Episode 058 - Top 10 July 4th Songs

In celebration of Independence Day, I'm sharing my top 10 favorite songs about or inspired by July 4th. Beyond just the celebration, these tracks encompass themes about America and American ideals, and still rock. So have a safe, happy, healthy July 4th weekend and please join me for a run-down of my favorite songs about America, this week on the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast!

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and this week I've got another top 10 list for you with Independence Day. Coming up here in the US I've got a list of my favorite songs about, or inspired by July 4th. I'm looking beyond just songs about the holiday itself, stretching out to songs about America and about American ideals. So stick around for my favorite rock songs inspired by America's birthday coming up right now. Putting together a playlist for the 4th of July might seem easy. Just grab a few fireworks anthems, throw in Born in the USA and call it a day. But for me, it's a little more work than that. Independence Day is one of those holidays that can mean different things to different people. It's about freedom. Sure. It's about America. It's also about identity, about struggle, resilience, protest, celebration, memory, and in lots of cases. Conflict after all. Our country did start because of a revolution, and rock and roll has never been shy about digging into any of those things. Some of these songs are loud, upbeat, tributes to the American Spirit, thinks Springsteen's, born to Run, or Tom Petty's American Girl. Songs that explode with possibility, with motion, with the open road as a metaphor for freedom. Others like Springsteen's, born in the USA or Credence, Clearwater Revival's, fortunate Sun, or Marvin Gays, what's going on are just as iconic, but with a. Very different message. Songs that use the concept of America, not as a symbol of glory or freedom, but as a backdrop for expressing frustration, loss and injustice with how certain members of its society are being treated. The best songs about America often live in that tension, the space between what the country is and what it could be. I've got songs from artists who love this country deeply, and songs from artists who love it enough to criticize it. I've tried to pick tracks that'll make you want to crank up the volume at your barbecue. Though some might also make you stop and think on the way home. That's intentional because like any meaningful holiday, the 4th of July is about more than just fireworks and freedom, but also about who gets that freedom, who fought for and continues to fight for that freedom, and who's still waiting for that freedom. So I picked 10 songs that, at least for me, capture the complexity, the contradiction, and the Promise of America, and the Spirit of Independence Day. And Bruce Springsteen's Independence Day, by the way, is not one of them. Since that song's about individual independence as one becomes an adult, but Bruce is involved with more songs that fit this playlist than any other artist that I found, which makes sense, I guess because he is considered the father of Heartland Rock. But I promise I'll keep Springsteen's songs to a manageable level. There's No Kids In America by Kim Wilde Loved that song. She was a British singer who wrote an incredibly catchy synth pop hit in the early eighties. There's also no Living in America by James Brown. Which is really a great tune. It's kind of light on lyrical impact. There's no American Woman,'cause that was written by The Guess Who, they're a Canadian band and there's no Fortunate Sun by Creedence Clearwater Revival. I'm trying not to get too political with this list. There's no Revolution by the Beatles or Almost Independence Day by Van Morrison. Although I love both those songs. There are three songs that I considered with the title America. I only included one of them. There were eight songs with the words, 4th of July in the title that I found, but again, I only used one. Some of the songs on this list are celebratory, some of them are reflective, but all of them are rooted in the Rock-N-Roll spirit of telling the truth loudly, beautifully, and without apology. So let's get into it. Starting off, our countdown at number 10 is American Girl from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers 1976 self-titled debut album. While this track isn't overly patriotic, I think it really captures something essential about the American spirit, American girl is uh, really a story about yearning about a girl raised on promises, stuck in a nowhere town dreaming of getting out and doing something bigger with her life. It's drenched in that restless energy. We associate with youth, with freedom, with the highway, with the horizon, classic American mythology, but it's also haunted by disappointment, by the idea that promise might be empty or at least a promise deferred. So while it's not about America, the nation. It's deeply tied, in my opinion, to American identity and aspiration. As I mentioned in the intro, it fits in the same vein as Springsteen's Born to Run or Simon and Garfunkel's America. Songs that don't celebrate the country so much as they wrestle with it, they chase the idea of freedom, even if it's just around the corner and even if it never really arrives, at least during the song. In that way, it gets at the heart of America the way this country has always been defined by people longing for something more, aspiring to something greater. And the way that longing, no matter how bittersweet, still feels like freedom. And the song just feels American, doesn't it? Here's Tom Petty's American Girl. Else a great big word. Oh yeah. Alright. Take it easy, baby. She was an American girl. It was. She could hear the cars roll back not on 41, crashing on a bit. Everyone desperate