Jump to content

Ronald Reagan in music

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Narky Blert (talk | contribs) at 18:34, 19 July 2017 (3x links to DAB pages repaired. DN tag). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Ronald Reagan in music refers to songs, albums, music videos, and band names that reference or depict Ronald Wilson Reagan, particularly during his two terms as president of the United States. While references to Reagan appear in pop music, his presence in song lyrics and on album covers is often associated with the hardcore punk counter-culture of the 1980s.[1]

The 1980s' surge in political songs about a current president marked a shift in the culture and helped define the soundscape of the decade, partly fueled by Reagan's attack on things associated with rock-and-roll, namely sex, drugs, and left-leaning politics.[2] While presidents Johnson and Nixon had been the subject of protest songs and politically satirical music during both the Vietnam War and Watergate scandal, presidents Ford and Carter were largely passed over by songwriters in the 1970s.[2] That changed with Reagan's presidency, which brought on echoes of his prior campaign against counter-cultural activists a generation earlier during his terms as governor of California.[3][4]

Pre-presidency

Ronald Reagan became a subject in song during the era of protests against the Vietnam War while he served as governor of California (1967–1975). Folk singer Phil Ochs mentions Reagan on his 1966 album Phil Ochs in Concert during the introduction to the song "Ringing of Revolution" when he speculates a future where the last of the bourgeoisie are besieged in a mansion atop a hill. Ochs imagines a movie based on his own song:

It stars Senator Carl Hayden as Ho Chi Minh,
Frank Sinatra plays Fidel Castro,
Ronald Reagan plays George Murphy
and John Wayne plays Lyndon Johnson.
And Lyndon Johnson plays God.[5]

Ochs' satire highlights the permeable line between actors and politicians by poking fun at Reagan for following in George Murphy's footsteps: Murphy, like Reagan, had been a movie actor and became president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), then went on to be a Republican U.S. Senator for the state of California.[6] Reagan had succeeded Murphy as SAG president where he worked as an informant for the FBI during the Hollywood blacklist period. Two decades later, Reagan also ran for office and became California's governor.[7]

Tom Lehrer made a similar comparison in his song "George Murphy," which opens, "Hollywood's often tried to mix show-business with politics, from Helen Gahagan to Ronald Reagan."[8] In his live version on the album That Was the Year That Was (1965), Lehrer raises inflection on Reagan's name, as if he cannot believe Reagan's entry into the political realm, the future governor's prior political participation having been limited to political committees and speeches such as those given in support of Barry Goldwater.[9]

In 1969 Creedence Clearwater Revival mention Reagan in their science fiction-inspired song "It Came Out of the Sky" in which a flying saucer landing in the US Midwest evolves into a commercial and political fiasco.[10] The lyrics imagine how different sectors of society would respond, with Hollywood turning the event into an epic film, The Vatican declaring it as a Second Coming, then-vice president Spiro Agnew proposing a tax on the planet Mars, and Governor Reagan warning of a communist plot.[11] Singer John Fogerty wrote about his inspiration for the song's spectacle and its Reagan reference in his 2015 memoir, saying, "Walter Cronkite and Eric Sevareid are in there, big newscasters at the time. And Ronald Reagan—I call him Ronnie the Popular."[10]

In 1970 Jefferson Starship referred to Reagan's policies and attitudes as governor in the song "Mau Mau (Amerikon)" on their debut album Blows Against the Empire. In the song vocalist Paul Kantner recants, "the dogs of a grade-B movie star governor's war"[12] in reference to the previous year's actions taken against students at the University of California, Berkeley to create a People's Park as part of the political counterculture of the 1960s.[13][14][15][16] Governor Reagan's Chief of Staff, Edwin Meese, ordered the Alameda County Sheriff to fire upon the crowds with buckshot, resulting in the death of one student and the hospitalization of 128 others.[17][18] These directives had come from Reagan himself, who had been publicly critical of UC Berkeley administrators for tolerating student demonstrations.[3] In his 1966 gubernatorial campaign he had promised to crack down on what he called "a haven for communist sympathizers, protesters, and sex deviants" on the Berkeley campus.[3][4] In their song, Jefferson Starship countered Reagan's prudishness with the line, "We'll ball in your parks."[19]

Reagan's impact on music during his presidency

After Reagan's election as U.S. president in 1980, many pop music artists responded in their song lyrics.

1981's "(We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang" by British synthpoppers Heaven 17 slammed UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher along with Reagan, denouncing the leaders' policies as tending toward racism and fascism.[20] The song was banned by the BBC over concerns of libel.[21]

That same year Prince released the album Controversy, including the song "Ronnie, Talk to Russia," a "hastily blurted plea to Reagan to seek disarmament"[22] in which Prince pleads with the president not to blow up the world.[2] On the same record, the song "Annie Christian" envisions an angel of death responsible for the recent violent events, including John Hinckley's attempt on Reagan's life, the murder of John Lennon, and the deaths of several children in Atlanta, Georgia.[23]

Blues musicians also sang about Reagan. Vietnam and Korean War veteran Louisiana Red recorded “Reagan Is For The Rich Man” backed by harmonica player Carey Bell in 1983. Red wrote the track after having been denied benefits, and expresses preference for Regan's cowboy movies over his politics.[24]

In 1984 John Fogerty alluded to Reagan for his single "The Old Man Down the Road."[25][26] That same year the group Frankie Goes to Hollywood traced Reagan's career to an imagined future when Jesus Christ would return only after a nuclear apocalypse in their song "Two Tribes". Chris Barrie, who voiced Reagan on the TV show Spitting Image, played the president on the track, quoting the song "American Pie" and parts of an Adolf Hitler speech as Reagan.[27]

