Don Henley Sues California Politician Over Song Use

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Here we go again. Another songwriter is filing suit against a politician who has been using his music in political advertisements. Republican Charles DeVore is planning to challenge veteran California Senator Barbara Boxer for her senate seat in next year’s Congressional elections.

Unfortunately for Don Henley, of Eagles fame, DeVore’s campaign has decided to make use of Henley’s song “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” by applying their own spin on the tune and changing the lyrics to “All she wants to do is tax.” Kind of a clever play on words, but Henley is clearly not impressed and would like the DeVore campaign to stop.Don Henley

So far, the advertisements have only been presented as videos that were posted on the internet, including the popular video-sharing site YouTube. It appears that at least some of the videos have been taken down by YouTube due to complaints regarding copyright violation that were filed by Warner/Chappell music.

As might be expected, Senator Boxer’s camp and DeVore’s camp have been sniping at one another over the parody videos, with someone on Boxer’s staff stating that “…while Chuck DeVore is writing song lyrics she is working for tax cuts in Washington.”

DeVore’s position is that it is within his rights to political free speech to parody Henley’s material. With regard to Henley, Devore said it was “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.”

So far, we have not heard any word of any serious repercussions that have resulted in these types of lawsuits being filed against politicians, but since the wheels of justice often grind slowly, it may just be a matter of waiting a while until we start hearing about how these cases are adjudicated.

Since the big-name artists and music companies have plenty of money to pay for lawyers, and politicians always seem to have an adequate supply of dirt to toss at each other, this probably won’t be the last case like this that will be making headlines and contributing the bank accounts of various attorneys at the same time.

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