Lyrics

Your words sound so familiar

Posted on by brucehhackett

Regular readers know that although this blog covers classic rock music of the ’50s, ’60s, ’70s and ’80s, I don’t spend that much time exploring the Eighties. So when I’ve assembled lyrics quizzes, I don’t usually include songs from that decade. That changes today.

Below you will find 20 lines of lyrics from classic rock songs that came out between 1980 and 1989. I challenge you to look them over and see how many you can identify. Then you can scroll down and see how well you did while you read about the artists and their songs. As always, there’s a Spotify playlist at the end to enjoy afterwards.

Lyrics fans, sharpen your pencils, put on your parachute pants, and groove to ’80s music!

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1 “I found a picture of you, oh oh oh, what hijacked my world that night to a place in the past we’ve been cast out of?…”

2 “I see you, you see me, watch you blowin’ the lines when you’re making a scene…”

3 “I see you’ve got your fist out, say your piece and get out, yes, I get the gist of it, but it’s all right…”

4 “Well, they passed a law in ’64 to give those who ain’t got a little more, but it only goes so far…”

5 “A look from you and I would fall from grace, and that would wipe the smile right from my face…”

6 “And she said, ‘Honey, take me dancing,’ but they ended up by sleeping in a doorway by the bodegas and the lights on Upper Broadway…”

7 “I have stood here before inside the pouring rain with the world turning circles running ’round my brain, I guess I’m always hoping that you’ll end this reign…”

8 “You’ve taken lots of chances before, but I ain’t gonna give anymore, don’t ask me, that’s how it goes, ’cause part of me knows what you’re thinking…”

9 “We are young but getting old before our time, we’ll leave the T.V. and the radio behind, don’t you wonder what we’ll find…”

10 “People always told me, ‘Be careful of what you do, and don’t go around breaking young girls’ hearts…'”

11 “That’s when a sport was a sport, and groovin’ was groovin’, and dancin’ meant everything, we were young and we were improvin’…”

12 “Inside, we both know what’s been going on, we know the game and we’re gonna play it, and if you ask me how I’m feeling, don’t tell me you’re too blind to see…”

13 “Now over at the temple, oh they really pack ’em in, the in crowd say it’s cool to dig this chanting thing, but as the wind changed direction, and the temple band took five…”

14 “Spare a little candle, save some light for me, figures up ahead moving in the trees, white skin in linen, perfume on my wrist…”

15 “There’s a loving in your eyes all the way, I listened to your lies, would you say I’m a man without conviction, I’m a man who doesn’t know, how to sell a contradiction, you come and go…”

16 “Will you recognize me? Call my name or walk on by, rain keeps falling, rain keeps falling down, down, down, down…”

17 “A few stolen moments is all that we shared, you’ve got your family, and they need you there, though I try to resist being last on your list, but no other man’s gonna do…”

18 “Here come the man with the look in his eye, fed on nothing but full of pride, look at them go, look at them kick, makes you wonder how the other half live…”

19 “All the eyes that watched us once will smile and take us in, and we’ll drink and dance with one hand free, and have the world so easily, and oh, we’ll be a sight to see…”

20 “Well, I was there and I saw what you did, I saw it with my own two eyes, so you can wipe off that grin, I know where you’ve been, it’s all been a pack of lies…”

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ANSWERS:

1 “Back on the Chain Gang,” The Pretenders, 1982

The Pretenders were three years into their promising career arc in the summer of 1982 when things went south quickly.  They fired their bass player and then lost guitarist James Honeyman-Scott to a drug overdose the same week.  “I was traumatized by the loss of my two best friends,” said singer/songwriter Chrissie Hynde, ”but I had to get on with replacing them if we were going to survive as a band.”  They selected Billy Bremner and Robbie McIntosh to fill the void, and Hynde wrote “Back on the Chain Gang” about the pressure to complete their next album.  It was released as a single that fall, reaching #5 on US pop charts, and was an important track on their popular “Learning to Crawl” LP, finally released in 1984.

2 “Private Eyes,” Hall and Oates, 1981

Daryl Hall’s paramour Sara Allen had been the subject of their early hit “Sara Smile,” and she and her sister Janna were songwriters as well.  “‘Private Eyes’ is a real Janna Allen song, which she co-wrote with Warren Pash,” said Hall.  “Then I changed it a little bit and wrote the lyrics with Sara.  Some say it resembles ‘Kiss On My List” somewhat, and I guess it does.”  It became the duo’s third of six #1 songs in their career, holding the top spot for two weeks in November 1981.

