Harris’s move to seek permission to use the hit song comes after the co-writer of a song used in Donald Trump’s rallies spoke out to reveal his disapproval.
At the Republican National Convention last week – days after surviving an assassination attempt – Trump walked on stage to the song Hold On, I’m Coming.
The co-writer of the Sam & Dave’s 1966 hit David Porter told The Independent that the 78-year-old former president had never asked for permission to use his music in his political campaign.
“I can say [that] I don’t want any of my songs used for political campaigns,” he said. “We create music for uplifting people, not separating them.”
If you’ve seen the original Blue Brothers movie, you’ve heard a snippet of ‘Hold On’ and another Sam & Dave hit, “Soul Man”. I’m told they were fantastic live but not so much in studio. Back in the 60s the chorus might as well be a porn quote given radio stations were squeamish about playing something so ‘explicit’, but the writers maintained it was simply about rushing back to song writing. HBO recently released a short documentary series about their original label, Stax which covers the big concert the label threw, WattStax. I recommend all of that as better than trying to hunt down random Sam & Dave songs.