Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

This fight is for everything.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

Come on, man.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the GOP

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

No one could have predicted…

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

We still have time to mess this up!

Battle won, war still ongoing.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Bark louder, little dog.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

You are here: Home / Music / Favorite Songs About America

Favorite Songs About America

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What are your favorite songs about America?  Two of my favorites.

.

I get choked up whenever I listen to this one.

Many’s the time I’ve been mistaken
And many times confused
Yes, and I’ve often felt forsaken
And certainly misused
But I’m all right, I’m all right
I’m just weary to my bones
Still, you don’t expect to be
Bright and bon vivant
So far away from home, so far away from home

And I don’t know a soul who’s not been battered
I don’t have a friend who feels at ease
I don’t know a dream that’s not been shattered
or driven to its knees
But it’s all right, it’s all right
For we’ve lived so well so long
Still, when I think of the road we’re traveling on
I wonder what’s gone wrong
I can’t help it, I wonder what’s gone wrong

And I dreamed I was dying
I dreamed that my soul rose unexpectedly
And looking back down at me
Smiled reassuringly
And I dreamed I was flying
And high up above my eyes could clearly see
The Statue of Liberty
Sailing away to sea
And I dreamed I was flying

We come on the ship they call the Mayflower
We come on the ship that sailed the moon
We come in the age’s most uncertain hour
and sing an American tune
But it’s all right, it’s all right
You can’t be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow’s going to be another working day
And I’m trying to get some rest
That’s all, I’m trying to get some rest

Update 2: And this one makes me outright cry!

Reader Interactions

185Comments

  1. 1.

    MontyTheClipArtMongoose

    “Smallpox Champion” – Fugazi & “Rock Bottom” – Eminem.

  3. 3.

    germy

    Paul Simon took the melody for American Tune from “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”  a Christian Passion hymn based on a Latin text written during the Middle Ages.

  4. 4.

    ian

    Hello watergirl, hope all is well.  Did we finalize a time to meet Tuesday or Wednesday for the agency program?  I will admit I personally did not do any research on my state assignment over the weekend, but I plan on gearing up this week.  I did not see an update in the agency threads, so I apologize for bringing it up in this music thread.

  6. 6.

    germy

    “Proud to be an American” by The Tubes

     

    I’m proud
    To be an American
    I’m proud
    Of the groovy things we’ve done
    There’s television, free religion, rock ‘n’ roll, Standard Oil
    Times Square, Jimmy Darren, Corey Wells, and Smokey Bear
    Price reduction, reconstruction, Peace Corps, and lots more
    Culture that we got to lend

    I’m proud
    To be an American
    And I’m proud
    Had a great time bein’ one
    There’s your school and my school and both of us in high school
    Surfboards, cigarettes, homework, Southern Comfort
    Boy’s dean was real mean
    Made us keep our locker’s clean
    Failed nearly every class
    Ditchin’ was a gas

  9. 9.

    WaterGirl

    @ian: It’s fine!

    We are having two zooms – one on Tuesday at 7:30 pm blog time, and the other on Wednesday at 7:30 pm blog time.

    People can attend either one, and today I will be sending email to everyone with both links.  State teams can decide if they want to all try to go to the same one, or not.

  10. 10.

    Subsole

    Barrytown, by Steely Dan.

    Maybe not what they were trying to say, but damn sure what I heard.

    Maybe not The America, but damn sure An America.

    Edit: Streets of Bakersfield is pretty good too.

  12. 12.

    WaterGirl

    @Zzyzx: Wow, that’s wonderful.

    I saw the Indigo Girls live in a church – with great acoustics! –many years ago.  They were amazing and i have multiple albums.  Then their new work kind of fell off my radar.

    Thanks for the reminder!

  15. 15.

    Zzyzx

    @WaterGirl:

    Reverse 1 Live is an old old release from the 1989. It also has a great cover of Elton John’s Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters. I really wish they’d make it available commercially but you can find it if you look hard enough. In my case it was a lesbian from Atlanta (go figure) who mailed me her copy in 97 and I burned dozens of backups before mailing it back to her.

  16. 16.

    debbie

    I emphatically second your second choice, WG. Life stops for this song. Too many damn uncertain hours.

  18. 18.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Pink Houses, by John Mellencamp. Sums it all up.

  19. 19.

    Subsole

    Streets of Philadelphia, by The Boss.

    “Ain’t no angel gonna greet me,

    It’s just you and I my friend.”

  20. 20.

    Barbara

    Paul Simon sang American Tune and (Look for) America at the last concert I attended pre-Covid. I love both.

