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. A live version is here.

“Independence Day”

There are two excellent songs titled “Independence Day” that focus on personal escape and independence. In Bruce Springsteen’s song from The River (1980), he sings about leaving home, not necessarily on the Fourth of July.  The song highlights the tension between father and son, with the son leaving:  “Well say goodbye it’s Independence Day / It’s Independence Day all boys must run away.”

While Springsteen’s “Independence Day” portrays a bittersweet aspect of growing up and escaping, Martina McBride sings her “Independence Day” as an angry and empowering anthem. In the song, written by Gretchen Peters, the singer recounts her mom standing up to domestic abuse.

The “Independence Day” in this song refers both to the mother’s action asserting independence as well as to the holiday:  “So I took myself down to the fair in town / On Independence Day.” Here is McBride’s video of the song, which appeared on her album The Way That I Am (1993).

“Fourth of July, Asbury Park”

Springsteen actually does have a song that, unlike his “Independence Day,” is set on the holiday. “Fourth of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)” first appeared on Springsteen’s second album, The Wild, The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle (1973) album.  The song captures a moment of young love on a summer holiday down by the shore.

Here is a young Boss playing the song in 1975 at Hammersmith Odeon. Like Shooter’s song, this one does a great job of capturing the holiday spirit.

Songs About Fireworks

I suspect that many firework displays feature Katy Perry’s “Firework,” from her Teenage Dream (2010) album. Although the song mentions the Fourth of July, it does so in the context of asking the object of the song to “Just own the night like the Fourth of July.”

Like McBride’s “Independence Day,” Perry’s “Firework” is a song of empowerment, but without the arson.

Another song that evokes the annual holiday explosives is Ryan Adams’s excellent song, “Firecracker” from his Gold (2001) CD. The song is about courtship instead of going out to see fireworks on the Fourth of July: “I just want to be your firecracker / And maybe be your baby tonight.”

In this video, Adams performs “Firecracker” in an acoustic version.

“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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    Andy Griffith Was America’s Favorite Country Boy

    Andy Griffith Football One of the legends of television, Andy Griffith passed away today at the age of 86. He died at his home on Roanoke Island, North Carolina, where he lived peacefully out of the spotlight. Griffith will always be remembered as the sheriff of Mayberry in The Andy Griffith Show (1960-1968), where Griffith also helped in developing the scripts for the series. Many of us grew up watching that show and Griffith’s role in the legal drama, Matlock (1986-1995), which actually ran longer than The Andy Griffith Show.

    Griffith’s first big break came when his 1953 funny monologue, “What it Was, Was Football,” became a best-selling record. The story recounts a hillbilly’s attempt to try to figure out the sport.

    On television, he appeared in the teleplay No Time for Sergeants in 1955 playing a country boy in the Air Force. The show would later inspire the Andy Griffith Show spin-off, U.S.M.C. Gomer Pyle, and it led to Griffith starring in the 1958 film version of No Time for Sergeants. The movie teamed Griffith with Don Knotts, who went on to co-star as Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show. The TV show pairing with the funny Knotts freed Griffith’s Andy Taylor from having to be the clown and allowed his character to develop as the small town’s heart. Knotts also became Griffith’s life-long best friend until Knotts died in 2006.

    My favorite Griffith movie role is his starring performance in A Face in the Crowd (1957). The film, directed by Elia Kazan, starred Griffith as a power-hungry country boy, capturing something darker than we would usually see in Griffith’s characters. The film had mixed reviews initially, but today, most critics appreciate the film’s deep journey into revealing something scary underlying American popular culture. A Face in the Crowd now has an excellent 91% Critics Rating and a 93% Audience Rating on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

    In later years, Griffith did not appear often on television. But in 2008 he appeared in Brad Paisley’s video for “Waiting on a Woman” and on a remix of the song on Paisley’s mostly instrumental album Play (2008). It was great to see Griffith in action again, once again dispensing some country wisdom to a new generation. Paisley became friends with Griffith, and told the older man that his TV role as Andy Taylor had taught him many lessons about raising his own son.

    I still watch The Andy Griffith Show when I catch it on television, and I wrote about my trip last year to see Andy Griffith’s birthplace of Mount Airy, which claims to be the basis for the fictional Mayberry. So, for many of us, the story of Andy Griffith has to begin and end with The Andy Griffith Show because we so loved the character and the town he created. And we loved how the country boy in a simple town taught us something about being a man in a complicated world. And so I will end with one of my favorite short clips where Andy used birds to teach about responsibility to his son Opie (Ron Howard).

    My, don’t the clouds in heaven seem nice and full today? RIP Andy Griffith (and Andy Taylor).

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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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    Don Grady Through the Years

    Don Grady My Three Sons Don Grady, who played Robbie Douglas on My Three Sons (1960-1972), passed away June 27, 2012 at the age of 68. Another actor who guest starred on the show, Doris Singleton, passed away around the same time.

    My Three Sons

    I remember watching My Three Sons when I was growing up. Because of my age, I did not originally watch the early seasons when Robbie was the middle son of Fred MacMurray’s character.  But I remember watching the later years when Grady was the oldest son after actor Tim Considine departed the show.

    A few years ago, though, I went back and watched the first season of the series and found it fascinating in the way it differed from the later years. Many find that the show was innovative in its early years, and it is too bad that there are only a couple complete seasons that officially are available on DVD now.

    Here is part of an early episode of My Three Sons featuring Don Grady.

    USA Today reports that Barry Livingston, who played youngest son Ernie Douglas in the later seasons, was the person who confirmed Grady’s death to the Associated Press. Livingston noted how he saw Grady as a real older brother and had learned a lot from him.

    In addition to his acting career, Grady was a talented musician, and Livingston noted, “I would think Don would love to be remembered for his great music as much as a teen idol and television icon.”

    So, in remembering Don Grady, here are a few different aspects of his career. First, before My Three Sons Grady appeared in a commercial singing and dancing, although unfortunately that video is no longer available on YouTube.

    Don Grady, The Greefs, and Pop Music

    Here Grady is singing on Hollywood A Go-Go.

    Grady toyed with the idea of being a pop star while still on My Three Sons, where he had the band the Greefs. Below are the Greefs with “Good Man to Have Around the House.”

    Grady’s Other Music Career

    But after My Three Sons ended, Grady went in another music direction. He wrote music for movies and TV shows, including the opening music for The Phil Donahue Show.

    From what I can tell from the Internet, he wrote the theme used in 1979 below (but feel free to correct me if you know of other information). Check it out.

    In 2008, Grady released the CD Boomer: JazRokPop, which had a jazzier sound than his early pop music.

    Reunion

    Finally, we have to return to My Three Sons.  Here is Don Grady in a My Three Sons “brothers” reunion on The Early Show, including the real-life brothers of Barry Livingston (Ernie) and Stanley Livingston (Chip).  The reunion also includes Tina Cole, who played Robbie’s wife, Katie Miller.

    Grady was in Los Angeles while the other cast members were in New York for the taping in this video that appears to be from 2009.

    Thanks for the memories. RIP.

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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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