‘Read My Lips’ a Bush Retraction You Can Dance To

M.C. George?

Vanilla Prez?

Ice Bush?

The rock community has been slow to dive into the presidential campaign, but that will change next week when hot-shot record producer Don Was turns President Bush into a rapper.

Was, who has worked in the studio with everyone from Bob Dylan to Bonnie Raitt, has woven excerpts from Bush’s speeches into a provocative, dance-oriented track titled “Read My Lips.”

Don’t expect the GOP to adopt it as a campaign theme song. The speech clips are presented in ways that Was says show Bush switching positions and contradicting himself.

A sample:

I am not prepared to say we are in a recession, it does not fit the definition of a recession.

Followed by:

This recession is far less deep than the previous recession.

Other topics include abortion rights and, of course, “no new taxes,” with the phrase “read my lips” turned into something of an attack-mantra.

And just in case the point isn’t clear, some of the lines are followed by a clip of Bush himself laughing. And later, the President repeats, “I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong.”

The song is being released by Polydor Records on Sept. 8. The artist credit reads A Thousand Points of Night, but it really is just Was and his partner Patrick Brady.

“What I came up with is, he’s a guy who will do anything and say anything to keep his power,” Was says, describing his reaction after listening to or reading dozens of Bush speeches. “We didn’t doctor any of his lines. These are all things he said. He’s a liar and he stands for nothing.”

Bush/Quayle campaign deputy press secretary Tony Mitchell said he hasn’t heard the song, but supports the ideal of open political debate through the arts.

How is radio going to react? While most programmers have yet to hear the song, the early poll returns say nay .

“I can’t imagine we’d play it,” says Rick Cummings, program director of L.A.’s KPWR-FM (105.9). “I don’t want to start playing records that have a political stance, and that’s its only purpose.”

Was knows that’s one of the risks of overtly political music, but that’s the least of his concerns about sticking his neck out.

“Either I get invited to the inauguration,” he says, “or I get the biggest tax audit in the world.”