Also in 1984 Eagles drummer Don Henley released the single "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" in protest against the U.S. involvement with the Contras in Nicaragua (well before Henley's sang the line "this tired old man that we elected king" as a parting shot at Reagan as he was leaving office in 1989's "The End of the Innocence").[28] Henley chastised Americans for wanting to dance while sales of guns and drugs were going on at the behest of the CIA.[29][30] Among the year's other songs protesting America's role in the Iran-Contra affair were "Nicaragua" by Bruce Cockburn, "Lives in the Balance" by Jackson Browne. "Please Forgive Us" by 10,000 Maniacs, and "Untitled Song for Latin America" by Minutemen.[30]

When Britain's ITV network launched the satirical puppet show Spitting Image in 1984, the first record released in relation to the show was a rework of the Crystals' "Da Doo Ron Ron".[31] The Spitting Image version, "Da Do Run Ron," was a spoof election campaign song for Ronald Reagan, featuring Nancy Reagan listing reasons why he should be re-elected. The cover featured the puppet versions of the Reagans that appeared on the show and later starred in the 1986 video for "Land of Confusion" by British band Genesis.[32]

On the heels of 1984's presidential campaign, the rock group Supertramp featured spoken voice-overs from both Reagan and Bush on the right audio channel and their Democratic opponents Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro on the left audio channel durning the fade-out for their song "Better Days."[33] The song's video reviews the 20th century through a retrospective montage of its hardships and the leaders who promised solution. Beginning with the Great Depression and the rise of the Third Reich, the video sequences clips of military parades and battles moving forward to atomic test and other advancements in weapons technology, to footage of President Nixon, and then Reagan as his voice can be heard saying, "Our nation is poised...for greatness."[34] In a similar vein, the last minute of Def Leppard's "God's of War" is layered with soundbites of Reagan, Thatcher and the noises of missile launches and bombs exploding. In a departure from Cold War rhetoric, the two leaders' quotes are lifted from their stated justification for the 1986 United States bombing of Libya Britain's participation in allowing American military to use the U.K. as a home base from which to launch its aircraft.[35] Reagan's quotes serve as precursory marks to the War of Terror that the U.S. would lead against majority Muslim countries in the following decades.[36] He can be heard on the track saying, "A message to terrorists everywhere. You can run...but you can't hide," and, "We are not going to tolerate these attacks from outlaw states", ending with, "They counted on America to be passive...They counted wrong," in contrast to Def Leppard's anti-war lyrics.[34]

In 1985 former Police frontman Sting released "Russians", with lyrics leveled at Reagan, the Soviets, and both countries' pro-nuclear rhetoric, all set to Sergei Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kije Suite.[37] Milwaukee folk-rockers The Violent Femmes imagined the president as "Old Mother Reagan," a dangerously senile grandmother who tries in vain to enter heaven in one of the group's most fiercely political songs.[38] The same year jam band Phish made their own overt case against the president, sung as a letter to the first lady.[2] Originally titled "Memo to Ronnie Reagan", the song "Dear Mrs. Reagan" mimics Bob Dylan's protest music of the 1960s but rails against Mrs. Reagan's Just Say No anti-drug campaign. The band continued to perform it until Reagan left office in January 1989.[39]

1985 also saw the release of Dog Eat Dog, Joni Mitchell's synth-driven album co-produced by Thomas Dolby.[40] The album's songs capture the headlines of the 1980s, including South Africa's apartheid and Ethiopia's famine, while critiquing the rise of mass consumerism and televangelists. Mitchell saw the rise of the religious right as a dangerous and manipulative force on American politics and likened Reagan to a puppet being manipulated by powerful religious leaders. Mitchell told The Guardian:

Reagan feels that Armageddon is inevitable and it's dangerous when you have a President who thinks that way since he's the one who can call for the pushing of the button. He sees himself in his personal drama, I think, increasingly as a religious leader and he has public lunches with some of these very powerful evangelists, Pat Robertson and The 700 Club for instance. In other words, you have the church stroking Reagan and saying "Yes, yes, aren't they saying nasty things about you, they must be communists. Therefore they threaten both you and me. Don't you think we should silence these communists from speaking?"[41]

In 1987 INXS highlighted Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative in their similarly named song "Guns in the Sky", and R.E.M. likened Reagan to former senator Joe McCarthy.[42]

U2's 1987 song "Bullet the Blue Sky" from The Joshua Tree was inspired after lead vocalist Bono visited El Salvador during the Salvadoran Civil War and witnessed how the conflict between rebels and the US-backed government affected local civilians.[43] During a spoken word passage of the song, he speaks of being approached by a man, "his face red like a rose on a thorn bush, like all the colors of a royal flush, and he's peeling off those dollar bills, slapping them down, 100, 200". Bono said the person he had in mind while writing these lyrics was Reagan, whose administration backed the military regimes in Central and South America that Bono encountered on his trip.[44]

Frank Zappa was an outspoken critic of the Reagan presidency and what he saw as a pandering to the religious right wing. During a televised debate on CNN's Crossfire, Zappa said, "The biggest threat to America today is not communism, it's moving America toward a fascist theocracy. And everything that's happened during the Reagan administration is steering us right down that pipe."[45] Several songs on Zappa's 1988 album Broadway the Hard Way ridicule Reagan,[46] notably "Promiscuous," which jabs at the Reagans' attempts to remove sex education from public schools and replace it with abstinence-only propaganda as well as his slow response to the AIDS pandemic.[47]

On his 1989 album, Big Daddy, John Mellencamp's song "Country Gentleman" is "a scathing indictment on Ronald Reagan." Written and recorded during Reagan's final year in office, the song's last line thanks God that "he went back to California."[48] Other pop artists to take potshots at president Reagan included Midnight Oil and Skinny Puppy.[49]

