“Walk Away” hails from The James Gang’s 1971 album Thirds.
On Tuesday politician Walsh posted a YouTube video of his version of “Walk Away” on his official web site. The song, which is performed by Joe Cantafio, lead singer of the 101st Rock Division, now features the title “Lead The Way.”
The tune gives a shout out to his campaign opponent, incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean, as well as Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, with the lyrics, “Pelosi and Bean wanna screw ya.” The chorus is changed from “Seems to me, you just turn your pretty head and walk away” into “Seems to me, Joe Walsh is just the perfect guy to lead the way.”
Evidentially musician Walsh wasn’t amused. He quickly had his lawyer send the politician a letter via email and mail.
The letter, which was posted online by Vitalmx.com, is a pretty funny read.
Attorney Peter T. Paterno starts things off by attempting to give the politician a little lesson on intellectual property law.
“First, there’s the United States Copyright Act. It says a lot of things, but one of the things it says is that you can't use someone else's song for your political campaign promotion unless you get permission from the owner of the copyright in the song. As far as we can tell you didn't do that. Maybe you got so busy with the campaign that you just forgot. But that's not OK.
"Second, under that same United States Copyright Act, you're not allowed to take someone's song and change the lyrics. This is not to say you're not allowed to write silly lyrics, you just have to write them to your own music. Now, I know why you used Joe's music – it's undoubtedly because it's a lot better than any music you or your staff could have written. But that's the point. Since Joe writes better songs than you do, the Copryright Act rewards him by letting him decide who gets to use the songs he writes."
Paterno points out that the situation is even trickier because the politician and guitarist share the same name.
“Given that your name is Joe Walsh, I’d think you want to be extra careful about using Joe’s music in case the public might think that Joe is endorsing your campaign, or God forbid, is you. Or maybe you intended that. But you shouldn’t have.”
My favorite part of the letter is when Paterno writes, “I’m sure that when you take this letter to a lawyer with a passing knowledge of copyright and trademark law, he’ll give you some good lawyer words to put in a letter back to us – things like ‘First Amendment,’ ‘fair use,’ ‘parody’ and ‘so’s your old man.’… Just know that this is an area in which I’ve practiced my entire career and I can promise you that none of those buzzwords (or the law that they represent) works for you here.”
Paterno brings up the lawsuit Jackson Browne filed against Senator John McCain for using the singer-songwriter’s song “Running On Empty” without permission during his 2008 campaign. The lawyer “insists that you discontinue using in your campaign any material that infringes the copyright in ‘Walk Away’ (or any of Joe’s other songs),” adding that, he hopes the politician complies so “we don’t have to go all Jackson Browne on you.”
The politician hasn’t complied. The “Lead The Way” YouTube video is still up on WalshForCongress.com and yesterday Walsh campaign manager Jim Thacker told Lake County News-Sun that “We’re not taking it down.”
Today Walsh posted a rebuttal to Paterno’s letter titled “Walsh Vs Walsh, II – The Candidate Defends the Tea Party Movement.”
The politician personally wrote the open letter and tried to inject some humor of his own, writing “You know where [Illinois] is, don’t you? It’s that wide-open part of the country you fly over on your way from Los Angeles to New York.”
Although he doesn’t say he’s going to remove the YouTube video, politician Walsh writes that he’d “be happy to add a disclaimer to the video that says Joe Walsh, the Rockstar, is not affiliated with and is in no way endorsing Joe Walsh, the candidate.”
Walsh defends the song by writing, “I find it really funny that you’d let “leftist” Hollywood-think affect your enjoyment of our parody. But, to be honest, and I mean no disrespect, I am not in this race to win the approval of a Hollywood entertainment attorney. I realize that you all have fun with us in ‘fly over’ country and must be having a good chuckle over the fact that I’m a ‘tea party’ candidate ( I won’t repeat the term most of your Hollywood friends use).
The politician adds that he’s always been a big Eagles fan and that the Eagles are his 22-year-old son’s favorite rock band. He goes on to say that he thinks the musician and his lawyer don’t know what they’re talking about when it comes to breaking copyright laws.
“I thought our song was perfectly fine music and I actually don’t think you’re even close to correct on the law. Copyright laws protect expression, they don’t protect ideas. The lyrics for the song were entirely ours, and that included everything that was said in the video, not just sung.
“We are not making any money off of the video, are not taking any money away from Joe Walsh (the rockstar), the lyrics are distinct, and another band recorded this video. Anyone can do a “cover’ of the song.”
The letter then points out that the reference to Jackson Browne’s lawsuit is “silly” because “McCain was using the actual recording … unedited as a campaign song. Here, we are using the Karaoke version of a song, with our own lyrics.”
Walsh then rambles for a few paragraphs about the tea party movement.
“I’m beginning to think that because I’ve been out there for a few months as a “tea party conservative” candidate, all you liberals out in Hollywood are using this to attack someone whose beliefs you don’t understand and always disrespect (can you say Sarah Palin?). I hope the Democratic National Committee and Nancy Pelosi didn’t put you up to this.
“This is all about freedom. Joe Walsh (the rockstar) has been a big proponent of freedom his whole life. I hope you’re not going to sue my parents for giving me the name they did.”
Candidate Walsh is running against five other 8th District hopefuls in the Feb. 2 primary. The winner will then face incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Melissa Bean in the Nov. 2 general election.
Lovely Pollstar readers, what do you think? Which Walsh are you going to take sides with?
Click here to read the entire post by Joe Walsh (the politician).