Category: Music

The Fourth of July in Song

american flag There are a number of popular songs that reference the Fourth of July and Independence Day. There are songs that take a historical approach to focus on the drafters and signers of the Declaration of Independence as in the play and movie 1776. And there are popular songs about America like the version of “America the Beautiful” by Ray Charles or the song we discussed on Chimesfreedom last year, Paul Simon’s “American Tune.” But there are also a number of songs that refer to the modern version of the holiday without singing about Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, or purple mountains majesty.

Shooter Jennings: “Fourth of July”

Shooter Jennings, son of the great Waylon Jennings, recorded an excellent song about the holiday in “Fourth of July” off his debut album, Put the O Back in Country (2005). Although the song does not mention the Declaration of Independence or our Founding Fathers, it evokes the Fourth of July that is more familiar to Americans today of having a nice holiday.

Unlike many of the other Fourth of July patriotic songs, Shooter Jennings’s song is completely about the holiday. And it is a fun song. (Unfortunately, the official video is no longer available on YouTube so below is a fan video with the lyrics. A live version is here.)

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“The Great Compromise”

John Prine invokes patriotic imagery as he remembers “a girl who was almost a lady” born on the Fourth of July in his wonderful “The Great Compromise.” The song appeared on Prine’s album Diamonds In The Rough (1971).

The girl in “The Great Compromise,” however, really represents the United States.  Prine’s song about disillusionment with the country during the Vietnam War is one of the great songs about our country. [Thanks to Lucia Ferrara for reminding me about the Prine song.]

Other Singing References to the Fourth

Many other singers and songwriters have planted references to the holiday in their songs.  For example, there are songs by James Taylor (“On the Fourth of July”), U2 (the instrumental “4th of July”), Elliott Smith (“Independence Day”), X (“4th of July”), Ariel Abshire (“Fourth of July”), and Aimee Mann (“4th of July”).

Tom Waits mentions the holiday in “This One From the Heart.” So does Chicago in “Saturday in the Park” but the band was not completely sure about the day:  “Saturday in the park/ I think it was the Fourth of July.”

And Lucinda Williams sang about a “Metal Firecracker,” although the song title referred to a tour bus. PopMatters has a good list of July Fourth songs, and check out the comments below for some more additions.

What is your favorite Fourth of July song? Let us know in the comments. And have a happy and safe Fourth of July.

 

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    “The Star Wars That I Used to Know” Parody

    star wars that i used to know
    One of the most played songs on the radio for awhile has been Gotye‘s song “Somebody That I Used To Know.” So it was about time that someone took the song and made it about Star Wars. Check out the latest viral video circulating the Internet.

    The video follows the style of the video for the original song. Teddie Films created the parody.

    Gotye Somebody That I Used to Know By the way, despite recent Internet rumors, Gotye is alive and not dead.

    What do you think of the song parody? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Louis Armstrong’s Genius and “West End Blues”

    louis armstrong west end blues On June 28 in 1928, Louis Armstrong created one of history’s landmark musical recordings in Chicago with “West End Blues.” The composition was written and originally recorded by Armstrong’s mentor, Joe “King” Oliver, but Armstrong established himself as a genius and major influence of American music with the recording he made that day. Among other acknowledgements, NPR lists “West End Blues” as one of the 100 most influential musical works of the twentieth century.

    The 26-year-old Armstrong and his Hot Five that day recorded the piece with a piano solo by Earl “Fatha” Hines and included one of the first recordings of scat singing by Armstrong. Most historians, though, recognize that what made the recording so special was Armstrong’s 15-second trumpet introduction and his eight-bar solo toward the end of the piece.

    Composer and historian Gunther Schuller wrote about Armstrong’s first four notes of “West End Blues” in Early Jazz: Its Roots and Early Developtment (1986): “The way Louis attacks each note, the quality and exact duration of each pitch, the manner in which he releases the note, and the subsequent split second silence before the next note – in other words, the entire acoustical pattern – present in capsule form all the essential characteristics of jazz inflection.” (p. 116)

    Billie Holiday summed up the impact of the song a different way, writing that sometimes “West End Blues” made her so sad, she’d “cry up a storm.” But “[o]ther times the same damn record would make me so happy.”

    Ken Burns’s TV series Jazz features a great discussion of this composition named for the West End on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans. While the segment is not available on YouTube, the series is available on Netflix streaming. For a more detailed discussion of the music in the piece and its legacy, check out this excellent post from The Wonderful World of Louis Armstrong blog. Or just close your eyes and listen to “West End Blues” again.

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    Nils Lofgren Helped Write A Classic 1970s Rod Stewart Ballad

    Nils Lofgren added some lyrics to help Danny Whitten finish what became a classic love song, “I Don’t Want to Talk About It.”

    Rod Stewart I Don't Want To Talk About It Nils Lofgren is a great talent who has had a spectacular career, often as a band member in the shadows of other stars like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. One piece of information I recently discovered is that he contributed to the classic ballad “I Don’t Want to Talk About It,” even though he is not in the song’s credits.

    The song is by Danny Whitten and was originally recorded by Crazy Horse. Whitten struggled with finishing the song and Lofgren liked the song and encouraged him to finish it. Eventually Lofgren took the initiative to write a few more lines to finish the song. Crazy Horse released the song in 1971, and then in 1975 Rod Stewart had a hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. with the song, which appeared on his album Atlantic Crossing.

    The song has a typical broken-heart theme, with the singer lamenting lost love. But “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” is one of the great heartbreak ballads of the twentieth century. The melody and the contradictions of the lyrics raise the song to another level, with the singer asking a lover to listen while at the same time saying he does not want to talk about it.

    I don’t want to talk about it, how you broke my heart.
    If I stay here just a little bit longer,
    If I stay here, won’t you listen to my heart, whoa, heart?
    I don’t want to talk about it, how you broke this old heart.

    Stewart rerecorded the song in 1989, and later he performed the song with Amy Belle. Other artists have covered the song too. The Indigo Girls did a nice cover for the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia (1993), and Everything But the Girl had a hit with the song in 1985 when they released it as a single in the UK.

    YouTube used to have a video of Lofgren talking about the song, but it has disappeared. But here is the audio of a live version of Lofgren playing the song with a short introduction.

    What do you think of “I Don’t Want to Talk About It”? Ballad classic? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    The Byrds Release “Mr. Tambourine Man”

    On June 21, 1965, the Byrds helped launch the folk-rock movement with their release of their debut album with the title track of a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man.” Below, The Byrds perform the song on television in the 1960s.

    The Byrds — with Roger McGuinn singing lead as Gene Clark and David Crosby provided the harmony — recorded “Mr. Tambourine Man” in January for their debut album even before Dylan had a chance to record it himself. When Dylan heard what the Byrds did to his song, he reportedly exclaimed, “Wow, man, you can even dance to that!” By the time the Byrds released their album on June 21, 1965, Dylan was in the studio finishing up “Like a Rolling Stone.”

    In this video below from a 2009 webcast, Chris Hillman of The Byrds tells how the band came to reinterpret “Mr. Tambourine Man” and how jazz great Miles Davis helped the band get its first record contract. Check it out.

    “Mr. Tambourine Man” also has been covered by Arlo Guthrie, Judy Collins, Teenage Fan Club, William Shatner, and Kevin Costner. For another performance of “Mr. Tambourine Man” by The Byrds, check out their second television performance in May 1965 before their first album was officially released.

    What is your favorite version of “Mr. Tambourine Man”? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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