Punk rock

In the 1970s, punk rock emerged as an antithesis to establishment, authority, and the status quo, and by 1980, president-elect Reagan became a prime pariah for punks to rally against in both the United States and abroad.[1] The widespread appearance of Reagan as a vilified icon in punk music particularly can be linked to the do-it-yourself model of bands releasing their own records and not being subject to the censorship of major labels, commercial radio stations, or MTV.[2] Reagan's rise to power also coincided with the arrival of a new subgenre: hardcore punk. Many hardcore bands put Reagan's face on flyers, T-shirts, and album covers, plus peppered lyrics, song names, and album titles with the president's various monikers, including "Reagan," "Ronnie," "Bonzo," and "The Gipper."[50] Some groups even named themselves after the president or events related to him, the first being the anarcho-punk band Reagan Youth who formed in Queens, New York in 1980 as a tongue-in-cheek reference to the Hitler Youth.[51] The band's theme song was sung in satire as if by a cadre of neo-fascist youth, shouting, "Reagan Youth—Sieg Heil!"[52]

In 1981 San Francisco-based record label Alternative Tentacles featured Reagan on the cover of the compilation album, Let Them Eat Jellybeans!, whose title refers to Reagan's favorite candy.[53] The label was run by Dead Kennedys singer Jello Biafra whose band made a career out of mentioning Reagan in songs like "Moral Majority," "We've Got a Bigger Problem Now," "Bleed for Me," and "Dear Abby."[54]

In April 1981, 19 days after the attempted assassination of Reagan by John Hinckley, Jr., a skate punk group from Phoenix, Arizona named themselves JFA, short for "Jodie Foster's Army."[55] Foster had been the target of an obsession Hinckley had developed since seeing her portrayal of a teen sex worker in the 1976 Martin Scorsese film Taxi Driver. Hinckley eventually attempted to kill the president as a means to impress the actress.[56] The band's moniker, and a song that shared its name, was a half-joking tribute in solidarity with Hinckley because Reagan was such a hated figure in the 1980s punk rock scene.[57]

JFA's label-mates, the Sun City Girls, released an entire Reagan-themed album in 1987 whose title, Horse Cock Phepner, was an alleged nickname for Ronald Reagan.[58] The album was the band's most lyrical; an obsenity-laden "documentation of the American nightmare in all its incestuous beauty."[59] The album's refraining spoken word track "Voice of America" makes mention of the president, and the album's song "Nancy" depicts then-First Lady Nancy Reagan as a sexual fetishist. Other songs deride members of the Reagan administration, including Attorney General Edwin Meese, and the band recorded an updated cover version of The Fugs song "CIA Man" to be about atrocities committed by the Central Intelligence Agency during Reagan's reign.[58] In a 1999 interview, the Sun City Girls' guitarist Rick Bishop said:

Other bands during that part of the '80's, both major and not-so-major acts, were really getting on the political bandwagon for one stupid reason or another. They were all so fucking serious, trying to be a voice for a generation or some shit like that, but worst of all they remained within the parameters of social acceptability. There was also a big censorship flap going on at the time. We looked at it as a chance to catch up with our obscenity quota.[59]

Other notable punk bands that sang about Reagan included Black Flag, The Ramones, The Clash, The Damned, The Exploited, NOFX, Suicidal Tendencies,[60] Wasted Youth, T.S.O.L., Government Issue,[49] Dayglo Abortions, D.O.A.,[60] The Fartz, The Minutemen, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles,[52] MDC, Spermbirds,[61] and The Crucifucks. Many of these groups, along with the Dead Kennedys, organized a series of "Rock Against Reagan" concerts and tours to infuse awareness of then-current politics into the punk subculture.[62][63]

Some hardcore punk bands made a conscious decision to avoid putting Reagan in their lyrics. In wanting his music to outlast the administration, Washington, D.C. musician Ian MacKaye, who was in the bands Minor Threat, Embrace, Pailhead, and Fugazi during the Reagan years, has said, "I remember clearly resisting the urge to put the word 'Reagan' in any of the songs."[50] In the late 1980s American skinheads spearheaded a patriotic right-wing faction within the New York hardcore scene,[64] and although bands like Agnostic Front and Cro Mags did not reference the president directly in their lyrics, their support of Reagan fell within their interpretation of quasi-fascist backlash that reimagined hardcore without the antiestablishment ethos of punk rock.[60] Some groups' stances on the president were a bit more ambiguous. When the drunk-rock group Murphy's Law praised Reagan and his films in their 1986 song "California Pipeline," fans could take it as either actual pro-Republican patriotism, or a tongue-in-cheek take on anti-Reagan irony that had grown so commonplace in American hardcore that the joke was no longer on the president, but on a punk scene where bands were practically obliged to put a Reagan song on their setlist or album.[65]

Hip-hop and sampling

As hip-hop came of age during the 1980s, many rappers inserted Reagan into their lyrics. Proto-rapper Gil Scott-Heron made Reagan the subject of his 1981 song "B-movie"[66] as well as his 1984 single "Re-Ron" focusing on Reagan's re-election campaign.[67]

Sound collage group Negativland first sampled Reagan on their 1981 album Points on the instrumental track "The Answer Is", where the music interrupted by the president stuttering, "The problem isn't being poor, the problem is, uh ... the answer is ..." [68] The art rock band 3 Teens Kill 4 sampled Reagan and anecdotes about him in their 1984 song "Tell Me Something Good". In 1985 P-Funk bassist Bootsy Collins and Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads teamed up as Bonzo Goes to Washington (named for Reagan's film Bedtime for Bonzo), and released a single that heavily sampled the president saying, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that outlaws Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes," during a microphone test.[69] German Techno act Moskwa TV sampled the same phrase in the "bombing mix" of their 1985 dance track, "Tekno Talk."[34]

A snippet of Reagan saying "out of control" was looped by DJ Jazzy Jeff, Was (Not Was) and EPMD. The president had originally used the expression in reference to the national debt and appropriated by dance artists to entice their audiences.[70] Industrial dance group Skinny Puppy also used Reagan's voice in their music. Their song "Far Too Frail" puts a spin on the president's prudishness as he's heard saying, "For years some people have argued that this type of pornography is a matter of artistic creativity,"[34][71] and in "State Aid" Reagan's voice is clipped to create a stammering effect that reflected his reluctance to address the AIDS crisis.[72]

