1990s band Semisonic has responded to the Trump administration using their hit song in a controversial deportation video posted onto social media.
Earlier today the White House and Border Patrol official Instagram accounts posted a video of agents searching illegal immigrants before deportation set to the tune of the 1998 smash hit Closing time.
The video was captioned featuring lyrics to the tune as it read: ‘[music note emoji] You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here [music note emoji] @borderpatrol’
Now the Minneapolis based band has responded to the use of their song in an statement to DailyMail.com which read: ‘We did not authorize or condone the White House’s use of our song in any way. And no, they didn’t ask.
‘The song is about joy and possibilities and hope, and they have missed the point entirely.’
The track has always been assumed to be about the last call at a bar.
1990s band Semisonic has responded to the Trump administration using their hit song in a controversial deportation video posted onto social media
Earlier today the White House and Border Patrol official Instagram accounts posted a video of agents searching illegal immigrants before deportation set to the tune of the 1998 smash hit Closing time
However frontman Dan Wilson – who wrote the hit track – previously told Billboard that the song is also partially inspired by the birth of his daughter Coco.
He said in 2018: ‘The guys wanted a new song to close our sets with. I thought “Closing Time” would be a good title. We had spent seven years of our lives at that point, four nights a week entertaining people. That was our life.
‘Some bouncers yelling things, closing time coming, all that imagery, literally, that’s how the song started and then when I was halfway done, I started realizing the whole thing was a pun about being born, so I just made sure that the rest of the thing could ride with that double meaning, but nobody got the joke and I didn’t bother to explain. I thought everyone would get it.’
Wilson, 63,has continued to have a successful career in songwriting as he co-wrote Grammy Award winning 2011 Adele track Someone Like You.
The song was a global hit in the late 90s as it reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and the top 50 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