  22. 22.

    germy

    “Living in America”  James Brown

     
    Smokestack, fatback, many miles of railroad track.
    All-night radio keep on runnin’ through your rock’n’ roll soul.
    All-night diners keep you awake
    on a black coffee and a hard roll.
    you might have to walk a fine line
    you might take a hard line
    But everybody’s workin’ overtime.
    Living in America, eye to eye, station to station
    I live in America, I live in America, wait a minute,
    you may not be lookin’ for the promised land
    But you might find it anyway.
    Under one of those old familiar names like,
    New Orleans, New Orleans
    Detroit City, Detroit City
    Dallas, Dallas
    Pittsburgh P. A., Pittsburgh P. A.
    New York City, New York City
    Kansas City, Kansas City
    Atlanta, Atlanta.
    Chicago and L. A.

  24. 24.

    Ken

    Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture.
    OK, technically it’s not our 1812. But it has cannons! And I’ve performed it with our municipal band, by ringing the church bell at the end.

  29. 29.

    Kent

    Can’t go wrong with Woodie Guthrie.  This is from 1944

    This land is your land, and this land is my land
    From the California to the New York Island,
    From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
    God blessed America for me.
    [This land was made for you and me.]

    As I went walking that ribbon of highway
    And saw above me that endless skyway,
    And saw below me the golden valley, I said:
    God blessed America for me.
    [This land was made for you and me.]

    I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
    To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
    And all around me, a voice was sounding:
    God blessed America for me.
    [This land was made for you and me.]

    Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
    A sign was painted said: Private Property,
    But on the back side it didn’t say nothing —
    God blessed America for me.
    [This land was made for you and me.]

    When the sun come shining, then I was strolling
    In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;
    The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting:
    God blessed America for me.
    [This land was made for you and me.]

    One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
    By the Relief Office I saw my people —
    As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
    God blessed America for me.
    [This land was made for you and me.]

  31. 31.

    NotMax

    Not a song (also not the best quality copy though not unbearably so), however stumbled upon, on YouTube, the entirety of Lanford Wilson’s Fifth of July as broadcast on PBS some 40 years ago.

  33. 33.

    Subsole

    @Zzyzx:

    The way people can be extremely Unreasonable so long as they say it politely, and the way that politeness falls off mighty damn quick if you don’t jump to?

    Yeah, I think there is something very American to that. For certain definitions of America.

     

    “I just read the daily news and swear by every word,” seems a little on the nose, I will grant you.

     

    I will also submit Overture for the Common Man, if we’re being all aspirational and shit.

  35. 35.

    WaterGirl

    @Kent: I don’t just tear up, I downright cry every time I watch this one of Pete Seeger at Obama’s inauguration.

    I was so glad that Pete got to do that, got to live long enough to see that day.

    But damn, that’s a mixed memory for me because I felt SO MUCH HOPE that day, and look what our country did to squander 8 years of Obama and then follow it with corrupt white trash.

    I added the youtube up top.

  39. 39.

    Mike in NC

    The music of geniuses like Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen will be remembered forever, while the legacy of the Fat Orange Clown will merely live in infamy.

  40. 40.

    Amir Khalid

    A random selection in no particular order: Back in The USA, This Land is Your Land, Deportee(Plane Wreck at Los Gatos), Little Boxes (Seeger), Ohio, Old Man Trump, Promised Land (Berry), Promised Land (Springsteen), Fortunate Son, I Ain’t  Got No Home … I could go on and on, but I have to stop somewhere.

  43. 43.

    evap

    A few years ago I made a “fifty nifty united states” playlist, with one song for each state.  One of my favorites is Allentown by Billy Joel:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHnJp0oyOxs

    And how about Fifty Nifty United States, which we sang in, I think, 4th grade.  In the middle, you sing the names of the 50 states in alphabetical order and because of this I can still recite them from memory, after all these years.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv5VhuUfwC4

  44. 44.

    Martin

    Not sure how Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’ hasn’t gotten a mention. And of course, ‘This Land is Your Land’ per Dorothy, which should be our National Anthem.

    As with the post yesterday, if you are looking backward at America longingly, you’re doing it really fucking wrong. America has always been aspirational, chasing an ideal we’ve yet to, and quite likely never will achieve. That requires both telling ourselves what we’re getting wrong in the present and what we want to get right in the future. Personally, I find it hard to be optimistic about the future when we’re lying to ourselves in the present. It does’t matter how bad things are today, so long as we can acknowledge they are bad, and articulate how we want them to be. Maybe I’m weird that way.