Afrika Bambaataa and John Lydon used the same sample in their 1984 video for "World Destruction" performing under the name Time Zone. The single's B-side also sampled Walter Mondale talking about Reagan.[73]

An entire musical revue was penned by cartoonist Garry Trudeau and Elizabeth Swados, featuring the song "Rap Master Ronnie", accredited to Reathel Bean & The Doonesbury Break Crew. Hollywood actor Reathel Bean was the main performer in the revue and in 1984 the group released a 12" single featuring three versions of the song.[74] There was also an accompanying video where Reagan and his posse of Secret Service agents go to a black DC neighborhood to rap for minority votes.[75]

Other 80s rap songs mentioning or referencing Reagan include Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five's "The Message" (1982),[2] Project Future's one-off "Ray-Gun-Omics" (1983), Ice-T's "Squeeze the Trigger" (1987),[76] Biz Markie's "Nobody Beats the Biz" (1988),[76] Boogie Down Productions' "Stop the Violence" (1988),[76] and Public Enemy's "Rebel Without A Pause" (1988).[77]

Reggae and African music

The Kansas City's Grammy-nominated Blue Riddim Band, recorded the satirical track "Nancy Reagan" in 1982 about the President and his wife's misguided priorities. The song was later versioned by Ranking Roger in 1985 and by Big Youth in 2011.[78] Fela Kuti featured demonic caricatures of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and other world leaders on the cover of his 1989 album Beasts of No Nation and mentioned them in the lyrics.[79]

Music videos

In 1984 Randall Jahnson directed a video for the Minutemen song "This Ain't No Picnic".[80] Shot for $450, the video intersperses shots of the Minutemen playing the song on a barren landscape with World War II propaganda footage of Reagan in an American Spitfire fighter plane, edited to appear as though Reagan was strafing the band with the aircraft's machine guns.[81] The video was one of the first by an indie band to be played on MTV and was in the running on the network's first Video Music Awards in 1985.[82]

That same year Frank Zappa created a music video for his racially charged song "You Are What You Is." Though a somewhat conventionally produced video by Zappa standards, MTV blacklisted it because it depicted an actor made up to look like Ronald Reagan playing the harmonica and applying hair cream while sitting in an electric chair.[83][84]

In 1986 Genesis collaborated with the producers of British sketch comedy show Spitting Image on the music video for their song "Land of Confusion."[85] The video opens with a puppet caricatures of Ronald and Nancy Reagan in bed with a chimpanzee parodying Reagan's film Bedtime for Bonzo, and spirals into the president's fever dream[disambiguation needed] featuring Benito Mussolini, Ayatollah Khomeini, Mikhail Gorbachev, Muammar Gaddafi, Richard Nixon, celebrities from American television, and the members of Genesis themselves.[86] Reagan awakens drowning in his own sweat, fumbles for a bedside button labelled "Nurse", but instead presses the one titled "Nuke", setting off a nuclear explosion.[87] The video won Best Concept Music Video at the 30th Annual Grammy Awards[88] and was nominated for by MTV for video of the year. Village Voice critic Robert Christgau ranked the video number one on his year-end "Dean's List," and it made number three on the equivalent list in the paper's annual Pazz & Jop survey of music critics.[89][90]

Post-presidency

Many artists from different genres have continued to make note of Reagan's legacy in their lyrics, including Neil Young, Glenn Frey,[2] Van Dyke Parks, Camper Van Beethoven, Jay-Z, Kendrick Lamar, Killer Mike, and Kanye West.[91] Billy Joel was among the first songwriters to mention Reagan as a former president on his 1989 single, "We Didn't Start the Fire,"[2] and New York City hardcore band Sick Of It All revived their genre's pariah in their 1992 song "We Want the Truth."[92]

Rage Against the Machine's 2001 album Evil Empire takes its title from name Reagan repeatedly used to describe the Soviet Union.[93] Frontman Zack de la Rocha explained:

The title Evil Empire is taken from what Rage Against The Machine see as Ronald Reagan's slander of the Soviet Union in the eighties, which the band feels could just as easily apply to the United States.

— excerpt from interview[94], in Zack de la Rocha

In 2010, television actor Fred Armisen and ex-Scream/Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl paid tribute to their own punk rock roots in the Saturday Night Live sketch, "Crisis of Conformity", a send-up of an 80s hardcore band reuniting to play a wedding 25 years past their heyday.[95] Chicago indie label Drag City later released a Crisis of Conformity single featuring the song :Fist Fight in the Parking Lot" whose opening lines "When Ronald Reagan comes around / He brings the fascists to your town" and subsequent mention of Alexander Haig are a sendup of similar lyrics by the Dead Kennedys and other 80s hardcore groups.[96][97]

In 2012 thrash metal band Municipal Waste formed the spinoff group, Iron Reagan. The band's name pays double tribute to the 1980s with a nod to the group Iron Maiden who enjoyed heavy airplay on MTV during Reagan's presidency.[98]

Record sleeves

Reagan appeared as an actor and spokesperson on spoken word recordings as early as 1958 and was first pictured on album covers in the early 1960s. One notable recording was Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine, a 1961 Cold War propaganda piece sponsored by the American Medical Association. In his speech, Reagan purports that Social Security is a socialist attempt to supplant private savings, and eventually concludes that, "Pretty soon your son won't decide when he's in school, where he will go or what he will do for a living. He will wait for the government to tell him."[99]

The first musical album that Reagan appeared on was Ronald Reagan Recommends Award Winning Music from Hollywood, a promotional item produced by General Electric during Reagan's tenure as their spokesperson from 1953 to 1962.[100] The LP features the General Electric Transcription Orchestra rendering such hits as "Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah," "White Christmas," and "Que Sera, Sera."[101]

During the 1980s, Reagan's likeness appeared on jackets of records by musicians making political statements almost exclusively against the president.[50] These include:

