Hey kids, if you wanna see Jackson Browne play a solo acoustic show at Santa Cruz Civic on Feb 23, get your tickets here!
 

Yesterday afternoon in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa, artist David Byrne filed a $1million suit against the governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, along with his senatorial campaign, alleging that the governor used the Talking Heads' mid eighties single "Road to Nowhere" (Sire/Warner) without permission or proper licenses.

Gov. Crist, who is also Florida's former Attorney General, used the Talking Heads song, found on the band's 1985 Little Creatures album, earlier this year in a website and YouTube ad directed against his then-Republican primary opponent, Marco Rubio.

According to a report on Billboard's website, Byrne, "became aware of the Crist ad from a friend in New York, where the Talking Heads co-founder resides." Byrne told the music magazine that he "was pretty upset" when he learned about the song's unauthorized use and stressed that the lawsuit, "is not about politics...It's about copyright."

This is not the first time that an American politician has used a famous rock artist's music or likeness without permission. Back in 1984 during his re-election campaign, Ronald Reagan, while giving a speech in Hammonton, New Jersey, appropriated the work of the state's favorite son Bruce Springsteen (referencing the then popular "Born In The USA"). When Springsteen (a liberal & most opposed to Reagan) found out about this, he was pissed and put an immediate stop to it. More recently, John McCain, in his 2008 Republican presidential candidate run, used Jackson Browne's song "Running on Empty." Browne filed a suit and won. His lawyer in the case, Lawrence Iser, is now representing Byrne in the case against the Florida Gov.

Let's be real: Valentine's Day is not necessarily a happy day for everyone. In the accurate words of Sir Elton John, "Sad songs say so much," so I thought I would round up some of the sadder songs of longing and unrequited love, maybe with a bit of twang, even, in protest of all the lovey-dovey crud that Hallmark foists upon us at this time of year.

There's a theory out there that a picture of a cool car on the cover of an otherwise uninteresting LP will increase its saleability. Maybe that phenomena crosses over to record label design, but I doubt it.


The Whittier records design pretty much rules this set, but I've always had a soft spot for the Roadshow label. I picked up quite a few 45's back in the late 80's simply based on their label design and I remember buying a BT Express record with this design. That van drawing just made the record feel like that much more of a party.


For some reason the blue Beach Blvd. label always struck me as particularly evocative. There's nothing to the design, but staring at the label while the Simpletones are blaring just transports you to the OC circa '80.