Michael Pugliese (who holds out for Al Bore liking, "Desolation Row, " by Mr. Zimmerman. ("At midnight all the agents, and their super-human crew, come out and round up everyone that knows more than they do...)
Gore, Dylan, Bush, Everly Brothers Converge On Campaign Trail Staff Writer Christopher O'Connor reports
Before he enlisted in the Army and went to Vietnam, Vice President Al Gore memorized the lyrics to Bob Dylan's anti-war song "Masters of War."
Texas Gov. George W. Bush is a sucker for the Everly Brothers.
The two men are considered the front-runners in what may be the first all–rock 'n' roll presidential race — a race that moves into high gear Tuesday (Feb.1) with the New Hampshire primary. The candidates vying to be the 43rd president of the United States have varying musical tastes, but all are from a rock generation. The oldest major candidate, 62-year-old Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., was still a teenager when Elvis Presley burst into the national consciousness in the 1950s.
Gore, who has served two terms with President Clinton, has eclectic tastes, according to one of his aides. He counts 19th-century Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock, country singer Garth Brooks and soul-jazz pianist and singer Ray Charles among his favorites.
He found himself attracted to Dylan's protest song "Masters of War" when, as the son of Tennessee Sen. Albert Gore Sr., he volunteered for the Army in 1969 and worked as a journalist during the Vietnam War, said the aide, who asked not be identified.
Song Of The Times
"Masters of War," from the 1963 album The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan, includes such accusatory lyrics as: "You hide in your mansion/ As young people's blood/ Flows out of their bodies/ And is buried in the mud."
"It reflected some of the angst he was going through at the time," the aide said.
Years later, on Jan. 12, 1991, Gore was one of only 10 Democrats (out of 55) who voted in favor of going to war in the Persian Gulf.
His opponent in the Democratic primary, former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, voted against using U.S. force in the gulf. Bradley was one of two major candidates whose office did not return calls for this story; the other was Republican Steve Forbes.
Bush, the Republican son of former President George Bush, is a country-music fan, according to Brian Jones, a spokesperson for his campaign. Country singers the Bellamy Brothers played a Bush rally Saturday in Milford, N.J.; snow kept the candidate's original choice, Travis Tritt, in Atlanta.
Texas' favorite son also likes Irish rock singer/songwriter Van Morrison. And he holds a special place in his heart for the Everly Brothers, the influential rock harmony duo whose '50s and '60s hits included "Bye Bye Love," "Wake Up Little Susie" and "Cathy's Clown."
"That's his favorite music group of all time," Jones said.
'60s Classics, '90s Moshers
The men chasing Gore and Bush have a knack for rock 'n' roll, too.
McCain, a former Navy pilot and Vietnam prisoner of war who paints himself as a conservative maverick, listens mostly to classic rock from the '50s and '60s, according to his office.
Gary Bauer, a Republican social activist and former policy adviser to President Reagan, is a fan of the late Roy Orbison, the rock crooner behind "Oh, Pretty Woman" (RealAudio excerpt) and "Only the Lonely."
But Bauer is more known for the music he doesn't like. He announced he was running for president the day after the April 20 ambush at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in which 15 people died, including the two teen gunmen.
"One of the things he's focused on is the creation of a blackness in [killers] Eric [Harris] and Dylan [Klebold]'s hearts that was fostered possibly by watching [the Oliver Stone movie] 'Natural Born Killers' ... or by poisonous lyrics of hate rock that [police] found in their rooms," Bauer spokesperson Matt Smith said.
Police in Littleton said they found references to the band KMFDM on Harris' Web site. They also confiscated CDs from Harris' and Klebold's rooms.
Laying Blame
During a debate in New Hampshire last Tuesday, Bauer singled out the hard-rock band Rage Against the Machine as a group Harris and Klebold might have been listening to.
"It's the kind of music that the killers at Columbine High school were immersed in," he said in an attack aimed at fellow candidate Alan Keyes, who jumped from a stage and moshed during a campaign rally in Iowa the previous weekend while a Rage Against the Machine song played.
"I was a little surprised to see you fall into a mosh pit while a band called the Machine Rages On or Rage Against the Machine played,'' Bauer was quoted as saying by Reuters.
Keyes spokesperson Tom Hoefling said the candidate dove into a mosh pit Jan. 23 at the Val Air Ballroom in Des Moines. Director and satirist Michael Moore had set up the pit as a challenge: The Associated Press reported that he promised to endorse the first candidate who would mosh.
"Ambassador Keyes wasn't paying attention to the music," Hoefling said.
Keyes, a former U.N. ambassador, is a fan of Christian rock, according to spokesperson George Cecala. A rally for him Monday in Nashua, N.H., was to feature a performance by the current incarnation of doo-wop hitmakers the Drifters.
At least one candidate, Gore, has a rock 'n' roll wife. Tipper Gore played drums while in high school for a band called the Wildcats, and she's the drummer on "When the Ball Drops," a new song by Diva Zappa, daughter of the late rocker/satirist Frank Zappa.
But Tipper Gore also has a reputation as an enemy of rock. She was a founder of the Parents Music Resource Center, which, alarmed by the music of singers and bands including Prince and heavy-metal's W.A.S.P., persuaded the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation committee to hold hearings on regulating rock and rap lyrics. The group argued for parental-warning stickers on albums with explicit lyrics.
One of the most vocal witnesses against the PMRC's proposals was Frank Zappa.