  • Let Them Eat Jellybeans!: 17 Extracts From America's Darker Side, the compilation album released on the Dead Kennedys' Alternative Tentacles label in 1981, featured artwork by Winston Smith of the president in front of an inverted American flag.[102] The album's title morphed Reagan's favorite candy with Marie Antoinette's dismissive "let them eat cake" remark regarding the starving French peasantry of the late 18th century.[80] By 1981 "let them eat jellybeans" had become a catchphrase among those critical of Reagan's attitude toward healthcare and dietary requirements, especially among children and people with little or no income.[103] The album cover and title also inspired an ironic Reagan-era button worn by critics of the president and traded by pin collectors.[104] For the album's 35th anniversary, artist Shepard Fairey made an original print combining the Reagan motif with other emblems of Winston Smith's work with the Dead Kennedys.[105]
  • Reagan's In, the 1981 debut album Wasted Youth from Los Angeles,[106] featured a version of Reagan's face drawn by then-unknown hardcore punk artist Pushead.[107]
  • "Should I Stay or Should I Go", the 1982 hit single by The Clash, featured Reagan on some versions of the picture sleeve, while others depicted a photo of the band.[108]
  • Earth Crisis, the 1984 album by reggae group Steel Pulse, featured drawings of Reagan, Soviet leader Yuri Andropov, Pope John Paul II, and a Klansman, among others.[109]
  • "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg," the Ramones 1985 single, pictured Reagan's controversial visit to a German military cemetery in Bitburg earlier that year.[110] Critics in the U.S., Europe, and Israel decried the presidential visit because among the 2,000 German soldiers buried there were 49 members of the Waffen-SS who had committed genocidal atrocities. The phrase "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg" was coined by protesters in the weeks leading up to Reagan's trip.[111] Before the trip, Reagan ignited more controversy when he expressed his belief that the soldiers buried at Bitburg "were victims, just as surely as the victims in the concentration camps."[112]
  • "Five Minutes," the 1985 single by Bonzo Goes to Washington, the collaboration between Bootsy Collins of P-Funk and Jerry Harrison from Talking Heads, depicts Reagan on the sleeve, looking at his wristwatch.[113]
  • Feed Us A Fetus, the 1986 LP by Canadian thrash band Dayglo Abortions, had a cover illustration depicting a baked fetus being served to Mr. and Mrs. Reagan.[114] Earlier in his political career, Ronald Reagan had signed the Therapeutic Abortion Act six weeks into his first gubernatorial term, bringing California's statewide total of legal abortion procedures from 518 in 1967 to an average of around 100,000 annually throughout his two terms as governor—more than any other state prior to Roe vs. Wade.[115] In 1972 Nancy Reagan make a public statement regarding her husband's decision, saying, "If we accept the right to take life before birth are we so far from making the decision after birth?" She went on to say, "I agree with the California abortion law passed under my husband, however, I believe it has been terribly abused."[116] By the end of the Reagans' first term in the White House, they had changed their position on abortion, and in 1986 the president addressed a joint session of Congress, saying, "Today there is a wound in our national conscience. America will never be whole as long as the right to life granted by our Creator is denied to the unborn."[117] By the 1990s, Nancy Reagan reasserted her public opinion of being "somewhere in the middle" in not supporting abortion while believing in women's right to choose.[118]
  • Beasts of No Nation, the 1989 album by Fela Kuti, critiques state-sanctioned violence in depicting demonic caricatures of Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher, and South African prime minister P. W. Botha, among other world leaders on its cover. Artist Ghariokwu Lemi said of his illustration, "I chose to focus on these three personalities because on the global scene they were responsible for the state of affairs of the world. At that point in time, they represented the axis of repression as they supported and helped to prop up the apartheid regime in South Africa and its beastly human policies.[119]

Ronald Reagan's campaign music

Both in his two terms as governor and during his 1980 run for the presidency, Reagan was introduced with the pop americana standard, "California Here I Come.[120]

During his second run for president, Reagan's campaign advisor, George Will, tried to co-opt Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" for the campaign.[121] Will wrote that if "labor and management, who make steel or cars or shoes or textiles, made their products with as much energy and confidence as Springsteen and his merry band make music, there would be no need for Congress to be thinking about protectionism."[122] A week after Will's writing appeared in a column, Reagan praised Springsteen in a stump speech given in Hammonton, New Jersey. Soon after Reagan's speech, Springsteen expressed discontent with the president and his policies, and "Born in the USA" was dropped from the campaign. Reagan's team then reached out to John Cougar Mellancamp to use his song "Pink Houses" and were turned down.[121][123] The campaign then adopted "God Bless the USA" by Lee Greenwood with the country singer's permission.[120][124]