    I’ve always engaged with the issue of mental health for young people as at times it’s been part of my job. One of my theories about why young people are struggling so badly is the disconnect between those two. In some ways the world going to shit is easier to deal with when we don’t have a clear expression of how it’s gone to shit and how it should be different. But in this moment I think most everyone not plugged into Fox News has that and if you see the world going to shit, and you see clearly where it should be going *and* you see institutions of authority from the federal govt to the church to Jeff Bezos or whatever doing fuckall – that’s when the crisis peaks.

  46. 46.

    Another Scott

    There are good songs on the other side, also too, of course. American Woman.

    Strange Fruit.

    One of the great things about America is that we have the opportunity to see and speak about the problems. And that’s the first step to solving them.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    PaulB

    I loved this when I first heard it. Not exactly about America but a great song and an amazing achievement to bring together musicians from all around the world to give us this version. From the YouTube description:

    “The Weight,” features Ringo Starr and The Band’s original member Robbie Robertson, along with musicians across 5 continents. Great songs can travel everywhere bridging what divides us and inspiring us to see how easily we all get along when the music plays. Special thanks to our partner Cambria® for helping to make this possible and to Robbie Robertson, Ringo Starr and all the musicians for joining us in celebrating 50 years of this classic song.

  55. 55.

    JAFD

    To go off topic here, Wendesday is Gustav Mahler’s birthday, and ’twill be special programs at wqxr.org, Tues & Wed nights, 8 pm EDT. Also some other stuf on WQXR website ye Mahler stans might want to check out.

  58. 58.

    dexwood

    One Time, One Night -Los Lobos.
    Would link to it if not a an old phone in need of replacement.

  62. 62.

    WaterGirl

    @germy: That’s a good one!

    I love their voices together, the melodies, the harmonies, and the words are often like poetry to me.  I guess that explains why they are in my top 10 groups of all time.

  64. 64.

    CaseyL

    Among my favorite songs about America is a real oldie: Sinatra’s “America to me”:

    What is America to me
    A name, a map, or a flag I see
    A certain word, democracy
    What is America to me

    The house I live in
    A plot of earth, the street
    The grocer and the butcher
    Or the people that I meet
    The children in the playground
    The faces that I see
    All races and religions
    That’s America to me

    The place I work in
    The worker by my side
    The little town the city
    Where my people lived and died
    The howdy and the handshake
    The air a feeling free
    And the right to speak your mind out
    That’s America to me

    The things I see about me
    The big things and the small
    That little corner newsstand
    Or the house a mile tall
    The wedding and the churchyard
    The laughter and the tears
    The dream that’s been a growing
    For more than two hundred years
    The town I live in
    The street, the house, the room
    The pavement of the city
    Or a garden all in bloom
    The church the school the clubhouse
    The millions lights I see
    Especially the people
    That’s America to me

  67. 67.

    germy

    @WaterGirl:

    I had an older sibling who collected their albums.  I mean every album, so I heard their earliest stuff all the way through Bridge Over Troubled Water.

  71. 71.

    Cmorenc

    “America the beautiful” especially as performed by ray charles is the best hands-down.  Really should be our national anthem instead od the awful “star spangled banner” – if we really had to have a more militaristic anthem “battle hymn of the republic” is infinitely better than the awful “star spangled banner” which is the sort of anthem a fascist regime might choose

  76. 76.

    David Evans

    “American Tune” always chokes me up as well, and I’m British. I think the tune is perfect for the words.

  79. 79.

    J R in WV

    Here’s an old favorite:

    Do McLean’s American Pie — an odd song, but a good one.

    And anything connected to Woody Guthrie or his son Arlo.

    I liked Paul Simon until I learned he tried to screw all the local bands in Africa out of royalties for all the great songs he stole from them for Graceland. Plus abusive to his women. Prick!

  83. 83.

    dnfree

    This version of “We Shall Overcome” from Pete Seeger’s 1963 Carnegie Hall Concert always brings tears to my eyes. Because of this, whenever anyone says “Montgomery Alabama”, I always hear it in Pete Seeger’s voice from his monologue during this version.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsg7z8BYTWo

  84. 84.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Americans by Janelle Monae:

