That’ll Teach Ya, GOP

What do you do when the GOP steals your song and uses it in their campaign without your permission?

If you’re John Hall, frontman of Orleans, whose “Still the One” was stolen by Bush last year, you tell him to cease and desist and then run for Congress.

Hall, who’s running as a Democrat in New York's 19th District, is a former Ulster County Legislator and school board president in addition to being a musician. From the press release announcing his candidacy:

John Hall has been active in environmental and community affairs in the Hudson Valley for more than three decades. He was elected to the Ulster County Legislature in 1989, and twice to the Saugerties Board of Education, where his fellow trustees elected him President. He now lives in Dover Plains with his wife Pamela Bingham Hall, a Vassar graduate and former Tennessee Assistant Attorney General. He has a twenty-six-year-old daughter who is in graduate school.

Hall, a founding member of the band Orleans, co-authored their hits including "Still the One" and "Dance With Me," along with songs recorded by a spectrum of American musical legends from Janis Joplin to Bonnie Raitt, from Bobby McFerrin to James Brown. He has written and directed music for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, produced and played guitar on dozens of records. His ode to alternative energy, "Power," was released three weeks before the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, and became the anthem of the No Nukes Concerts which Hall helped organize. It was recorded live at the event by the Doobie Brothers and James Taylor, and subsequently performed by Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Holly Near.

Hall promises to be “a real voice for real people, advocating for honesty and competence throughout our government.” Go get 'em.