Bob Dole and then Pat Buchanan also used "Born in the USA" in their respective 1996 and 2000 campaigns, until Springsteen objected.[121]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Hlavaty, Craig. "Ronald Reagan: Biggest Punk Icon Of The '80s". Houston Press. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Segal, David (13 June 2004). "Pop's Reagan Record: Sound & Fury". The Washington Post. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Rosenfeld, Seth (June 9, 2002). "Part 4: The governor's race". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  4. ^ a b Jeffery Kahn (8 June 2004). "Ronald Reagan launched political career using the Berkeley campus as a target". Retrieved 9 October 2014.
  5. ^ Ochs, Phil (1966). ""Ringing of Revolution"". Phil Ochs in Concert. Elektra Records. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help)
  6. ^ Steinberg, Jacques (5 May 1992). "George Murphy, Singer and Actor Who Became Senator, Dies at 89". The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  7. ^ Yager, Edward M. (2006). Ronald Reagan's journey : Democrat to Republican. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-4421-5.
  8. ^ Peretti, Burton W. (2012). The Leading Man: Hollywood and the Presidential Image. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. ISBN 978-0-8135-5405-1.
  9. ^ Armor, John (January 13, 2004). "Doesn't Anyone Remember Tom Lehrer?". Free Republic.
  10. ^ a b Fogerty, John (2015). "9. We're with Ya, John!". Fortunate Son: My Life, My Music. New York: Little Brown. ISBN 9780316244565. "It Came Out Of The Sky" was inspired by two things. As a youngster I read every science fiction book in the El Cerrito library, and I loved all the movies—Invaders from Mars, Them!, It Came from Outer Space.
  11. ^ Kitts, Thomas M. (2015). John Fogerty: An American Son. London: Routledge. p. 100. ISBN 9781317961260.
  12. ^ Milner, M (24 February 2016). "Jefferson Starship: Blows to the Empire | Review". Bearded Gentlemen Music. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  13. ^ Tempest, Rone (December 4, 2006). "It's Still a Batlefield". L. A. Times. Retrieved February 5, 2013.
  14. ^ Meyers, Jessica (2006-09-12). "A Portrait of People's Park". Northgate News Online. Retrieved 2008-03-11.
  15. ^ Wagner, David (May 5, 2008). "Hip-Hop Festival Takes Over People's Park". The Daily Californian.
  16. ^ Gross, Rachel (January 26, 2009). "Residents, Homeless Try to Coexist by People's Park". The Daily Californian.
  17. ^ "Sheriff Frank Madigan". Berkeley Daily Gazette. May 30, 1969.
  18. ^ Smitha, Frank E. "The Sixties and Seventies from Berkeley to Woodstock". Microhistory and World Report. Retrieved July 23, 2008.
  19. ^ Rosamond, Royal (31 October 2016). "We Took Over The World". Rosamond Press. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  20. ^ Clark, Tristan (1 November 2007). Stick this in your memory hole. aduki independent press. p. 38. ISBN 0-9803351-2-4. Retrieved 15 December 2010.
  21. ^ Cloonan, Martin (1996). Banned: Censorship of Popular Music in Britain: 1967–1992. Ashgate Publishing. p. 117. ISBN 1-85742-300-3. Radio 1 remained wary in the political arena and in 1981 its legal department advised Heaven 17 that their hit 'We Don't Need This Fascist Groove Thing' libelled American President Ronald Reagan by calling him a 'fascist'. So the BBC dropped it ...
  22. ^ Holden, Stephen (1982). "Controversy - Rolling Stone". Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone.
  23. ^ Soto, Alfred (27 April 2016). "Such a Pretty Toy: Prince's 'Controversy'". Spin. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  24. ^ Holloway, Kali (29 November 2014). "21 Best '80s Songs Railing Against the Horrible Reagan Era". AlterNet. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  25. ^ Werner, Craig Hansen (2006). A Change is Gonna Come: Music, Race & the Soul of America. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. p. 157.
  26. ^ Pollock, Bruce (2014). The 7500 Most Important Songs for the Rock and Roll Era. Routledge. p. 266.
  27. ^ Wallace, Wyndham (April 14, 2010). "The Quietus | Features | Anniversary | 25 Years On: Frankie Goes To Hollywood's Welcome To The Pleasuredome". The Quietus. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  28. ^ Dursin, Marc (12 August 2014). "25 Years Ago: Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby Team Up for "The End of the Innocence"". Like Totally 80s. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  29. ^ Johns, Andrew L. (2015). A Companion to Ronald Reagan. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-118-60792-3.
  30. ^ a b Cohen, Ronald D.; Kaufman, Will (2015). Singing for Peace: Antiwar Songs in American History. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-317-25209-2.
  31. ^ "45cat - Spitting Image - Da Do Run Ron / Just A Prince Who Can't Say No - Elektra - UK - E 9713". 45cat.com. Retrieved 1 August 2015.
  32. ^ Conze, Eckart; Klimke, Martin; Varon, Jeremy, eds. (2016). Nuclear Threats, Nuclear Fear and the Cold War of the 1980s. Cambridge University Press. p. 109.
  33. ^ Wallace, Wyndham (August 4, 2014). "Absolved! The Quietus Writers' 50 Favourite Guilt-Free Pleasures". The Quietus. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  34. ^ a b c d Cigehn, Peter (March 4, 1997). "The Top 481 Sample Sources". Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  35. ^ Raggett, Ned (September 2, 2012). "25 Years On: Def Leppard's Hysteria Revisited". The Quietus. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  36. ^ Graff, Gary (August 3, 2012). "Def Leppard, 'Hysteria' at 25: Classic Track-By-Track". Billboard. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
  37. ^ Doyle, Jack (30 April 2009). "Sting: "Russians" 1985". Pop History Dig. Retrieved 1 March 2017.
  38. ^ Holden, Stephen (16 September 1985). "Concert: Folk City's 25th Year". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  39. ^ "Dear Mrs. Reagan History - Phish.net". phish.net. Phish. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  40. ^ Ruhlmann, William (2011). "Dog Eat Dog - Joni Mitchell | AllMusic". allmusic.com. Retrieved 19 July 2011.
  41. ^ Sweeting, Adam (14 December 1985). "A song near the end of the world". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  42. ^ Teague, Kipp. "Exhuming McCarthy". R.E.M. Lyric Annotations FAQ. flim.com. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  43. ^ Dalton, Stephen (October 2003). "How the West Was Won". Uncut. No. 77.