    Hold on, don’t fight your war alone
    Halo around you, don’t have to face it on your own
    We will win this fight
    Let all souls be brave
    We’ll find a way to heaven
    We’ll find a way
    War is old, so is sex
    Let’s play God, you go next
    Hands go up, men go down
    Try my luck, stand my ground
    Die in church, live in jail
    Say her name, twice in hell
    Uncle Sam kissed a man
    Jim Crow Jesus rose again
    I like my woman in the kitchen
    I teach my children superstitions
    I keep my two guns on my blue nightstand
    A pretty young thang, she can wash my clothes
    But she’ll never ever wear my pants
    I pledge allegiance to the flag
    Learned the words from my mom and dad
    Cross my heart and I hope to die
    With a big old piece of American pie

    Love me baby
    Love me for who I am
    Fallen angels
    Singing: “clap your hands”
    Don’t try to take my country
    I will defend my land
    I’m not crazy, baby, naw
    I’m American
    I’m American
    I’m American
    I’m American
    Seventy-nine cent to your dollar
    All that bullshit from white-collars
    You see my color before my vision
    Sometimes I wonder if you will fly
    Would it help you make a better decision?
    I pledge allegiance to the flag
    Learned the words from my mom and dad
    Cross my heart and I hope to die
    With a big old piece of American pie
    Just love me baby
    Love me for who I am
    Fallen angels
    Singing: “clap your hands”
    Don’t try to take my country
    I will defend my land
    I’m not crazy, baby, naw
    I’m American
    I’m American
    I’m American
    I’m American
    Let me help you in here
    Until women can get equal pay for equal work
    This is not my America
    Until same gender loving people can be who they are
    This is not my America
    Until black people can come home
    From a police stop without being shot in the head
    This is not my America
    Until poor whites can get a shot at being successful
    This is not my America
    I can’t hear nobody talkin’ to me
    Just love me baby, love me for who I am
    Fallen angels singing, “clap your hands”
    Don’t try to take my country, I will defend my land
    I’m not crazy, baby, naw
    I’m American (love me baby)
    I’m American (love me for who I am)
    Until Latinos and Latinas don’t have to run from walls
    This is not my America
    But I tell you today that the devil is a liar
    Because it’s gon’ be my America before it’s all over
    Please sign your name on the dotted line

  85. 85.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Gang Shit by Marlon Craft:

    “My name Marcus and I’m in the feds
    I been locked up for four years and six is left
    I got ten for armed robbery, shit, and honestly
    I ain’t even wanna do it and it’s hard not to get depressed
    I’m dying here, was banging colors since a youngin
    Was born into a gang ’cause of the block that I grew up in
    I done seen many die, and a few folks kill
    But when the world won’t give you nothing, shit, you gon’ steal
    And my gang was all I knew, brothers amongst the madness

    Drugs and death all around us and we was angry and callous
    The gang shit was all we had, we made mistakes and were misled
    But why my gang got me in jail, and yours got you home in bed?
    Riddle me that, my skin black, it’s simple as that
    The hatred you both got for me is all written in fact
    Of our institutions, you confused and feel like getting me back
    For what? For living poor in conditions that’s wack?
    You claim that I strike fear in you, but what you feel is you
    For me to live how you’d call clean’d be a miracle
    The data’s empirical, you hate it when my people march for me
    But don’t you too scream ’cause you feel they ain’t hearing you?
    Shit, your whole premise is false
    But I won’t waste no time tryna break your prejudice walls
    Point is we all on some gang shit, loyal to what we’s taught

    Believe in what was passed down, our community’s theme of thought
    And I’m the only one in cuffs for it
    If I get out a better man, I’m still fucked for it
    You turn the TV on and look, you got Trump for it
    The president is in your gang, bitch
    And you still point at me to blame shit
    I pray that when I get out, shit ain’t all the same
    But it’s a cold world to be alone in when the whole place
    That you grown in treat you like dogs in the rain
    Shit, I might fuck around and call gang, gang, gang, gang

    {Chorus}
    I’m just riding for my
    Gang, gang, gang, gang
    Gang, gang, gang, gang
    Gang, gang, gang, gang (Gang)
    I’m just riding for my
    Gang, gang, gang, gang
    Gang, gang, gang, gang
    Gang, gang, gang, gang
    America, whole lotta gang shit
    America, whole lotta gang shit
    America, whole lotta gang shit
    Gang, gang, gang, gang, gang ”

  88. 88.

    UncleEbeneezer

    Which Way to America by Living Colour:
    I look at the T.V.
    Your America’s doing well
    I look out the window
    My America’s catching hell
    I just want to know which way do I go to get to your America?
    I just want to know which way do I go to get to your America?
    I change the channel
    Your America’s doing fine
    I read the headlines
    My America’s doing time
    I just want to know which way do I go to get to your America?
    I just want to know which way do I go to get to your America?
    Go west young, go west young man
    Don’t want to crossover
    But how do I keep from going under?
    Where is my picket fence?
    My long, tall glass of lemonade?
    Where is my VCR, my stereo, my T.V. show?
    I look at the T.V.
    I don’t see your America
    I look out the window
    I don’t see your America
    I want to know how to get to your America
    I want to know how to get to your America
    America

  89. 89.

    dnfree

    More Dylan, 115th Dream.