more than day be cry back in her memory. Got it. So painful and so close. Oh yeah, it baby. Song nine is The Grateful Dead's US Blues from their 1974 album from the Mars Hotel. Leave it to the Grateful Dead to give us a song that's equal parts celebration, satire, and a little bit of psychedelic side eye right. US Blues is a good time jam, but underneath the red, white, and blue groove, it's also one of the sharpest and weirdest. And certainly most subversive entries on this list. It's a parade and a protest wrapped up in the same stars and striped suit. Jerry Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter dropped this one in 1974 smack in the middle of post-Vietnam. post-Watergate America, and what they delivered was a song that plays with the national imagery, the way the Dead is always played, with all the genres They play with it freely, fearlessly, and with just enough humor. To keep everyone guessing. There's a surreal kind of carnival quality to it all. Uncle Sam's driving the bandwagon, the founding fathers are over there in face paint, and the whole idea of America is spinning like a tie-dye pinwheel. It's not really cynicism, I wouldn't say, but it does feel like a commentary on the state of the nation at that time, from far out in left field, the Dead weren't trying to burn the flag. But they were holding it up to light to see what kind of shadow it cast. And yet for all the irony in irreverence us Blues is a hell of a great song. It's the Dead at their most accessible, singing an upbeat blues tune about the country that I. Had really been through a tough time from around 1968 to the point they recorded and released this track in 74. It is funky. It's loose. It's made for dancing in the grass with a beer in your hand, and the sky about to explode with fireworks. US Blues doesn't try to define America. It just grooves through it. Reflecting back the weirdness the band was seeing in a way that we could dance to, and this 4th of July, that's kind of the energy I'm looking for. Red and white blue sweat shoes. I'm on the. I am still alive. It ain't no luck. I looked duck check my pulse. It don't. The, the, the. And go. That's who I. A P No. Coming in at number eight is ROCK in the USA by John Mellencamp. If American Girl is a restless daydream, then ROCK in the USA is a celebration. Loud, joyful, and unapologetically fun. John Mellencamp said this song was his salute to a generation, and that's exactly what it sounds like. A jukebox love letter to the pioneers of rock and of soul who laid the foundation for everything that followed. But under the party starting surface, there is something deeper going on. This is a song about roots and on a holiday like the 4th of July that matters, Mellencamp name checks everyone from James Brown to Martha Reeves to Elvis Presley. Not just as nostalgia bait, but as a reminder that American music is American history. The diversity of influences, the mixing of sounds and cultures, the rise of voices that used to be shut down. All of that's in this song's, DNA. They were rocking he sings in the USA and who is they? It's not just those musical stars, it's the people in the country. The kids listening to this music on the radio, the kids dancing to this music, the kids with guitars and radios and big dreams making this music. There's no irony here. ROCK in the USA is pure celebration, but it's an earned celebration. This isn't a flag waving Anthem in the traditional sense, it's not about politics or policy. It's about spirit. The American instinct to create something loud and lasting from nothing. To express yourself to matter, and yes, to let it all out. Musically, it's lean and punchy. It's rockabilly meets Motown with a heartland twist. It's designed for open windows and backyard barbecues, but it also works as a reminder that the country's greatest export has never been tanks or slogans. It's been culture and primarily I'd say it's music and that music in all its messy, glorious, defiant history, tells a great story of our country, at least in the last century, and that's why I put John Mellen camp's, ROCK, in the USA at number nine on my list because sometimes the most patriotic thing you can do is crank up the volume and sing along. They come from the cities and they come from the small hometown and beat up cos with tires and numbers. Gold in. Goodbye to the family. Goodbye to friends with proper in the little money in. We sleep on tonight with. In the seventh spot. As Grand Funk Railroads. Were an American band. And let me start by acknowledging that this song isn't subtle. And it's not deep. It's a beer splashed drum pounding party song. And that's exactly why I included it on this list because the 4th of July is our chance to let loose crank up the amps and celebrate the pure reckless joy of being alive in America. Grand Funk dropped this one in 1973, and from the moment that that first cowbell hits, you're in for a ride on paper. It's just a collection of tour diary entries, but it's also more than that. It's an explosion of fun and loving what this band does. They're not flag waving either. Grant Funk, were never critic darlings, but they had the fans, they had the grit. And this song, it's them planting their flag in the middle of a stadium and saying, let's get this party started. And the July 4th holiday is supposed to be a party. So yeah, it's loud, it's cocky. It's a little bit over the top, but so is July 4th, and when that chorus hits, I wanna believe that just like me, you're singing along. A sweet, sweet planet. She. Independence Day song number six is Born in the USA by Bruce Springsteen. As I said, you can't have a list like this without Born in the USA, but let's be clear, this song is not what most people tend to think it is. It's been misread and misused so many times, blasted at rallies, slapped onto bumper