3 “Touch of Grey,” Grateful Dead, 1987

For 20 years, The Dead had been first and foremost a live band, then an album band, but never much of a singles band.  “Truckin’” had been their highest chart appearance at #64 in 1970.  By the mid-‘80s, Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter had come up with “Touch of Grey,” a grim look at life’s shortcomings that nevertheless maintains the resolve, “We will get by, we will survive.” They made it the centerpiece of their 1987 LP “In the Dark,” and lo and behold, it peaked at #9 on the charts. Its inventive music video, in heavy rotation on MTV, featured a live performance of the band, first shown to be life-size skeleton marionettes dressed as the band, and then as themselves. The song and its video helped introduce the Grateful Dead to a new generation of fans.

4 “The Way It Is,” Bruce Hornsby and The Range, 1986

The civil rights movement of the ‘60s had had a big impact on Hornsby when he was young, and by the time he formed a band and won a record contract in the mid-‘80s, he had written about it for what turned out to be a stunning debut album.  Said Hornsby’s brother John, “‘The Way It Is’ is mainly about compassion, about understanding racial and social types, and beliefs and practices that are different from your own.  It’s about a status quo that’s so complacent in its narrow-mindedness and bigotry that it seems it’ll never change. That’s why the line ‘Ah, but don’t you believe them’ is so important.”  The album’s title track reached #1 in the fall of 1986.

5 “Heat of the Moment,” Asia, 1982

In late 1981, three members of major prog-rock groups that had disbanded — guitarist Steve Howe of Yes, drummer Carl Palmer of ELP and bassist/vocalist John Wetton of King Crimson and U.K. — joined forces to become the supergroup Asia, bringing in Geoff Downes to round out the foursome.  Critics didn’t care for the group’s debut LP, but the public ate it up, sending it to #1 on the strength of the single “Heat of the Moment,” which peaked at #4 in the summer of ’82.  Said Wetton, “The lyrics are an abject apology for my dreadful behavior towards a particular woman, the woman I would eventually marry but divorce 10 years later.”

6 “Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes,” Paul Simon, 1986

This compelling tune about the unlikely pairing of a rich girl and a poor boy concludes “Graceland,” Simon’s 1986 masterpiece of African rhythms that won the Album of the Year Grammy. The lyrics have been interpreted in different ways; some say the woman is unlikable because she uses precious gems so cavalierly, but others say she is downplaying her wealth by hiding her diamonds while they secretly bring her happiness and “a pep in her step.” Simon doesn’t say definitively. He recorded the song with South African vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo and performed it with them in November 1986 in one of the most amazing musical moments in “Saturday Night Live”‘s history.

7 “King of Pain,” The Police, 1983

Sting was in the midst of a separation and divorce from his first wife when The Police were working on their fifth LP, “Synchronicity.,” and a few of the songs were inspired by that painful period for him.  While the #1 smash “Every Breath You Take” focused on obsession, it was the follow-up single, “King of Pain,” that captured Sting’s angst best.  “I conjured up symbols of pain and related them to my soul.  A black spot on the sun struck me as being a very painful image, and I felt that that was my soul up there on the sun.  It’s about projecting your emotional state into the world of symbolism, which is what poetry’s all about, really.” The song, described by one critic as “a devilishly infectious new wave single,” peaked at #3 in August 1983.

8 “Eye in the Sky,” Alan Parsons Project, 1982

Parsons was an accomplished producer and engineer, having been involved in The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” and Pink Floyd’s sonic masterpiece, “Dark Side of the Moon.”  In 1976, he teamed up with singer-songwriter Eric Woolfson to create a smooth brand of progressive rock as The Alan Parsons Project.  Utilizing a broad range of studio musicians and more than a half-dozen different lead singers, APP turned a lot of heads with their captivating music on songs like “I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You,” “Damned If I Do” and “Games People Play.”  By 1982, the ensemble went for a mellower approach and grabbed a #3 spot on US pop charts with “Eye in the Sky,” interpreted by many as a condemnation of government surveillance.