    But the funniest thing was, when I was leavin’ the bay
    I saw three ships a-sailin’, they were all heading my way
    I asked the captain what his name was
    And how come he didn’t drive a truck
    He said his name was Columbus, I just said, “Good luck”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbdF4hBfQiE

  90. 90.

    laura

    Homeward Bound – Simon & Garfunkel This Land is Your Land – Ray Charles  4th of July – X

  93. 93.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Martin: Yup.  This is why I just shared Americans (Janelle Monae), Gang Shit (Marlon Craft) and Which Way To America (Living Colour).  All are premised around the Black experience of America and the disconnect between the nostalgia and the reality.

  94. 94.

    Jazzman

    Not a song (with lyrics), but a magnificent, eloquent instrumental piece by Aaron Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man.
    Copland became the critically acclaimed “Dean of American composers”–not bad for a gay, Jewish son of immigrants.

  97. 97.

    dnfree

    @WaterGirl: heck, I was young when that photo was taken!  Younger than Pete anyway.  First album of his I ever bought, but far from the last.  That’s the year I graduated from high school.

  102. 102.

    Soprano2

    I watched the concert from Central Park live on TV, it was quite the event. I wish I could have been there, but frankly I probably had a better seat at home. I love Simon and Garfunkel, one of my faves.

    Music about America – “Battle Hymn” is great. I’ve sung it more than once, the arrangement we use has a section for 4 part acapella men that always gives me chills. S&G “America” always makes me feel sad for some reason. “Stars and Stripes Forever” is my favorite march  because of the piccolo part. And Copeland’s “Fanfare for the Conmon Man”.

  104. 104.

    smith

    I’d like to suggest a recent song, Che Apalache’s The Wall. It’s nominally about TFG’s wall, but really about America.

  105. 105.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    Just watched it all the way through again for the first time in maybe 20 years*, and the whole falling scene straight through to the end still makes the eyes well up.

    Oh, and Swoosie Kurtz is so fine.

    (Saw it on stage with Christopher Reeve playing the paraplegic. Even from the balcony could see Jeff Daniels break into a sweat carrying him up the stairs.)

    *which is silly as I have my own better copy on videotape, only need to dig it out

  107. 107.

    FelonyGovt

    An enthusiastic endorsement for An American Tune, which always makes me tear up.

    Also Born in the USA by Bruce, and American Girl by Tom Petty.

  109. 109.

    Kathleen

    @WaterGirl: More meaningful when I remember how Pete Seeger and the Weavers were banned from network TV well into the 1960’s. My favorite folk group the Kingston Trio refused to appear on any programs which blacklisted them.

  110. 110.

    dnfree

    @Soprano2: yes yes yes to the piccolo part in Stars and Stripes forever!  People get tired of listening to me rave about it.  Caught it twice on TV last night during the fireworks. I think somehow to me it’s like something small triumphing over the massed might of the brass.  Or something like that.

  111. 111.

    eclare

    I can’t believe I’m the first to mention Neil Diamond – America.  On the phone, so no link.

  112. 112.

    Frosty Fred

    Sorry if I’ve missed anyone else’s correction, but credit where due: “Little Boxes” was written by the great Malvina Reynolds.

  113. 113.

    Kathleen

    @Amir Khalid: Deportee is a great choice and is as relevant today as it was when it written (late 40’s/early 50’s). I would add Pastures of Plenty to your list.

  114. 114.

    Kathleen

    @Amir Khalid: Deportee is a great choice and is as relevant today as it was when it written (late 40’s/early 50’s). I would add Pastures of Plenty to your list. I used to play my guitar and sing it when I was in high school. My favorite Guthrie song.

  116. 116.

    Miss Bianca

    @germy: Err…I believe that’s O Sacred *Heart* Sore Wounded.  Or, rather, that’s what I thought I was singing in choir all those years ago. But a quick Google search tells me otherwise.

  117. 117.

    WaterGirl

    @Kathleen: I did not know that about the Kingston Trio.  Inspiring people, inspiring times.

    Maybe what we’re missing is some good folk music to get people more involved now.

  118. 118.

