Brad Neely’s Bernie Sanders song is an anthem for “tonight” (and every night after)

Brad Neely’s Bernie Sanders song is an anthem for “tonight” (and every night after)

Every political campaign worth its salt deserves a good campaign song. Bill Clinton’s first presidential bid had “Don’t Stop,” while pizza tycoon turned White House wannabe Hermain Cain got a whole album of musical tributes from Tim Heidecker. Even “sad, attention-grabbing, power-hungry” little man Donald Trump (hey, those aren’t our words, and they’re not Mike Mills’ either—they’re Michael Stipe’s) tried to Make American Great Again with some vintage R.E.M., until the guys who used to be in R.E.M. told him to knock it off.

Somewhere between Heidecker’s tongue-in-cheek Cainthology and Bill Clinton’s first act of presidential diplomacy—getting Fleetwood Mac back together—there’s the hard-driving YouTube paean to Bernie Sanders below, from China, IL creator Brad Neely. Eschewing the lyrical complexity (and hysterical historical inaccuracies) of Neely’s songs about George Washington and John F. Kennedy, the new video presents an elementary pump-up for Vermont’s proudest democratic socialist, captured at his most inspiring/intimidating in Neely’s signature hand-drawn style. That’s a fancy-pants way of saying that the video’s only lyrics are “Bernie Sanders,” “2016,” and “Tonight!,” the last of which will help the song retain its freshness all the way to the end of an election cycle that’s already grown stale. But thanks to Brad Neely, the words “Bernie Sanders” and will be stuck in your head “tonight” and every night, until 2016 and beyond.

 
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