9 “Steppin’ Out,” Joe Jackson, 1982

In early 1982, Jackson spent several months in New York City and was inspired to write an entire song cycle about it for the LP “Night and Day.”  Most notable was the single “Steppin’ Out,” about the anticipation and excitement of a drive out around the town at night.  One critic wrote, “It’s a mélange of simple piano hooks, rudimentary electronic treatment and classic vocal pop, with a rhythm track that’s quaint in its simplicity and driving enough to invoke images of the big city at night.”  It became Jackson’s biggest hit in the United States, peaking at #6 in December 1982.

10 “Billie Jean,” Michael Jackson, 1982

This was the track that took Jackson from a big star to the biggest star on the planet.  Released in 1982 on the 40-million-selling “Thriller” LP, “Billie Jean” owned the top spot on the singles chart for seven weeks in 1983.  Telling the tale of a celebrity falsely accused of fathering a child, the track (and its performance on the “Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever” TV special that year) introduced a number of Jackson’s signatures, including the moonwalk, black sequined jacket and high-water pants.  Said one review, “It’s frighteningly stark, with a pulsing, cat-on-the-prowl bass figure, whip-crack downbeat and eerie multi-tracked vocals.”

11 “Cherry Bomb,” John Mellencamp, 1987

When Mellencamp was in junior high school, he spent time hanging out at a place in Indiana called the Last Exit Teen Club, and by the time he had become an established star in 1987, he chose to write about that experience.  “Cherry Bomb” is the fictional name he gave to the hangout, and to the song, which appeared on “The Lonesome Jubilee” and reached #8 on the charts that year.  The music video for the song features a couple dancing intimately with one another near a jukebox while Mellencamp dances by himself, interspersed with vintage video clips. He used accordion to create a warm atmosphere appropriate for his nostalgic look back on a more innocent time when he was “laughing, laughing with my friends.”

12 “Never Gonna Give You Up,” Rick Astley, 1987

Astley’s quirky, robust croon and his nerdy romantic pitch made for one of the most irresistible four minutes in ‘80s pop rock.  The British songwriting/producing team of Mike Stock, Matt Aitken, and Pete Waterman wrote more than six dozen top hits for various acts in England, and “Never Gonna Give You Up”” is one of their biggest.  It topped the charts in 25 countries in 1987, including the US and the UK.  Years later, it curiously became the subject of an internet meme known as “Rickrolling,” involving harmless, misleading links that redirected users to the song’s music video.

13 “Rock the Casbah,” The Clash, 1982

The music for this catchy stomper was written by the band’s drummer, Topper Headon. Finding himself in the studio without his three bandmates, Headon progressively taped the drum, piano and bass parts, recording the bulk of the song’s musical instrumentation himself. When Joe Strummer heard the song, he loved it, but he recoiled at the “soppy lyrics about missing his girlfriend.” Instead, Strummer came up with a bold scenario of a Middle East king who bans Western music, but the populace rebels by holding concerts in the temples and squares. Released in 1982 as the second single from The Clash’s fifth album, “Combat Rock,” it reached #8 on US pop charts.

14 “These Dreams,” Heart, 1985

The lyrics of this beautiful tune, co-written by Martin Page and Elton John’s lyricist Bernie Taupin, describe the fantasy world a woman enters every time she sleeps when faced with a difficult situation in life.  Page and Taupin wrote it in 1985 and offered it to Steve Nicks, but she rejected it, saying, “I sing only my own songs.”  Undiscouraged, they approached Heart, led by the Wilson sisters, Ann and Nancy, who loved it and agreed to record it, with Nancy handling lead vocals for a change.  The power ballad reached #1 as the third single from their victorious comeback LP, “Heart.”

15 “Karma Chameleon,” Culture Club, 1983

The inspiration for this popular track is pretty straight-forward, according to Culture Club frontman Boy George:  “The song is about the terrible fear of alienation that people have, the fear of standing up for one thing.  It’s about trying to suck up to everybody.  Basically, if you aren’t true, if you don’t act like you feel, then you get Karma-justice, which is nature’s way of paying you back.” The record stayed at number one for six weeks and became the UK’s biggest-selling single of 1983.  It also spent three weeks at number one in the US in early 1984, becoming the group’s biggest hit and only US number-one single among their nine top-20 hits.