stickers, turned into shorthand for chest thumping patriotism. But if you actually listen to the lyrics, it's something much more powerful, much more honest. When this album first came out, God, I was 15 when it came out, and it was my favorite record that summer this song was the title Track. Springsteen walked a fine line between using visuals to play up the association with the flag and the actual message of the song, which certainly allowed for some of the misinterpretation along the way. When that record then became one of the 50 bestselling albums of all time, it was hard to escape it in the culture at all. And with that much exposure came lots of different opinions and interpretations. Springsteen didn't write this as a celebration. He wrote it as a lament, I think, a cry for the working class. Kids who came home from Vietnam to find themselves kind of forgotten and broken and left behind by the country they fought for. That booming snare drum at the beginning. It doesn't signal a triumph. It sounds more like a gunshot, a warning, and when Bruce hits that chorus, it's not pride as much as it is pain and frustration. It's the sound of someone shouting because. They don't feel like anyone else is listening, and that's what makes it so important because the 4th of July shouldn't just be a day of blind celebration. It should also be a moment to reflect on what freedom in America really means for all of us born in the USA lives in that uncomfortable space where love of country meets deep frustration with it and that tension, that's where real patriotism lives, not in slogans, in truth. Since it came out, Bruce has been talking about patriotism more and more and became one of our nation's most visible representatives. I. Again, not something he started out trying to achieve, but he certainly played the hand that he himself had dealt. And in talking about patriotism, he frequently spoke about how patriotism requires constant attention and effort. In the 2002 interview with The Guardian, he said,"I believe every citizen has a stake in the direction of their country. If you claim to love your country, then you have to love it enough to critique it." And in his Broadway show in 2018, he said,"My work has always been about judging the distance between the American dream and American reality, and trying to shorten that distance." Born in the USA embodies those ideals and still it's an absolutely powerful song with a chorus that was built to get stadiums full of people singing along. Musically, it's huge, the synth line, the drums, Bruce's raw vocal delivered at. Full volume and then some. It didn't start out that way though. The original track was recorded along with the rest of the material that was released on 1982's Nebraska album, and that was a true solo record. Almost a folk record was sparse. Mostly dark songs about people living in the margins of society, struggling to get by. The original Born in the USA track was a haunted blues number, First kick or when I hit the ground, he end up like a dog much. You spend just, I was born in, I was born in the. And the lyrics, they're intimate, almost devastating. It's a story about one man's struggles and at the same time, it's the story of the struggle of millions of Americans. And I think that's why this song endures. It's not just about being Born in the USA, it's about what comes next and whether the country you were born into will live up to the promise that it made to all of us. One. Come back. Have brother. And number five is the Zac Brown Band with Chicken Fried. Now we're heading down south, not just geographically, but spiritually as well. Chicken Fried is one of those songs that can sneak up on you. At first it feels like it's all about the simple pleasures a cold beer on a Friday night. A pair of jeans that fit just right. And yes, a plate is something crispy and delicious, but listen a little closer. And what you'll hear is a modern country rock hymn to gratitude for family, for home, for everyday moments, and most of all for freedom. Zach Brown and his band aren't trying to make a big political statement here, I don't think, and that's exactly what makes this song so powerful in the context of the 4th of July. Chicken Fried is a reminder that patriotism isn't always about waving the flag. It's about recognizing what's worth protecting. There's no posturing, no empty rhetoric. Just a deep personal kind of appreciation. The kind that comes from knowing where you're from and what really matters. Musically, it's got that easy southern groove, part front porch, part festival stage. The harmonies are tight, as you'd expect with the ZBB. The vibe is all fun, but beneath the laid back charm is a core of emotional sincerity. This is music that feels to me like home. On a holiday that's all about celebrating where you come from and maybe grilling something while you're doing it. This one hits just right Chicken Fried Lands at number five because it reminds us that freedom isn't just a concept, it's something lived in the small daily details in laughter and love, in the comfort of familiar things. It's a song about taking nothing for granted. And on the 4th of July that feels about as American as it gets. The letter of things in life that mean most, not where you live, but you drive the frost tag on close. There's no dollar sign on, a piece of mind to soft come to know. So if you agree, have a drink with me, raise your glasses for toast to little on Friday night. Thank God for my life and four stars and Stripes made freedom forever fly. Let SL the ones who die the. So we don't have to sacrifice all the things we love. I got you on Friday night, Henry Radio for that season. For song number four, it's 4th of July, Asbury Park, Sandy, again by Bruce Springsteen. There were a number of songs with the words, 4th of July in the title