Great convention, but can you dance to it?

AT Monday’s kickoff of the Republican National Convention, delegates were encouraged to rock out when the house band kicked into the Doobie Brothers’ 1976 hit “Takin’ It to the Streets.”

A few weeks before, as John Kerry accepted his party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention, up came the strains of U2’s Grammy-winning “Beautiful Day.”

Every cause needs an anthem, and presidential campaigns seek them out with special fervor -- for better or worse. Who can forget Bill Clinton’s use of Fleetwood Mac’s dance-inducing “Don’t Stop” in 1992, or Ronald Reagan’s use of Bruce Springsteen’s antiwar “Born in the U.S.A.” in 1984?

This year, major party candidates are continuing that tradition. President Bush’s handlers dip heavily into the country music repertoire, playing songs by Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn and George Strait. Kerry has been making appearances to the sounds of U2, Springsteen, Tom Petty, Van Halen and Chuck Berry.

Nothing gets a crowd going like a catchy chorus, but if you’re inclined to pay attention to pop music lyrics, you’ve got to wonder: Is anybody really listening? More often than not, campaigners grab a song for its resonant title or resounding refrain, nevermind what the rest of the song may mean.

The Bush-Cheney campaign travels the slightly safer road, largely using straightforward patriotic tunes by country performers. Country music has its share of political rabble-rousers -- can you spell D-I-X-I-E C-H-I-C-K-S? -- but it’s still largely a haven for unapologetic flag-wavers.

Nobody’s going to misread the sentiments in Keith’s “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American),” which boasts of kicking Taliban backsides and has blared at Bush rallies. Keith has even done some stumping for Bush, who drafted Ricky Martin to shake his booty during his 2001 inaugural celebration.

Another Bush campaign favorite is George Strait’s “Heartland,” which keeps things unambiguous:

There’s a place where mornings are an endless blue

And you feel Mother Nature walk along with you

Where simple people livin’ side by side

Still wave to their neighbor when they’re drivin’ by

It doesn’t give the listener much information about Bush’s attitude toward tax cuts or his education plan, but what the hey?

Johns Kerry and Edwards run bigger risks by playing to the rock ‘n’ roll voter, whether it’s Kerry strapping on John Fogerty’s guitar at a concert benefit in July, or programming signature songs by some of rock’s most revered musicians.

At the conclusion of Kerry’s acceptance speech came the U2 chorus, as heart-swelling as the Strait tune’s:

It’s a beautiful day

Sky falls, you feel like

It’s a beautiful day

Don’t let it get away

Of course, the song goes on to say:

Touch me

Take me to that other place

Teach me

I know I’m not a hopeless case

Bush, likewise, may find himself in an awkward position if anyone asks what he intended by using Stevie Wonder’s 1970 hit “Signed, Sealed, Delivered I’m Yours,” in which the first line is “Like a fool I went and stayed too long.”

Nearly 20 years ago, a couple of Cal State Fullerton researchers demonstrated that teenagers couldn’t tell you the meaning of most of the pop songs, even if they could sing along with them.

They thought Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” was about a literal path to the Pearly Gates. Some subjects said “Born in the U.S.A.” was about “the town Bruce Springsteen lives in.”

Those same people are now in their 30s, working, running businesses, voting -- and, evidently, choosing songs for presidential playlists.

Randy Lewis can be reached at [email protected]