Bass players of a Republican bent in the American primaries are thrilled there is someone to vote for in Mike Huckabee, the evangelical who last week won the Iowa Caucus (although tomorrow's primary in New Hampshire may find him out). As Le Monde put it: 'The guitar is a fundamental element of his strategy. It permits him to reassure those who would never imagine voting for a Baptist from the Bible Belt.'
A bassist writes to Andrew Sullivan's influential political blog (Sullivan himself is sceptical):
'Bass players everywhere finally find their candidate, and you're going to deny us this? We knew Sid Vicious and Sting were foreign-born, and that Dee Dee Ramone was unelectable; Geddy Lee was terrible on the stump and Krist Novoselic was a one-issue pony on Bosnia. 'But with Huckabee, finally an electable bass player. You and the MSM are conspiring to get this wrong and rob us of our time.' (For non-rock fans: Geddy Lee was the bassist and singer for Rush, Novoselic was Nirvana's bassist.)
Huckabee appeared playing bass on Jay Leno's Tonight Show last week, and has been wielding his bass in New Hampshire. Guesting with a group called Mama Kicks, the idea was to draw a contrast with his buttoned-down rival Mitt Romney, a party establishment figure if there ever was one. Here's Huckabee again with his own band Capitol Offense last year, playing the Steppenwolf classic 'Born to be Wild'. A reminder that rock music was always potentially a right-wing celebration of small business entrepreneurialism and individualism. Of course, the notion of rockin' politicos isn't exactly new. Here's Bill Clinton playing sax at the Newport Jazz Festival's 40th anniversary party at the White House and at Oxford Tony Blair was in the band Ugly Rumours. The King Of Thailand also plays sax and apparently Idi Amin was no slouch at the accordion. (I once got into a semi-serious discussion with a record company to compile an album to be called Bleed The World featuring politicians playing music.) With Tony Blair - and to a lesser extent Clinton - there was always a sense that here was a pop star manqué, not quite hip enough to make it. As they used to say 'politics is showbusiness for ugly people'. The tendency among politicians has been to associate themselves with musicians to give them added cred. Blair invited Oasis and pals to Number 10. A couple of weeks ago the new Liberal Democrat leader invited Brian Eno, at the advanced age of 59, to be his youth advisor. What is new, perhaps, is that the new Democratic frontrunner, Barack Obama, is attracting rock star-like audience reactions. Maybe for the first time, the likes of Bono and Chris Martin would actually gain cred from being associated with Obama, rather than the other way around. As a music critic, it seems to me Obama's speeches have an element of great music - repeated riffs, inspired improvisations, occassional transcendence. Disillusion may follow. But can't we enjoy it for a while? The man is more a rock star right now than any actual rocker.