that I considered, including tracks from James Taylor, Aimee Mann, Soundgarden. Dave Alvin of the Blasters and others, but this one captures the vibe of Independence Day down the shore so perfectly. Fireworks crackling over a boardwalk, summer, love slipping through salt air, the end of something beautiful just as it begins to burn out. This isn't a national anthem, it's a Jersey Shore Elegy. But that's exactly why I put it on this list because it reminds us that the 4th of July isn't just about the country. As with so many early Springsteen songs, it's about the Dreamers and the drifters. The ones stuck somewhere between wanting to stay and needing to go that make up so much of our country. Released in 1973 on The Wild, the Innocent, and the E Street Shuffle, his second album released in 1973. Sandy is young Springsteen at his most tender. It's a goodbye letter disguised as a love song soaked in accordion and sea breeze and the kind of romanticism that only exists when you're on the verge of leaving. He sings about broken rides and fortune tellers, greasers and girls in their summer clothes. But what he's really singing about is longing for freedom, for escape, for finding your own identity. Does that sound familiar? As I've mentioned here already, I. That's the heartbeat of the American myth, redefining yourself, going out and making whatever you will outta your life. The genius of the song is that it takes a small specific moment one night in one fading beach town, and it turns it into a metaphor for something so much bigger when Bruce sings this Boardwalk life for me is through, he's not walking away from Asbury Park. He's stepping away from the life that he's always known chasing whatever promise lies beyond that boardwalk I. It's a song about the space between where you're from and where you're going; about love you might lose and freedom that might cost you more than you expected. Musically, it's soft, it's hazy and wistful. You can practically feel the humidity rising off the boardwalk. And in 2007, Bruce flew his longtime organist and accordionist out to Indianapolis to play this song with him. One more time. Danny Federici had been playing with Bruce as long as any of his other band members. Danny and Gary Talend were the original mainstays of the E Street band, but Danny was at the end of a battle with melanoma and hadn't played with the band on the 2007 tour at all. But Bruce brought him up on stage with his accordion and they played this one last time together before, unfortunately, Danny passed away a few weeks later. So on this 4th of July, remember someone you love that's no longer around and play this song. Sandy fireworks are ha over a little evening tonight and all. Let's stranded on this 4th of July. The circuits full we love. So shiny and sharp is on a. And the boys from the casino dance with her shirts open. Like Latin lovers, the long show Chasing All In silly New Yorkers. You may never see you again. Hey. They tramp. The streets are getting busted. We trying to sleep on the beach all night. Them boys in their tie heels, I seen their skins are so white, just got tired of hanging in them. Dusty arcades, bang. Chasing the factory girl was underneath the boardwalk. Were they all promised Don Snapper jeans you that til way down on the track I it last night that. The. I Sandy Ed waitress, I was sin. She lost her desire for me. I spoke with her last night. She said she won't sit herself on fire for me anymore. She worked that joint under the board wall. She was always a girly son, lobbing down the beach with their radio kids, say last night she was dressed like a star and one of them cheap little seashore bars parked with a beating. The cops finally busted. We are rising behind. Forever. Oh, and I promise. I love you forever. Now, third on our list is Neil Diamonds America. There are very few songs that managed to both be a full on celebration and a pointed reminder of what the celebration is actually about. Neil Diamonds America walks that line perfectly. It starts off quiet and builds into something enormous and dramatic, almost schmaltzy and yeah. Neil Diamond isn't traditionally known as a rock star, but he was pretty rocking early in his career. So while this song isn't the most rock and roll choice on the list, it delivers where it matters most because it captures the sense of excitement and hope that immigrants felt throughout the years when coming to America. It's about people leaving everything behind for a shot at Freedom. They're coming to America. Diamond sings and he sings it like a preacher, like a believer, like a man who's been there and in a way, he had. His own family, came over from Eastern Europe just like mine did. He knew the weight behind those words. The brilliance of America lies in its simplicity. No fancy metaphors, no irony. No hidden messages, just a deep love for the idea of a country that welcomes the tired, the poor, the huddled masses. It's a tribute not to the government, but to the country itself, for providing that beacon of hope and opportunity to people from. Everywhere else in the world who cross oceans and borders driven by little more than faith in a better life and a better future, just like our original colonists. That kind of belief is the foundation that literally July 4th was built on. It's not a subtle song. Heck, it's not supposed to be. This is an anthem for the outsider who becomes an insider for the dreamers who make the American experiment real. That's why America lands at number three on the list because for all its Broadway flare and pop production, it tells one of the most profound American stories there is the arrival, the beginning, the first step towards the promise that America offers, and that's worth singing about, loudly, proudly, and without apology. Everywhere around the world, they come to America. Every