Victory Playlist

In the last few hours before the election is over, I am posting the whimsical list that we have curating for the last couple months, of the music played at Trump's rallies. I made a list here sorted by year. The oldest song is from 1956. The most recent is from 2006. He is very heavy on the early 1980s. Elton John is the most represented artists.

One can hear the songs played in the venues during the RSBN broadcasts. The young correspondents have to keep talking all during the feed because otherwise RSBN can get struck by Youtube for copyright infringement, using automated algorithms. They apologize to the audience every broadcast for speaking over "Y.M.C.A" at the end when Trump is dancing to thwart the algorithms. 

A couple notes. God Bless the U.S.A. is the song that Trump has used as his intro since 2016. He always uses this without exception. They always start it at the beginning of the first chorus, and he typically walks on stage while Lee Greenwood is singing "From the Lakes of Minnesota...". I used to hate this song. Now I very much like it. It was written in 1983. There is something about it from that era, of resignation--"at least I know I'm free." The way Greenwood builds up to "the men who died" always gets me, the anguish in his voice as if living their sacrifice in his music.

Somewhere along the line, "Y.M.C.A." became his outro. Four years ago, when his rallies were mostly indoors, it was "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Rolling Stones, but I haven't heard that at all during this cycle. This time it is about celebration.

The playlist in the lead up time before Trump arrives---either by Air Force One, Marine One, or the "Beast" (his armor-plated limo), is never fixed. For weeks, they usually played Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" as the plane was approaching, but I haven't heard it in a few weeks. One almost always hears Michael Jackson, James Brown, Backstreet Boys, Laura Branigan, David Bowie, and Survivor at some point. "We are the Champions" by Queen is always played. With the popularity of "Y.M.C.A" , they now usually play "Macho Man" in the warmup too. Toby Keith is rare. R.E.M. and N Sync have gained ground in recent weeks. Within minutes after my recent post after how it feels like he is creating the "Spirit of 1978", the last year before our Era of Fear began, I heard them add "September" by Earth, Wind and Fire for the first time.

There have even been a few late additions in the last few days, which I've marked by an asterisk.  Somehow the Huey Lewis and the News song is very appropriate. It feels like we're all coming out of that time warping dystopia. Turns out Trump wasn't the villain Biff after all, as the Democrat figured. He was the hero. 

The Dems were the villains. Just as in a Hollywood movie, everything they did to thwart the hero went bad on them in the end, such as encouraging voting by mail instead of in person, as they now realize to their horror. Also they thought they had thwarted Trump by shutting down his indoor rally venues. Instead he just went outside and held his rallies at airports, where thirty thousand people who see him roll up in his 747 and deplane to the cheers of the crowd. 

Don't need no credit card to ride this train!

Please, Please, Please (James Brown and the Famous Flames) — 1956

House of the Rising Sun (The Animals) — 1964

My Way (Frank Sinatra) — 1969

Space Oddity (David Bowie) — 1969

Fortunate Son (Credence Clearwater Revival) — 1969

Tiny Dancer (Elton John) — 1972

Rocket Man (Elton John)— 1972

Puccini's Nessun Dorma (Pavarotti) -- 1972? [Trump has remarked that Pavarotti is one of his favorites]

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road (Elton John)— 1973

Candle in the Wind (Elton John) — 1973

Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting (Elton John) — 1973

Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding (Elton John) — 1973

Piano Man (Billy Joel)— 1973

Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen) — 1975

We Are the Champions (Queen) — 1977

Macho Man (Village People) — 1978

Y.M.C.A. (Village People) — 1978

September* (Earth, Wind, and Fire) — 1978

Celebration (Kool & the Gang) — 1980

Memory (Cats Broadway Cast) — 1981? [not the Streisand version]

In the Air Tonight (Phil Collins)— 1981

Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey) — 1981

Workin’ for the Weekend* (Loverboy) — 1981

Eye of the Tiger (Survivor) —  1982

Gloria (Laura Branigan) — 1982

Billy Jean (Michael Jackson) — 1982

Beat It (Michael Jackson) —1982

I Guess That’s Why Call It the Blues (Elton John) — 1983

I’m Still Standing (Elton John)— 1983

God Bless the USA (Lee Greenwood)— 1984

The Power of Love* (Huey Lewis and the News) — 1985

Losing My Religion (R.E.M.) — 1991

Everybody Hurts (R.E.M.) — 1992

My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion) — 1997

The Prayer (Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli) — 1998

I Want it That Way (Backstreet Boys) — 1999

Bye Bye Bye (N Sync) - 2000

Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue (Toby Keith)— 2002

Crazy* (Gnarls Barkley) — 2006

Mike Pence songs (Pence is the only other person who gets his own songs. He appeared with Trump only at two rallies on the last day of campaigning.These songs were also used for him at the Republican National Convention)

All Right Now (Free) — 1970 [intro]

Only In America (Brooks & Dunn) — 2001 [outro]

Edit: One common retort among Lefties is that "most of those musicians hate Trump and tell him to stop using their music."

Our reply: GET BENT. 

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