    Soprano2

    @dnfree: I was a flute/piccolo player, so I’m biased. It’s one of the few marches where they actually make a difference.

  120. 120.

    Drdavechemist

    @Soprano2: The Wilhousky arrangement of Battle Hymn that I’m sure you are thinking of is so over-the-top and we’ve sung it every year for our church choir’s Thanksgiving service for so long that I think most of my choir friends and I approach it with an attitude of weary cynicism. That said, after not singing in person for a year and a half, I think a lot of those old chestnuts will hit me emotionally when we are finally back together in the choir loft this fall.

  121. 121.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    One that hasn’t been mentioned yet and might qualify: Is “Fake Empire” by The National about America? I think so but am not entirely sure.

  122. 122.

    Raoul Paste

    @WaterGirl: Yes, it’s a tough thing to reconcile the hope and optimism of some of these Pete Seeger songs with the actual news.

    Last night the spouse and I saw the movie Summer of Soul about the 1969 Harlem cultural fest.   Gotta admit that I choked up when the Fifth Dimension performed Age of Aquarius , not just because it was a spectacular rendition, but because 50 years later, the Age of Aquarius has indeed not dawned

  123. 123.

    Kathleen

    @WaterGirl: I’ve been thinking the same thing. Folk music played pivotal role in Civil Rights and Union struggles. I was really into it in my high school years.

  125. 125.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Martin: Agreed.  I’m often dumbfounded that Monae isn’t as big as Beyonce or Lizzo.  No shade at them, they are both amazing and totally deserve their fame, fortune etc.  But Janelle is, imo, every bit as awesome.  And her videos are some of the best out there.  I watch the video album of Dirty Computer regularly.  It’s so stunning and creative and the tunes are impossible not to sing along to.  She’s an incredible talent and a really admirable advocate for social justice/equality.

  130. 130.

    Jackie

    Dion’s Abraham, Martin and John.

    I made my Dad listen to it; he made me play it again, and teared up.

  131. 131.

    citizen dave

    As a lifelong Hoosier I’m required to also support Mellencamp’s Little Pink Houses for you and me.

    All fine songs, many celebrating our awesomeness as a nation, but how can we be a self-respecting Top 10,000 Liberal blog without a punk song or two mentioned.  How about the Dead Kennedys “Stars and Striped of Corruption” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJWpR1mGoJw or the Minutemen’s “The Big Stick” https://tinyurl.com/r6ys79z4 ?  To name two among many in the genre.

    The Big Stick, from the mid-1980s:

    Now over there in Managua Square
    With American made bombs falling everywhere
    They kill women and children and animals too
    These bombs are made by people like me and you
    And we’re told that we hold a big stick over them
    But I know from what I’ve read that peace is in our hands
    Now over there in Guatamala my friend
    We’re making mistakes there once again
    Uncle Sam supports a fascist regime
    That doesnt represent the people over there
    We learn and believe there is justice for us all
    And we lie to ourselves with a big stick up our ass
    Now if we stand and yell it out
    That war isn’t what we’re all about
    Then someone will come and bring us back
    To get the peace train back on it’s tracks
    This is what I’m singing about
    The race war that America supports
    Indians will never die
    They’ll do just fine if we let them try
    Though we hold, we’re never told that peace is in our hands
    If we stop there is time to heal the scars we’ve caused
    To heal the scars we’ve caused…

    Source: LyricFind

  132. 132.

    Soprano2

    @Drdavechemist: I wouldn’t want to sing it every year, but once every few is nice. That part is so, so beautiful, and I love that the song is about the Union fight.

    ETA – If you love singing and music like I do, you’ll probably all be crying. I was lucky that our university was able to still have choir safely last year. It was weird but made me a better singer.

  133. 133.

    Ruckus

    America

    So many ideals, so simple yet so not

    So many ideals, so many contradictions

    So much big, yet so much small

    So many willing, yet so many not

    So much progress, yet so much regression

    So much possibilities, yet so much restriction

    So many lives, yet so much hate

    So much beauty, yet so much not

    So much humanity, yet so much inhumanity

    So much promise, yet so many not fulfilled

    So much work, yet to be done

  134. 134.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @WaterGirl: ​Saw them live at the Merriwether Post Pavilion in Columbia MD in early 1968. I remember being blown away by “For Emily” but don’t recall if they did “America.”