  44. ^ Inskeep, Steve (20 March 2017). "U2 On 'The Joshua Tree,' A Lasting Ode To A Divided America". NPR Music. NPR. Retrieved 20 March 2017.
  45. ^ "Frank Zappa's Religion and Political Views". The Hollowverse. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  46. ^ Huey, Steve. "Broadway the Hard Way - Frank Zappa | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  47. ^ Lowe, Kelly Fisher (2007). The Words and Music of Frank Zappa. Lincoln, Neb.: U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-6005-9.
  48. ^ Daly, Sean (7 December 2004). "The Blue In Blue-Collar". The Washington Post. Retrieved 3 February 2017. In 1989 I released a record called 'Big Daddy.' That record sold 4 million copies in the first year. On that record is a song called 'Country Gentleman,' a scathing indictment on Ronald Reagan. The last verse is something like" -- here Mellencamp breaks into song, a private-concert moment that is both thrilling and a bit unnerving -- " 'Country gentleman, there's a bird who flew / High above this nation and preyed upon its weakness / Picked our bones and threw it in a stew / Thank God he went back to California.' You know how much [stuff] I caught for that song? None.'
  49. ^ a b Rettman, Tony (23 May 2016). "Why Ronald Reagan Was the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Punk Rock - VICE". Vice. Retrieved 6 February 2017.
  50. ^ a b c Sanneh, Kelefa (September 22, 2006). "How Hard Was Their Core? Looking Back at Anger". New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  51. ^ Cripple, Paul. "Reagan Youth". Reagan Youth. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  52. ^ a b Shukaitis, Stevphen; Graeber, David; Biddle, Erika (2007). Constituent imagination : militant investigations//collective theorization. Oakland, CA: AK Press. ISBN 978-1-904859-35-2.
  53. ^ "Jelly Belly Jelly Beans and Ronald Reagan". Reagan Library. The United States Government. 2013. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  54. ^ "Three Anti-Reagan Punk Bands From San Francisco". bayareapunk.com. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  55. ^ "JFA," Flip Side Fanzine, whole no. 31 (April 1982), pg. 28.
  56. ^ Douglas O. Linder, "The Trial of John Hinckley: Taxi Driver," University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2002.
  57. ^ Masley, Ed (October 13, 2011). "Jodie Foster's Army will celebrate 30 years of punk in Mesa". Arizona Central. Arizona Republic. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  58. ^ a b Foster, Patrick. "Sun City Girls: Horse Cock Phepner". AllMusic. Retrieved 12 March 2016.
  59. ^ a b Bugnee, Tim (May 1999). "Third Eye Staring Contest: Rick Bishop Interview". www.furious.com. Perfect Sound Forever. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  60. ^ a b c Oslan, Edwin (19 March 2016). "Did Reagan and Thatcher Really Keep Punk Alive?". Savage Hippie. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  61. ^ "Spermbirds: Something To Prove". Ox-Fanzine. No. 128. October–November 2016. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
  62. ^ Perkins, Michael (4 September 1984). "Rock Against Reagan long on punk and short on anti-Reagan sentiment". Deseret News. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  63. ^ Montgomery, Kevin. "Rock Against Reagan in Dolores Park". Uptown Almanac. Retrieved 1 July 2013.
  64. ^ Conoley, Ben (2009). "Interviews: Agnostic Front". Punk News. Retrieved 3 February 2017. Growing up in the 80s in New York City, it was a different place, and there were people who wanted to speak out against discrimination of any kind. Everybody was against Reagan, but there were some [of us] who didn't care for the anti-Americanism and wanted to make the country better and some people twisted that into nationalism on like the extreme, far right side.
  65. ^ Sanneh, Kelefa (March 9, 2015). "United Blood: How hardcore conquered New York". The New Yorker. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  66. ^ Mugge, Robert (1983). Black Wax. {{cite book}}: |format= requires |url= (help)
  67. ^ "Gil Scott-Heron". Soul Walking. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  68. ^ Moraes, Frank (25 April 2016). "Points by Negativland (Morning Music)". Frankly Curious. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  69. ^ Deseret News: Ronald Reagan's 10 Best Quotes
  70. ^ Lynskey, Dorian (25 November 2015). "From Coldplay to Coldcut: when musicians sample politicians". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 July 2017.
  71. ^ Barrick, Michael R. (2012). "This kind of pornography is a matter of artistic creativity". Atratus. Retrieved 11 July 2017.
  72. ^ Cigéhn, Peter. "The Top Sampling Groups List: Skinny Puppy". Internet Archive: Wayback Machine. Archived from the original on October 30, 2004. Retrieved 22 May 2016. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  73. ^ McLeod, Kembrew; Kuenzli, Rudolf (2011). Cutting Across Media: Appropriation Art, Interventionist Collage, and Copyright Law. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-4822-5.
  74. ^ Rich, Frank (4 October 1984). "Stage: Partisan Revue, 'Rap Master Ronnie'". The New York Times. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  75. ^ Carlson, Peter (29 October 1984). "That Familiar Fellow Who Boogies Oh Rap Master Ronnie Isn't Reagan—but He Is Republican – Vol. 22 No. 18". People. Retrieved 1 February 2017.
  76. ^ a b c Ahmed, InsanulAhmed, (February 7, 2011). "The Teflon President: Our 10 Favorite Ronald Reagan Lyrical References". Complex. Retrieved 5 January 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  77. ^ Preezy. "12 Notable Rap Lyrics Aimed at Politicians". The Boombox. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  78. ^ Spacek, Nick (December 21, 2009). "The story of Blue Riddim Band's "Nancy Reagan"". Kansas City Pitch. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  79. ^ Kermeliotis, Teo (September 15, 2015). "Fela Kuti: The stories behind the cover art". CNN. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  80. ^ a b Ruggles, Brock (2008). Not So Quiet on the Western Front: Punk Politics During the Conservative Ascendancy in the United States, 1980--2000. ProQuest. p. 87. ISBN 978-0-549-92930-7.
  81. ^ "Reagan Drops His Bombs on the Minutemen". Los Angeles Times. December 9, 1984.
  82. ^ Blish, Steven (2010). American hardcore a tribal history (2nd ed.). Los Angeles: Feral House. p. 334. ISBN 978-1-932595-98-7.
