It’s been 11 months since I last wrote about big liberal donor Don Henley’s lawsuit against me for writing two music parodies and turning them into online campaign videos. 

I’ve long believed that conservatives ignore culture at their peril. Hollywood and faith shape culture and culture shapes voters far more powerfully than can mere politicians.  With this understanding firmly in mind, I have cultivated contacts in the entertainment industry and used Al Gore’s invention to its fullest extent, winning awards for our campaign’s innovative use of Twitter and for our groundbreaking iPhone app (Beat Boxer? There’s an app for that!). 

A key part of this effort to harness non-traditional modes of political speech began 13 months ago when, while campaigning in the Bakersfield area, I saw a fading Obama bumper sticker on a Prius.  Instantly, the line, “Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac, a little voice inside my head said: don’t look back, you can never look back,” from the Don Henley song “The Boys of Summer” popped into my head.  (more…)

Nobody wants to be mocked.  And if you’re a rock star, surrounded by sycophants for the better part of 35 years, it must be especially hard to deal with being mocked.  It makes sense, then, that Don Henley does not like the parody of his song “Boys of Summer,” penned by Chuck DeVore, a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, and Justin Hart, his advisor.  But Henley’s copyright-infringement lawsuit is far bigger than one rock star or his feelings.  Henley’s lawsuit undermines the First Amendment right to speak freely.  

Don Henley makes no effort to hide his political leanings.  In addition to performing at scores of fundraisers, Henley has given about $750,000 to partisan, liberal causes, including $10,000 to Barack Obama and $9,000 to DeVore’s soon-to-be opponent, Barbara Boxer.  Henley also exploits his music to advance a liberal, political agenda. 

Henley’s “Boys of Summer” is no exception.  On the surface, “Boys of Summer” is a wistful look at an old romance, a fling between two kids, now grown, who have moved on with their lives.  But the song also has a clear political message.  Henley says that the second verse of the song-the one with the famous line about seeing “a Dead Head sticker on a Cadillac”-was about the essential failure of Sixties’ politics: “I don’t think we changed a damn thing, frankly….  After all our marching and shouting and screaming didn’t work, we withdrew and became yuppies and got into the Me Decade.”  (more…)

Since yesterday evening, when news of lawsuit filed against me by aging liberal rockers Don Henley and Mike Campbell first broke, online comments to me have been running hot and heavy.  Fairly emblematic of the “fan” mail: “i hope you get in a car wreck and die.” 

Understanding that the DailyKos crowd can never be quieted (save for my untimely demise in a speeding vehicle), I do think it important to set forth what we did with the two parody songs I wrote to be sung in style of Don Henley’s works. 

 
I penned “After the Hope of November is Gone” based on Mr. Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” with parodic eye.  One can clearly see my intended skewering of Henley and his ilk’s well known liberalism in the lines:  (more…)

All She Wants to Do is Tax! Music video parody of Barbara Boxer in time for the tea party rallies. 

Political parody has a long tradition in the West, with the First Amendment affording significant protections for political speech.  In spite of that, our political parody of President Obama, “After the Hope of November is Gone” using rocker Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” as the vehicle attracted the wrath of Henley, as he engaged lawyers to threaten an alternative paper and temporarily bounced the music video from YouTube.  (more…)

Rocker Don Henley’s legal threats have shut down our rough cut April Fool’s music video Obama lampoon based on “The Boys of Summer” on both YouTube and on Orange County’s alternative newspaper, the O.C. Weekly.  We’re responding with a counter-claim, asserting our First Amendment right to political free speech in parody based on the Supreme Court ruling of Campbell v. Acuff-Rose Music, Inc.

While the legal issues play out, it’s time to up the ante on Mr. Henley’s liberal goon tactics.  By popular request, I have penned the words to our new parody song, an expose of Senator Barbara Boxer’s new cap-and-trade energy bill that will operate as a hidden tax that will also enrich a few people.  (more…)

The laughless legions of the left have struck again. Eagles band member Don Henley demanded the removal of my “Hope of November” parody song on YouTube.  YouTube took the music video Obama parody down yesterday after it was approaching 1,000 views.  

I was inspired to write the lyrics for “Hope of November” using Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” as a starting point after I saw a fading Obama bumper sticker while campaigning in the Bakersfield area.  

Liberal warriors are notorious for their thin skins and Don Henley is no exception. 

Perhaps I should mine some of Henley’s other songs for satirical gold.  “The End of the Innocence” comes to mind.  That 1989 song slammed Ronald Reagan, a man I worked for in the Defense Department, in the form of the line, “they’re beating plowshares into swords, for the tired old man that we elected king.”  At this line in the song the music video shows several Reagan posters while at the line “armchair warriors lead us into war” a television displays scenes of LtCol Oliver North’s congressional testimony.  Or perhaps the overbearing lyrics of “Little Tin God” will do.  The line referring to Reagan, “The cowboy’s name was Jingo,” cries out for parodic reengineering.  (more…)

A few days ago I posted some Obama parody lyrics set to Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer” and am now formally soliciting the deep base of Big Hollywood talent to do a professional version of this parody. The campaign will have a contest and choose the parody effort posted on YouTube by April 6th.  

In the spirit of April Fool’s Day, here’s our own attempt performed by the DeVore for California Director of New Media, Justin Hart, working entirely on his own time.  (more…)