    I do remember as a college freshman singing it to a girl I was about to lose, at the end of an exceedingly alcoholic (for me – she wouldn’t indulge) dance/date.**

    ** I drank her share of the OJ and vodka as well as my own – and as we left, after collecting her wrap from the coat check, dropped it 3 times in the 15 yards to where she waited. I will go to my grave not knowing how I drove the couple of miles to her folks’ place, parked the car, got her inside, drove the 7-8 miles to my folks’ place, parked the car, unlocked the back door and collapsed on my bed without serious injury to either of us or the family jalopy.​

  135. 135.

    Ruckus

    @PaulB:

    Playing for Change is one of the best things about the web, the ability for all these musicians around the world to play together.

  136. 136.

    ThresherK

    I’ve been to Katherine Lee Bates’ museum in Falmouth, and all of “America the Beautiful”, including the little-performed ending verses.

    O beautiful for heroes proved
    In liberating strife,
    Who more than self their country loved
    And mercy more than life!

    —

    Also, this is a bit out of left field, and there are problematic issues with some of the people involved, but as a tangent, “Me and Jimmie Rodgers”. The laid-back feel and the imagery really do it for me, warts and all.

  137. 137.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @JAFD: ​Does Mrs Mahler get a word or two in edgewise? I.e., are they gonna play “Alma”- ? If not, here it is for your auditory enjoyment…​
    (ETA: There is a biography of Alma Mahler Gropius Werfel, which my Significant-Ex found in the Howard County Public Library just prior to our first European trip – and it ends with the lyrics to “Alma.” We trammed out to Grinzing to find Gus’s place of last repose – and discovered Alma’s in the next row some ways down.

    Alma, tell us –
    All modern women are jealous:
    Which of your magical wands
    Caught you Gustav and Walter and Franz?​

  140. 140.

    Kathleen

    @Raoul Paste: Oh, man! I don’t know how this documentary escaped me all these years. I’m a Soul/R&B freak and but I’ve managed to miss some gems!

  141. 141.

    What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Kathleen:  It just came out this week. You missed it because it didn’t exist until now. If you haven’t seen the new Motown documentary (I think it’s called Hitsville USA and is on Amazon Prime I think) that’s really great too. So is the one on the Muscle Shoals studio and an older Motown documentary called Standing in the Shadows of Motown.

  142. 142.

    jackmac

    @Cmorenc: ​
     I was just about to recommend Ray Charles’ version of “America the Beautiful”. It’s an awesome, soulful performance. This should be our National Anthem, not the Star Spangled Banner and it’s racist lyrics (third verse). Also, John Phillips Sousa’s “Stars and Stripes Forever” never gets old. I saw a version by the U.S. Marine Band on YouTube this morning and this onetime baritone horn player was humming along with my instrument’s part!

  146. 146.

    Wvng

    @WaterGirl: I am so glad that Pete Seeger got to sing that song in that place on that day, with his grandson Tao helping him with the vocals and Springsteen singing along. I am equally glad Pete didn’t live to see Trump come along.

  148. 148.

    karen marie

    @PaulB:   That one always makes me cry.  It’s so beautiful

    I doubt anyone has mentioned this one but I think it epitomizes America as it is, not as we wish it to be – Denis Leary’s “I’m an asshole.”

  149. 149.

    Doug

    Oh well oh well I feel so good today
    We just touched down on an international runway
    Jet propelled back home from overseas to the USA

    New York, Los Angeles, oh how I yearned for you
    Detroit, Chicago, Chattanooga, Baton Rouge
    Let alone just to be at my home back in old St. Lou

    Did I miss the skyscrapers, did I miss the long freeway?
    From the coast of California to the shores of the Delaware Bay
    You can bet your life I did, till I got back in the USA

    Looking hard for a drive-in, searching for a corner cafe
    Where hamburgers sizzle on an open grill night and day
    Yeah, and a jukebox jumping the records like in the USA

    — the one and only Chuck Berry

  150. 150.

    Narya

    Springsteen’s “American Land.”
    “the hands that built this country we’re always trying to keep out”

  151. 151.

    dnfree

    @Soprano2: I was a third clarinet. We did the syncopated off-beats of the same note in the background. No one ever noticed us.

  153. 153.

    JanieM

    late to the party and have a pile of groceries to put away, but “American Tune” is also one of my all-time favorites………………used to have a nice piano arrangement of it but can’t play it anymore because I don’t have a piano in my house anymore

  154. 154.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Cmorenc: I’m generally a very gentle and peaceful person, but I have to admit The Battle Hymn of the Republic can bring tears to my eyes. So fierce and has so many great lines in it. It’s the best expression of why the North fought the Civil War.

  155. 155.

    prostratedragon

    @dnfree:  Yes! Ex-piccolo player here and still remember the part,  though maybe not all the fingerings.