time that flags they. They today. Today, my country today, land of today, the. Song number two is This Land Is Your Land by Woody Guthrie, written in 1940 as a direct response to what Woody felt was the saccharine nationalism of God Bless America, written by Irving Berlin. This song has lived many lives. It's been a campfire, sing along a classroom staple, a folk anthem, a protest song, but at its heart, it's always been the same thing. A call for inclusion, dignity and fairness. A reminder that this land really should belong to everyone. What makes This Land Is Your Land so enduring is its clarity and its courage. Guthrie's Melody is simple. The words are direct, and yet the message hits really deep it becomes clear that this isn't just a celebration. It's a challenge. Guthrie wasn't blindly praising America. He was asking it to live up to its promise, and he wasn't alone. Over the years this song's been passed like a torch from one generation of artists to the next, each one putting their own spin on its hopeful defiance. Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen have performed it with fire and grit. Neil Young recorded it within the last 20 years, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, even the Dropkick Murphy's have carried it forward. There's a haunting version by Willie Nelson and a powerful performance by Tracy Chapman. That strips it down to raw truth. This song belongs to everyone, because that's exactly what it says. This land was made for you and me. It earns a number two spot because there's no song more central to the idea of America. Not the myth, but the possibility. It's not just about Purple Mountains and amber waves. It's about access, equity, and the belief that freedom means something when it's shared. On my 4th of July top 10 list. It's tough to beat this great song about America, and I hope that whatever your politics, the lyrics of this land is, your land resonate with you as a reminder of the possibility that our country represents for the rest of the world. If that's American exceptionalism, then I'm all for it. Uh, we'd like you to join us and perhaps with the greatest song ever written about our, our home, the Father of American Folk music, Pete Seeger, his grandson to lead us. Pete, you sing it with us. We'll give you the words. When I was walking that ribbon of highway as I. I saw the sky, I saw the Lord this land. This land is my land from California to the New York Island, from the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream wall. This land was made. The spark. This land to the New York Redwood Ford to the Gulf Street. This land must for you. And now the number one Independence Day song on my list is naturally. The Star-Spangled Banner by Jimi Hendrix. Now, of course, Jimi didn't write this song. The lyrics were taken from an 1814 poem written by, you know him, Francis Scott Key titled, in Defense of Fort McHenry. The music was taken from an 18th century song called The Anacreontic Song. And the Star-Spangled Banner was born. It was first used in an official capacity in the 1880s by the US Navy, and was recognized as our national anthem by Congress in 1931. It was then transformed forever into a rock and roll classic by the great Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock in 1969 when he closed out the entire festival with it. And when I say transformed. I mean, completely redefined, turned inside out, electrified, distorted, and delivered as a commentary on the state of the nation. At the time, Jimi didn't just play the Start Spangled Banner. He turned it inside out and made it completely his own. What made Hendricks's version so powerful wasn't just the technical brilliance, although let's be clear. It was technically brilliant. He played the melody straight enough to recognize the song, but then shattered it with dive bombs feedback and plenty of distortion. You could hear the bombs bursting in the air. You could hear sirens and chaos and grief. It wasn't just a performance, it was a sonic map of America in 1969. Vietnam, civil rights, Nixon getting elected assassinations, the summer of love and the chaos that followed. It was all there. But here's the twist. It wasn't dark. It wasn't angry, I don't think so. Hendrix didn't desecrate the anthem. He elevated it at Woodstock. The crowd was already thinning out. Jimi was supposed to close out the show on Sunday night. It was at five o'clock in the morning. The sun was rising on Monday morning, playing hours after he was supposed to wrap up, that he stood alone on that stage and played America back to itself, flawed, defiant, and still worth believing in. It wasn't Francis Scott Keys America anymore. It was Jimi's and it was ours. And that's why this lands at number one because no other version of the Star-Spangled Banner has ever felt more honest, more raw. More necessary or more rock and roll. Well, that's it for this week's episode. I wish each of you a very happy and healthy independence day. Thank you for joining me. I'll be back next Tuesday, and if you like what you heard today, I'd appreciate it if you would both like and then either subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about each new episode. And please tell your friends. Also a reminder that I release a playlist for every episode. So look for the Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast Playlist on Spotify every week, this week, featuring the songs that I mentioned here today. So please check that out. Additionally, I wanna know what you think. Please leave me a comment and I'll try to respond to every one of them. The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast is the World Highway Media Production. I'm your host, Alex Gadd, and until next time, have a great 4th of July and remember that life is short, so get those concert tickets.