Remixers Make Howard Dean's Scream Funky And Danceable
Howard Dean may have a shot at a pro wrestling career if his bid for the White House doesn't pan out.
After his disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses on Monday (see [article id="1484435"]"John Kerry Scores Solid Victory In Iowa Caucuses"[/article]), a red-faced Dean made an impassioned entreaty to his supporters in Des Moines that left him hoarse and sounded reminiscent of wrestler Randy "Macho Man" Savage's patented "Oooooh yeah!" The gruff, fist-pumping appeal made its way onto the Internet, where inventive and aspiring remixers have added their own sardonic twists to the fiery speech.
One of the first remixes to surface, Jonathan Strong's "Dean Goes Nuts Remix" hosted by Right-Magazine.com, featured Dean's shrieking yowl set to Aphex Twin's frenetic electronic "Wax the Nip" from 1995's I Care Because You Do. The track has since been taken down due to bandwidth issues. With many pundits speculating that Dean's campaign has gone off the rails, it's no surprise that a remix with Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train" has also made its way onto the Web. Other remixes include Dean paired with Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" and Lil Jon's "Throw It Up."
"Not only are we going to New Hampshire ... we're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma and Arizona and North Dakota and New Mexico," Dean enthused in his speech to supporters. "We're going to California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan and then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! Yeeeeeeah!"
That "Yeeeeeeah!" figures prominently in many of the remixes, mostly created by resourceful college students and blog enthusiasts, such as the high-energy house version ("US Tour (Chris Flyer Remix)"), the funky horn mix, (Jonathan Barlow's "Howarddean") and the Ministry-like alarm call version (James Lileks' "Yeaahg"). Metal band Viral Solstice even made their own hardcore punk tweak, "Hardcoredean."
Other approaches were less sonically ambitious but proved just as satirically effective. On Wednesday, shock jock Howard Stern played a recording of Dean's speech set to crowd noise from a professional wrestling match. Later he played it with the theme from "Rocky" underneath, but the most popular versions heard on Stern's syndicated radio show have yet to spread online: Dean's shouting played overtop a Nazi rally and AC/DC's "For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)."
The overzealous gaffe also has become fodder for the late-night comedy circuit. "The Daily Show" turned the speech into a spoof of ads for monster-truck competitions, and "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno" had the host throwing jabs at the man once considered the Democratic front-runner: "I'm not an expert in politics, but I think it's a bad sign when your speech ends with your aides shooting you with a tranquilizer gun."
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