16 Don’t You (Forget About Me),” Simple Minds, 1985

Guitarist Steve Schiff and drummer Keith Forsey were scoring the 1985 film “The Breakfast Club” when they wrote “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” as its theme song.  They were inspired by a scene in which an introvert and a school bully bond while no one else is watching. Forsey said, “It was like, ‘hey man, don’t forget, when we’re back in the classroom, you’re not just a bad guy and we’ve got other things in common now.”  They wanted Simple Minds to perform it, but they declined, as did Bryan Ferry, Billy Idol, Corey Hart and Cy Curnin of The Fixx.  When they tried Simple Minds again, the band agreed after lead singer Jim Kerr’s wife Chrissie Hynde encouraged them to do it.  It became a #1 hit that grew Simple Minds’ fan base in the US for years to come.

17 “Saving All My Love for You,” Whitney Houston, 1984

In the mid-‘70s, lyricist Gerry Goffin (Carole King’s ex-husband and songwriting partner) teamed up with Michael Masser to write this formidable love song for Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., formerly of The 5th Dimension.  In 1983, Masser first heard Houston singing another of his songs, “Greatest Love of All,” in New York’s Sweetwater Club, and was invited to produce a few tracks on her debut LP in 1984.  He suggested “Saving All My Love For You” would be perfect for her, turning it into “a woman’s song.”  She brought the house down at a performance at the Roxy in LA a few weeks later, persuading the record label to make it her next single, and it went to #1.

18 “Devil Inside,” INXS, 1987

From 1980 to 1985, Australia’s INXS built a strong following in their native country as each of their first five albums became increasingly successful on the charts there. Their 1985 LP “Listen Like Thieves” reached #11 in the US, setting the stage for the jackpot they hit in 1987 with their sixth, “Kick,” which spawned four Top Ten singles in the US.  “Devil Inside,” written by guitarist Andrew Farriss and singer Michael Hutchence, was perhaps their biggest rocker, reached #2 in early 1988. Said Hutchence, “The song examines the fight between good and evil that’s inside everyone.  It’s about the chaos of the devil, and how every time you think something’s going right, he comes in and changes everything.”

19 “Back in the High Life Again,” Steve Winwood, 1986

Will Jennings, Winwood’s writing partner, had carried around the phrase “back in the high life” as a song title idea written down in a notebook, and when he was at Winwood’s house in late 1984, he wrote the rest of the lyric in a half hour, without any music. More than a year afterward, Winwood finally wrote the music for it, and it became the title track to his hugely successful LP in 1986. “We’ve got absolutely no rules when we work together,” said Winwood about their approach. “There are no formulas; things just happen naturally.” While “Higher Love” was the energetic #1 single, “Back in the High Life Again” was a respectable #13 as a follow-up in early 1987, with James Taylor on vocal harmonies and Winwood contributing mandolin to the arrangement.

20 “In the Air Tonight,” Phil Collins, 1981

A spooky two-minute introduction lulls the listener into complacency until the point where the most dramatic, revolutionary drum sound comes crashing in to change “In the Air Tonight” into something else entirely.  As the first single on Collins’s solo debut, 1981’s “Face Value,” this track firmly established the drummer/singer as a commercial juggernaut outside his role in Genesis.  Once again, the heartbreak of a failed marriage proved to be grist for the songwriting mill, as Collins explained:  “What is it that I can feel coming in the air tonight?  Not sure, but it’s not good.  I was going through a divorce, and the only thing I can say about it is that it’s obviously in anger.  It’s the bitter taste left by cheating and lying.” It went Top Five in a dozen countries but strangely stalled at #19 in the US.

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The fireworks are hailing over Little Eden tonight

Posted on by brucehhackett

The title of this blog entry comes from an early Bruce Springsteen song called “4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” about a passionate summer romance. But Springsteen has written often in more serious tones about this country and the problems it faces. Most notably, “Born in the U.S.A.,” which some misguided politicians claimed in 1984 as a patriotic anthem, is in fact a painful look at the despair of those sent off to fight a hopeless war and return to more misery at home: “I had a brother at Khe Sanh, fighting off the Viet Cong, /They’re still there, he’s all gone… Down in the shadow of the penitentiary, out by the gas fires of the refinery, /I’m ten years burning down the road, nowhere to run, ain’t got nowhere to go…”

On this long holiday weekend about to commence, as we haul out our red, white and blue outfits, raise the flags and bunting, and ooh and ahh over fireworks displays, there are many songs we’re likely to hear to help us commemorate the birth of our country: Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA,” Neil Diamond’s “America,” Don McLean’s “American Pie,” John Mellencamp’s “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.,” Grand Funk’s “We’re an American Band,” The Guess Who’s “American Woman,” and, of course, Kate Smith’s “God Bless America.”

