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 homeAnd 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 wrongAnd 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 flyingWe 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!
MontyTheClipArtMongoose
“Smallpox Champion” – Fugazi & “Rock Bottom” – Eminem.
Baud
Anything by the band America.
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.
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.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
one of the great opening lines, IMHO, a dis of Columbus that still makes me chuckle
also a really good song
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
WaterGirl
Forgot to say, add links if you have them!
Zzyzx
The Indigo Girls have a great version of American Tune on their (alas promo only ) album Reverse One Live.
Found a video of a different live version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHPokSACKJo
It’s not paced quite as well, but it’s close enough if you don’t know the better one :)
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.
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.
dr. bloor
Mark Knopfler’s “Telegraph Road” would have to be on my short list.
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!
Zzyzx
@Subsole: a song about members of a Mooney camp 2 miles off campus coming to Bard to harass students says America to you? Eh, OK I can see it.
WaterGirl
I am watering flowers for a friend who is in France for 17 days. Off to water, back in a little while.
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.
debbie
I emphatically second your second choice, WG. Life stops for this song. Too many damn uncertain hours.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Springsteen commenting on and singing “This Land Is Your Land”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Pink Houses, by John Mellencamp. Sums it all up.
Subsole
Streets of Philadelphia, by The Boss.
“Ain’t no angel gonna greet me,
It’s just you and I my friend.”
Barbara
Paul Simon sang American Tune and (Look for) America at the last concert I attended pre-Covid. I love both.
Zzyzx
The way I usually interact with this country is through long road trips, largely out west so most of my “America” songs are driving ones.
All Along by Anna Tivel just feels like 1 AM on mile 600 of an 800 mile drive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-J7YLPD18k
Pale Sun by Cowboy Junkies is a lament to the conquest of the west, but it still has that sense of the endless travel across the Mountain Time Zone. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRz4FBVP3sE
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.
rikyrah
@WaterGirl:
Good neighbor ☺️
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.
WaterGirl
@Barbara: Would love to have seen Simon & Garfunkel together.
I have to settle for the concert in Central Park. :-)
Pennsylvanian
@WaterGirl: User name checks out!
HinTN
US Blues https://youtu.be/rdPOAhBp2Ag
WaterGirl
@Zzyzx: I haven’t listened to the Cowboy Junkies in forever. I think I might have that album. I will have to check.
Kent
Can’t go wrong with Woodie Guthrie. This is from 1944
WaterGirl
@germy: Mr. Bear did not approve of James Brown. He turned his back, got off my lap, and walked away.
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.
WaterGirl
@Pennsylvanian: Ha! I always thought of it as my love of water, not my job description. But you’re right!
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.
Zzyzx
@WaterGirl: it’s a great one. Crescent Moon also just feels like the desert.
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.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: He is my oldest friend who still lives in town. We were roommates in college and have been close friends ever since.
Another Scott
S&G’s The Boxer always gets to me.
Cheers,
Scott.
WaterGirl
@Zzyzx: I just checked, that’s the one I have! I will have to listen to that later.
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.
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.
germy
@WaterGirl:
I was at the concert in Central Park. My first and only time seeing Simon & Garfunkle.
germy
@WaterGirl:
Lower the volume for Mr. Bear!
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
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.
cope
@Baud: Even “Don’t Cross The River” and “The Border”?
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.
Martin
@germy: I was there too. Guessing we could organize a decent BJ meetup there if we could go back in time.
Ruviana
Water Girl, are you me? Your faves are the same as mine!
evap
Also, American Girl by Tom Petty
NotMax
Is it too cliché to toss The Washington Post into the mix?
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.
PaulB
From the same people, another great song: “Stand By Me.” And a song that can bring tears to my eyes when done right: “Lean On Me.”
Martin
@Another Scott: Strange Fruit very near the top of the list.
WaterGirl
@germy: Didn’t care for them?
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.
WaterGirl
@Ruviana: that’s nice to know!
germy
@WaterGirl:
I like some of the songs. I think my favorite album of theirs is Bookends.
dexwood
One Time, One Night -Los Lobos.
Would link to it if not a an old phone in need of replacement.
TheOtherHank
I am a huge fan of 4th of July by X and the Dave Alvin version too
germy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T3NtEB_4qA
Fats Waller
Benw
@MontyTheClipArtMongoose: Firecracker – Strung Out & Rockin in the Free World – Neil Young
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.
NotMax
I suppose it could be labeled niche Americana – Buffalo Springfield.
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
raven
Monster, Steppenwolf
America where are you now?
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters?
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster
WaterGirl
No one picked up on the question I raised, so I have deleted it.
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.
WaterGirl
@NotMax: One of the greatest songs of all time! It’s all about America.
raven
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill the yellow man
Born in the U.S.A
Sparkedcat
@WaterGirl: Calling the Trump family white trash resulted in my permanent ban from twitter.
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
debbie
@germy:
If they’ve only played once in the park, then I was there too. It was crowded.
tokyokie
I’ve always been partial to Mojo Nixon’s version of the Woody Guthrie classic that should be our national anthem.
raven
Well, we are volunteers of America (volunteers of America)
Volunteers of America (volunteers of America)
I’ve got a revolution
Got a revolution
dnfree
Not exactly about America, but about freedom, by Bob Dylan, so that’s close.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVIWA9VTiN8
David Evans
“American Tune” always chokes me up as well, and I’m British. I think the tune is perfect for the words.
OGLiberal
“Yankee Rose”, David Lee Roth. Even has Steve Vai’s talking guitar. /s
WaterGirl
@Sparkedcat: That sucks. Good thing this is Balloon Juice! :-)
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!
