Stephen Colbert, Jack Black Debut Campaign Jam ‘My Kind of America’
Stephen Colbert and Jack Black debuted a rousing patriotic jam, “My Kind of America” on The Late Show Wednesday, in an effort to help politicians — well, mostly Republicans — unable to find musicians willing to license them songs for the campaign trail.
As Colbert recalled in the preceding bit, a rocking, all-American song is a crucial component of any campaign trail rally. But Republican presidential hopefuls over the years have had trouble finding the right song — not for lack of taste, but for harboring vastly different political views than the artists they play.
So far in 2015, Donald Trump has been ordered to stop using songs by R.E.M., Neil Young and Aerosmith, while the Dropkick Murphys told ex-candidate Scott Walker he couldn’t use their music (they added, in a tweet, “we literally hate you!”).
“Here’s the thing, when the candidate hits the stage, they want to pump up the crowd with an awesome jam, whether or not they licensed it,” Colbert said. “But I also understand where the musicians are coming from. After all, insisting someone get permission before they do something they want — that’s rock and roll!”
Concerned citizen that he is, Colbert offered a musical solution to embattled politicians everywhere. He grabbed the mic and began crooning, “My Kind of America,” a peppy, country-fried tune with a blazing saxophone that matched his description perfectly: “It’s generic enough not to offend anyone, but generic enough to be loved by everyone.”
Within a verse, Jack Black, clad in a cowboy hat and all-denim outfit, stormed the stage to join Colbert for some “We Didn’t Start the Fire”-esque listing of things that make America great. Come for the sexy ranch hand dancers and inspiring lyrics like “I Love Lucy, ‘I Like Ike,’ marriage rights and Dick Van Dyke” and “Moonshiners, title-fighters, football spikes, Bagel Bites”; stay for Colbert and Black’s egregiously long concluding vocal run that extends well past the host’s toss to commercial.