Jackson Brown vs The Straight Talker

In a campaign that, unsurprisingly, gets stranger and nastier daily (viz: Bruce's post Yes, Today's Republicans Are Like This), yesterday brought the fun news that Jackson Brown is suing John McCain for using one of his best songs, Running On Empty, in a commercial. Rolling Stone's Rock&/Roll Daily had the story in a brief blurb here, and Sam Stein had a longer story on The Huffington Post here. Anyone who knows Jackson Brown knows he's not likely to be an endorser of McCain, his campaign, or any of his policies, and I can't blame him for being pissed at having this piece used, no matter how briefly, in a Republican campaign ad. Brown, a lifelong liberal Democrat, was one of the founders of MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy), a group that sponsored a series of No Nukes concerts after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in March 1979.

News blurbs are one thing, but Jackson Brown himself is another. What the hell, it's the beginning of the weekend, so here's a video, from the 1980 film documenting one of the Madison Square Garden performances, of Brown performing the song (with Bob Glaub, Russ Kunkel, and David Lindley). Think of John McCain rocking out at a No Nukes concert as you watch the video.



Technorati Tags: Jackson Brown, John McCain, lawsuit, MUSE, rock n roll, Runnin on Empty,

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