Eric Burdon of the Animals is the latest artist to take issue with Donald Trump using their music without permission for campaign purposes.
On Wednesday, the Animals’ classic “House of the Rising Sun” played over the speakers at a Wilmington, North Carolina airport as Air Force One taxied down the runway en route to an appearance there. Video of the scene with the song’s usage was later disseminated on social media. The 1964 single had also been played at previous Trump rallies.
Burdon responded to Trump’s use of “House of the Rising Sun” in a pointed statement where the singer both criticized the president and threw his support behind the Biden/Harris ticket.
“Even though nobody asked my permission, I wasn’t surprised to learn that #Trump #864511320 used #Houseof theRisingSun for his rally the other day,” Burdon said in a statement. “A tale of sin and misery set in a brothel suits him so perfectly! Far more appropriate for this time in our history might be.”
Burdon added, nodding to another Animals single, “#WeGottaGetOutofThisPlace. This is my answer #vote #saveourdemocracy #bidenharris2020.”
In recent months, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones and the estates of Tom Petty and Leonard Cohen have all decried Trump’s unauthorized use of their music on the campaign trail; most recently, the RNC played a cover of Cohen’s “Hallelujah” during a fireworks display to close out the convention.
“We are surprised and dismayed that the RNC would proceed knowing that the Cohen Estate had specifically declined the RNC’s use request, and their rather brazen attempt to politicize and exploit in such an egregious manner ‘Hallelujah,’ one of the most important songs in the Cohen song catalogue,” said Michelle L. Rice, legal representative of the Cohen Estate.
“Had the RNC requested another song, ‘You Want it Darker,’ for which Leonard won a posthumous Grammy in 2017, we might have considered approval of that song.”
amador9 on September 6th, 2020 at 18:29 UTC »
I always liked the Animals; they never became Mega-stars or anything but they were one of the classier acts of the original British Invasion. In the Mid 1990’s he “resurfaced”, of sorts, doing a tour with Robby Krieger, guitarist of the Doors. The reviews were very good, surprisingly, and it was apparently quite a successfully act.
I hadn’t heard anything about him for years when I was reading a newspaper report ( probably the LA Times) about a fire in Ventura County California. A reporter, checking out the devastation near the Ojai, saw a homeowner checking out the damage to the land surrounding his home that had remained intact. He discussed with the homeowner how lucky he was and how close he came to losing his house, when it came out that the homeowner was none other than Eric Burdon. If he lived in a house in the rural area outside of Ojai, he would appear to be doing pretty well. The area is very beautiful (given a couple of years to recover from the fire) but very expensive. It is two hours or so north of LA. A year ago , he was a headliner at a Blues Festival near my home. The guy still has it.
Philo_T_Farnsworth on September 6th, 2020 at 17:53 UTC »
Isn’t this a traditional song that dates to the 1800s or something though? The Animals wrote a popular version of this song but they didn’t write it originally.
homelessgranddad on September 6th, 2020 at 17:33 UTC »
TIL That Eric Burdon is still alive. Extremely surprised, tbh.