  83. ^ Whiteley, Sheila; Sklower, Jedediah (2014). Countercultures and popular music. p. 201. ISBN 978-1-4724-2108-1.
  84. ^ Slaven, Neil (2009). Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story Of Frank Zappa. Omnibus Press. ISBN 978-0-85712-043-4.
  85. ^ Hil (11 May 2006). "Spitting Image puppets of Genesis". Spirits Dancing. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  86. ^ Young, Alex (15 October 2010). "Tricks or Treats: Genesis' "Land Of Confusion" & Peter Gabriel's "Sledgehammer"". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  87. ^ Browne, Rembert (4 October 2012). "Rembert Explains the '80s: Genesis, 'Land of Confusion'". Grantland. Retrieved 30 January 2017.
  88. ^ "Grammy Awards – 1987". Archived from the original on 21 September 2005. Retrieved 2006-03-05. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help). About.com.
  89. ^ Christgau, Robert (3 March 1987). "Pazz & Jop 1986: Dean's List". The Village Voice. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  90. ^ Christgau, Robert (3 March 1987). "The 1986 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll". The Village Voice. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  91. ^ Insanul and Pereira, Julian, Ahmed. "The Teflon President: Our 10 Favorite Ronald Reagan Lyrical References". Complex Music. Retrieved 2 July 2013.
  92. ^ Spencer (January 1993). "Heavy Rotation". SPIN Magazine.
  93. ^ Staff report (May 3, 1996). Rage Builds "Evil Empire" MTV
  94. ^ de la Rocha, Zacarías Manuel "Zack" (May 3, 1996). "Rage Builds "Evil Empire"". MTV. MTV.com. Retrieved 7 April 2013. The title "Evil Empire" is taken from what Rage Against The Machine see as Ronald Reagan's slander of the Soviet Union in the eighties, which the band feels could just as easily apply to the United States.
  95. ^ Kinski, Klaus. "Crisis of Conformity Played SNL". Brooklyn Vegan. Retrieved 1 August 2013.
  96. ^ Locker, Melissa (January 24, 2014). "Interview: Fred Armisen On Inspirations For His Saturday Night Live Bands". Time. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  97. ^ Williams, Jonathan Kyle (2016). "Rock against Reagan": The punk movement, cultural hegemony, and Reaganism in the eighties. University of Northern Iowa. pp. 1–2. Retrieved 18 July 2017.
  98. ^ Ali, Reyan (10 December 2013). "Iron Reagan Are a Thrash Metal Blast From the Past". OC Weekly. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  99. ^ Roger Lowenstein (2005-01-16). "A Question of Numbers". The New York Times.
  100. ^ Reagan, Michael (4 February 2011). "Ronald Reagan's Son Remembers The Day When GE Fired His Dad". Investor's Business Daily. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  101. ^ People Staff (6 October 1980). "Chatter – Vol. 14 No. 14". People Magazine. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  102. ^ Perez, Ruby (April 27, 2012). "Enter the Studio of Winston Smith, Artist Who Worked With Dead Kennedys, Green Day". SF Weekly. San Francisco Weekly. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  103. ^ Schanberg, Sydney H. (8 September 1981). "New York: Let 'Em Eat Jellybeans". The New York Times. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  104. ^ "Lot Detail - Reagan Let Them Eat Jellybeans". Anderson Auction. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  105. ^ Fairey, Shepard (1 September 2016). "Alternative Tentacles: Let Them Eat Jelly Beans 35th Anniversary - Obey Giant". Obey Giant. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  106. ^ Henderson, Alex. "Reagan's In - Wasted Youth | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  107. ^ Crocker, Chris (1993). Metallica : the frayed ends of metal (1st ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-08635-0.
  108. ^ Miller, Chuck (2011). "Picture Sleeves". Warman's American Records. Krause Publications. ISBN 1-4402-2821-3.
  109. ^ "Steel Pulse". Roots Reggae Library. 2014. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  110. ^ Weinraub, Bernard (May 6, 1985). "Reagan Joins Kohl in Brief Memorial at Bitburg Graves". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-01-22.
  111. ^ Franklin, Ben A. (April 23, 1985). "250 Are Arrested Near White House". New York Times. p. A20.
  112. ^ Jensen, Richard J. (2007). Reagan at Bergen-Belsen and Bitburg. Texas A&M University Press. p. 62. ISBN 978-1-58544-625-4.
  113. ^ Bowman, Dave (2001). fa fa fa fa fa fa: The Adventures of Talking Heads in the 20th Century. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 0-7475-4586-3.
  114. ^ Van Horn, Jr., Ray (9 July 2016). "Armageddon Survival Guide: Dayglo Abortions". Blabbermouth. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  115. ^ Novielli, Carole (April 16, 2016). "Reflection: Nancy Reagan's complicated views on abortion". Live Action News. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  116. ^ "Nancy Reagan Opposes Abortion". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. February 28, 1972.
  117. ^ Schweizer, Peter (2005). The Reagan presidency : assessing the man and his legacy. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-3415-5.
  118. ^ Cass, Connie (September 22, 1994). "Former First Ladies Back Abortion Rights: Nancy Reagan and Barabara Bush offer personal views". Lawrence Journal-World. Associated Press.
  119. ^ Shields, Derica (10 April 2013). "Ghariokwu Lemi, the artist who drew Margaret Thatcher with horns & fangs". OkayAfrica. Retrieved 31 January 2017.
  120. ^ a b Anthony, Carl. "A Reagan Country Song & California Classic by ABBA: His 1980 & 1984 Campaign Music". Carl Anthony Online. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  121. ^ a b c Chao, Eveline (July 8, 2015). "35 Musicians Who Told Politicians to Stop Using Their Songs". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  122. ^ Strain, Michael R. "George Will on the Boss, Thirty Years Ago". The National Review. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  123. ^ White, Timothy (27 September 1987). "John Cougar Mellencamp; Rebel With A Cause". The New York Times. Retrieved 3 February 2017. I made it clear from day one that he just had to forget it, Mellencamp said at the time. I couldn't bear gettin' involved that way with any politician, least of all Reagan, and corrupt what is essentially a basic, humble dream of contentment he can't even understand.
  124. ^ Dolan, Marc. "How Ronald Reagan Changed Bruce Springsteen's Politics". Politico.com. Politico LLC. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ronald_Reagan_in_music&oldid=791356708"