    Must check out a couple of these,  but “Lift Every Voice  and Sing ” should not be forgotten.  My father, who also didn’t care for the militaristic SSB, used to say that everyone should find their experience in it.

  156. 156.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    I start blubbering when I hear Miley Cyrus’s “PArty in the USA”​

  160. 160.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @James E Powell: That’s a sad and powerful association. I remember the night he was assassinated but don’t have clear memories of his funeral train.

  161. 161.

    debbie

    @Ruckus:

    I saw them at Boston Garden around 1973 or 1974. I think it was the only show where the live performance was as tight as the studio version.

  163. 163.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    Jack Straw by The Grateful Dead is a good song about America.

    Leaving Texas

    4th day of July

    Sun so hot, the clouds so low

    The eagles fill the sky

  164. 164.

    way2blue

    WaterGirl—Is that Charles P Pierce singing away at 2:20 on the ‘This Land is Your Land’ video?

  166. 166.

    artem1s

    the number commonly known as Rodeo composed by Aaron Copeland – he borrowed it from Kentucky fiddler William “Bill” Hamilton Stepp’s performance of “Bonaparte’s Retreat,” which was recorded in 1937 by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax and transcribed by Ruth Crawford Seeger for the National Recording Archive

    More on Stepp here who it turns out was quite a character

    There is something uniquely American about the music Copeland used as his source material for Appalachian Spring and Rodeo, if only because, it came from somewhere else and was transformed by the land and the people who lived here. Copeland was just another in a long line of Homers retelling the same basic myths and stories over and over and giving them his own embellishments.

  170. 170.

    Ruckus

    Or this one

    Or here

    Or here

    BTW I like listening to unknown people who are good. The hits are great, those that make it to the top or even close are even better, but some of the unknowns are breath taking.

  172. 172.

    Ruckus

    One more. Not a music post, but I saw this while looking for other music. I’ve seen it before, am pretty sure that I saw it when Buddy was on Carson.

  174. 174.

    Chris Johnson

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Jack Straw is a great song, full stop. Might be one of the best things Robert Hunter ever wrote. Every line is just, chills.

    The Bob Weir part is us, all of us, in 2021 America. Hurts my ears to listen, burns my eyes to see. And we may end up digging that shallow grave for our murderous compatriots before too much longer.

  175. 175.

    MCA1

    “American Tune” is probably my favorite Paul Simon song, which is guess is saying something given that the man wrote “The Boxer,” “America,” “Bridge over Troubled Water,” “Graceland,” “Slip Sliding Away” and lots of other amazing songs.  I’ve always enjoyed the Concert in Central Park version but prefer the studio or other Simon solo performances, partly because he didn’t originally write it for Garfunkel to sing and partly because I think there’s more weariness and melancholy in Simon’s voice that matches the lyrics better.

    In any event, I listened to that song on my walk to the ballot box in 2008, tired and distressed about the path we were on, but hopeful for a better tomorrow knowing that the Bush Era was coming to an end and we were likely to have a President Obama shortly.  Now I look back on that day and think “Man, that was nothin'” and think the song resonates even more now than it did back then.  When lyrics are still meaningful 50 years on, that’s an achievement.

  176. 176.

    Geminid

    I like “Oh, Shenandoah.” For a Iong time I thought it was about some guy who missed the Shenandoah Valley. (I sure would have missed it if I’d gone west). Then I read that the Shenandoah sung of was an Oneida Chief who lived in upstate New York, into the 19th century. Still a good song that became a sea chantey.

  177. 177.

    citizen dave

    @raven commented: “@citizen dave: My buddy was the catcher on John’s Seymour little league team.”

    Just want to say awesome! as I’m reading the later comments in the thread (John is John Mellencamp for context)

  178. 178.

    Villago Delenda Est

    WaterGirl, absolutely agreed about “American Tune”.  One of Paul Simon’s greatest compositions.

  180. 180.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I am forever grateful that this assemblage has not mentioned that stupid song by Lee Greenwood that I will not name.

  182. 182.

    NotMax

    @WaterGirl

    BTW, have been meaning to mention that the Prime and Netflix threads in the sidebar are a bit long in the tooth by now and ready for retirement, as any number of titles recommended within them may no longer be available on the respective services.

  185. 185.

    Sourmash

    American Trilogy by Elvis
    US Blues by The Grateful Dead
    City of New Orleans by Steve Goodman
    Promised Land by Chuck Berry
    This Land is Your Land by Woody Guthrie

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