Thursday, May 5, 2016

Trump unplugged?

A letter written by Johann Sebastian Bach in 1741 was discovered this week in Germany. The letter has now been authenticated by handwriting experts and is making an incredible impact on musical decisions in today's political scene.

The famous composer had written that he "prays no man who would be king or president of any nation on earth, play his music at their 'Wahlveranstaltungen' (campaign rallies). He wrote that doing so would give the candidate an "unfair advantage" (unfairer Vorteil) over his adversary and may not reflect the candidate of choice by Bach.

The Rolling Stones released a statement, written in Cockney on Wednesday, to presidential nominee, Donald Trump, saying that they have not given permission for Trump to play their music at his campaign rallies. 

The aging rock and rollers "have requested that they cease all use immediately," except in cases whereby Mr. Trump desires to buy their music privately or purchase multiple albums as 'gifts' for his myriad friends. (They did not actually use the word 'myriad,' as the word is not part of their collective vocabulary.) 

They also ask that Mr. Trump immediately desist from "humming" the tune "Start Me Up" in elevators.

But like the old saying goes, "You can't always get what you want."

Other singers have asked the Trump campaign to stop using their songs to fire up crowds. Aerosmith, Adele and Steven Tyler, for example.

However, political campaigns do not need permission from artists to play their songs at rallies if the organization has obtained a blanket license from the performing rights organizations ASCAP or BMI for all the music in the repertoire of the licensing group.

Artists have the right to exclude songs that they don't want used in the licensing provision they make with BMI, for example. Evidently, they did not do so when they first recorded the songs being used.

They simply can't get no satisfaction, which, if you think about it, is a double-negative and poor grammar.

Poor Johann must be rolling in his grave.


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