She may be a barracuda! But she better not hum that tune anymore!

Hopeful Vice-President-to-be Sarah Palin may not have picked the music for her public appearances, but the song that has greeted her on a few occasions is causing her no shortage of headaches in these early days of the campaign.

Since her surprising announcement as John McCain's running mate, Governor Palin has been greeted with the hard driving rock and roll staple of Heart from the late seventies, Barracuda, or as songwriter and former band member Roger Fisher puts it the “kick ass song”.



And while it does provide a sense of empowerment for the candidate and her followers we guess, it may be that the ass kicking belongs to the band, as they have slapped a cease and desist order on the Palin campaign for the use of the song.

They outlined their concern with a statement that summed up all that they feel is wrong with this particular appropriation from the Republicans: "The Republican campaign did not ask for permission, nor would they have been granted permission," a reply penned by the Wilson sisters.

It’s not the first time the Republicans have gotten into trouble for trying usurp pop culture into their political campaigns, from Jackson Brown to Bruce Springsteen, the letters have flown over the years asking for their music to not be associated with a candidate that the artist has no particular affinity for.

It will be interesting to see if the group Van Halen joins in on the cease and desisting.

In the lead up to and at the recently completed Republican convention, their nineties hit Right Now was used on more than one occasion whenever John McCain would wander onto a stage somewhere.

Now we’re not sure if Eddie and the gang favour the Republicans or the Democrats, but we’re pretty sure that as far as image making goes, this may not be the best choice for Mr. McCain and his bid for the Presidential office.

If you watch the video the themes that run through it, don’t always run parallel to the beliefs of Mr. McCain or Republicans for that matter and interesting enough, at 1:22 mark of the video is one particular message that uh, shall we say probably won’t be a helpful reminder to the electorate….
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Or check out 3:45 for a special message that might not be one that the Republicans might wish to stress during the campaign this fall...

One thing is certain, while the Republican handlers may have liked the beat, clearly nobody bothered to look at the images or the messages!

Or as the boys put it in the lyrics to the song:

"Miss a beat, you lose a rhythm
An nothin' falls into place. No!
Only missed by a fraction
Slipped a little off your pace. Oh!
"