persists, then he would face a lawsuit for breaking the embargo and playing music that has not been licensed.”
BMI’s executive director of corporate communications Jodie Thomas explained how there is a lot of gray area with blanket licensing at venues like Tulsa’s BOK Center, where the Trump campaign used Petty’s “I Won’t Back Down” and the Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”
She said that BMI’s Political Entities or Organizations License “clearly states that a campaign cannot rely on a venue license to authorize its performance of an excluded work. Therefore, a political campaign cannot and should not try to circumvent BMI’s withdrawal of musical works under its Political Entities License by attempting to rely on another license.”
Trump has used “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” for years, which is a fundamentally baffling pick. Its very title connotes a deflated acceptance of disappointment, a truly bizarre sentiment to bestow upon voters who have yet to actually make their selection. Also, lines in the song sympathize with demonstrators getting abused, and there are connotations of drug purchases. (Marianne Faithful believes she partially inspired the song when during her drug addicted days.)
The Rolling Stones published a licensed lyric video for the song last year to YouTube.
Other artists or estates who have requested the Trump campaign stop using their songs include Rihanna, Neil Young, Elton John, Adele, Guns N Roses, Pharrell, Queen, Prince, Aerosmith, and Earth, Wind & Fire.
Ronald Reagan famously appropriated the lyrics to Bruce Springsteen‘s “Born in the U.S.A.” without realizing it was a protest song in 1984. “I felt it was another manipulation, and I had to disassociate myself from the president’s kind words,” The Boss told Kurt Loder at the time.
In 1992, Bill Clinton was the first presidential candidate to successfully use “classic rock” on the campaign trail, selecting Fleetwood Mac’s “Don’t Stop” as his unofficial anthem. The perennially arguing classic lineup of the band reunited for the first time in a decade at his inauguration in early 1993.
Rolling Stone has collected 35 instances of artists telling politicians to quit it, from the aforementioned Springsteen-Reagan incident to today. (Most, but not all, are against Republicans.)
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