WaterGirl
@David Evans: I find it haunting, in a good way.
germy
@David Evans:
Here’s the original:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_OBbjAfVrI
Bluegirlfromwyo
A lot of good choices here…I’d add City of New Orleans.
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
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
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 ”
WaterGirl
@Bluegirlfromwyo: Yes!
Link
WaterGirl
@dnfree: He is so young in that photo!
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
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
laura
Homeward Bound – Simon & Garfunkel This Land is Your Land – Ray Charles 4th of July – X
joel hanes
Here’s an obscure one:
Ben Sidran, “Free In America”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5hq9HQ5GAE
dnfree
@UncleEbeneezer: wow, that’s powerful.
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.
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.
UncleEbeneezer
@dnfree: And they were preaching that in 1987!!
Kathleen
@germy: That’s my pick also!
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.
dnfree
@UncleEbeneezer: thank you for sharing.
Steve in the ATL
The Church “Columbus”
Cptlhill
Leonard Cohen, Canadian though he was, always sang of the US with the most sincere affection and disappointment…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DU-RuR-qO4Y
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QMQtvOwkT6w
Martin
@UncleEbeneezer: ‘Americans’ is a great song. Well, everything Janelle Monae does is great.
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”.
joel hanes
@Another Scott:
The Boxer always gets to me.
After changes we are more or less the same
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr1iKrTqa2w
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.
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
JeanneT
More on the idealistic side, I’d like to share Kitty Donahoe’s song about immigrants To America
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.
NotMax
@Soprano2
Emerson Lake & Palmer’s riff on Copland rocks in its own way.
(Also it must have been damn cold the day of that rehearsal.)
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.
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.
eclare
I can’t believe I’m the first to mention Neil Diamond – America. On the phone, so no link.
Frosty Fred
Sorry if I’ve missed anyone else’s correction, but credit where due: “Little Boxes” was written by the great Malvina Reynolds.
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.
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.
Soprano2
@NotMax: I have that on their “Works” album.
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.
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.
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.
Kathleen
@NotMax: Have you heard Billy Porter’s cover of “For What It’s Worth”? Very powerful.
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.
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.
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
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.
Kathleen
@Raoul Paste: I have to see that! It’s on Hulu?
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.
WaterGirl
@Raoul Paste: nodding in agreement on all points.
WaterGirl
@Kathleen: Somebody must be out there, I just don’t know who or where.
Raoul Paste
@Kathleen: I saw it in a theatre, first time in ages
NotMax
@Kathleen
Can’t help flashing back to Neil Patrick Harris singing
And you could bounce a quarter
Off the ass of Billy Porter
Lord, he does 8 shows a week
In 8-inch heels
.
as part of the best Tony Awards opening number ever (2013).
;)
Jackie
Dion’s Abraham, Martin and John.
I made my Dad listen to it; he made me play it again, and teared up.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ruckus
@NotMax:
One of my favs, they played so well, just setting up and blisteringly cold.
Kathleen
@UncleEbeneezer: She is! Hell of an actress too (played Mary Jackson in Hidden Figures).
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!
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.
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!
raven
@Raoul Paste: It’s near been released until now, how did you see it?
Nothing compares to Nina Simone.
raven
@citizen dave: My buddy was the catcher on John’s Seymour little league team.
Renie
@WaterGirl: Seems someone here liked you idea. See Art Gs FB page. Hee hee
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.
James E Powell
@dexwood:
Good call. Here you go.
One Time, One Night – Los Lobos
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.”
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
Narya
Springsteen’s “American Land.”
“the hands that built this country we’re always trying to keep out”
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.
KSinMA
@germy: Wonderful.
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
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.
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.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
I start blubbering when I hear Miley Cyrus’s “PArty in the USA”
James E Powell
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
Because of my age and events in my early life, I always associate The Battle Hymn of the Republic with Bobby Kennedy’s funeral train.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Right there with you, brother…
prostratedragon
@Uncle Cosmo: Regarding your code, there are things one is permitted to do once …
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.
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.
stinger
America, where we’re coming from:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBlaMOmKV4
Where I hope we can end up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdvITn5cAVc
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Jack Straw by The Grateful Dead is a good song about America.
way2blue
WaterGirl—Is that Charles P Pierce singing away at 2:20 on the ‘This Land is Your Land’ video?
WaterGirl
@way2blue: I will look
edit: I would say ‘no’, but that is one of my favorite parts of the video – the way those two apparent strangers are singing together.
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.
NotMax
@artem1s
Copland. No “e.”
/pedant
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@way2blue:
it is George Lucas (photo)
Good catch – I never noticed the resemblance btwn Lucas and Pierce.
Ruckus
Ya all want a song?
Try this one.
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.
WaterGirl
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Great catch on your part!
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.
Chris Johnson
@NotMax: That was quite awesome, thank you for that :)
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.
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.
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.
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)
Villago Delenda Est
WaterGirl, absolutely agreed about “American Tune”. One of Paul Simon’s greatest compositions.
Ruckus
@raven:
Truth.
Villago Delenda Est
I am forever grateful that this assemblage has not mentioned that stupid song by Lee Greenwood that I will not name.
WaterGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: Ha! As I was putting together the post, I almost included something about not choosing that song!
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.
Nancy
@Chris Johnson: And @ Formerly Disgruntled:
I can’t agree more.
Nancy
All of “Workingman’s Dead” and CSN&Y’s “Ohio”
and “What a field day for the heat, must be a thousand people in the street. Singin’ songs and carrying signs, (mostly) to say hurray for our side,” sounds like now and “It starts when you’re always afraid. . . .”
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life, it will creep
It starts when you’re always afraid
Step out of line, the man come and take you away
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