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For my Fourth of July soundtrack here at Hack’s Back Pages, I’m choosing to omit the more obvious ones in favor of mostly lesser-known tunes, not only from decades ago but more recent years as well. These songs pay homage to our natural beauty and our freedoms and blessings but but also point out where we’ve failed and need to make things better.  Once again, popular music is ready and waiting with multiple choices.

 

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There’s a Spotify playlist at the bottom of this column for you to listen to as you read about these 20 featured tracks, plus another ten “honorable mentions” to fill out the program for the holiday soundtrack.

A very happy Independence Day weekend to you all!

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“On the Fourth of July,” James Taylor, 2002

Since his 1969 debut, Taylor has written more than 150 songs on 16 studio LPs, in the process becoming one of America’s most beloved singer-songwriters. He writes lyrics that alternate between poignant and whimsical, ruminating on everything from a friend’s suicide in “Fire and Rain” to the joy he sees in his young daughter’s eyes in “Your Smiling Face.” He used to release an album every year or two but has been considerably less prolific since 2000. On his 2002 LP “October Road,” you’ll find “On the Fourth of July,” which recalls a romantic encounter on a summer holiday: “I fell into you at a quarter to two with a tear in your eye for the Fourth of July, /For the patriots and the minutemen and the things you believe they believed in then, /Such as freedom, and freedom’s land, and the kingdom of God and the rights of man, /With the tiny tin voice of the radio band singing ‘love must stand,’ all on the Fourth of July…”

“American Baby,” Dave Matthews Band, 2005

When George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, Matthews felt despondent enough to write this song the following day.  Its lyrics urged us to remain hopeful and proud, despite the troubling changes in values apparent in the way the country was conducting its war in Iraq.  The track, which appears on The Dave Matthews Band’s fourth consecutive #1 album “Stand Up,” became the group’s highest charting single on the US pop chart at #16 (although DMB had more than 20 Top Five hits on Billboard’s Adult Alternative Airplay chart).  Sample lyrics:  “I hold on to you, you bring me hope, I’ll see you soon, and if I don’t see you, I’m afraid we’ve lost the way, stay beautiful, baby, I hope you stay, American baby…”

“Living in America,” James Brown, 1986

The one-of-a-kind Godfather of Soul had ruled the R&B charts from the early ’60s through the mid-’70s, and had a half-dozen Top Ten pop hits as well (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Got You (I Feel Good),””Cold Sweat,”), but fell out of favor during the disco and post-disco era.  He had one last commercial peak in 1986 with “Living in America,” which reached #4.  Written by singer-songwriter Dan Hartman and producer Charlie Midnight, the song was used prominently in the film “Rocky IV” in scenes when the over-the-top patriotic character Apollo Creed entered the boxing arena.  Sample lyrics:  “Living in America, eye to eye, station to station, living in America, hand to hand, across the nation, living in America, got to have a celebration…”

“America,” Simon and Garfunkel, 1968

Between the Vietnam War, assassinations, urban riots and general unrest, 1968 was a tumultuous year, causing much angst among the populace about the future of the country. This stunning song is Simon’s attempt to capture that roller-coaster ride of emotions. One critic called it a “metaphor to remind us all of the lost souls wandering the highways and byways of mid-sixties America, struggling to navigate the rapids of despair and hope, optimism and disillusionment”: “‘Kathy, I’m lost,’ I said, though I knew she was sleeping, /’I’m empty and aching and I don’t know why,’ /Counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike, they’ve all come to look for America…”

“Breakfast in America,” Supertramp, 1979

This intelligent British art-rock band had moved to the US in 1977 following their commercial success here that year, and their next batch of songs reflected a breezy American influence.  The “Breakfast in America” LP was an enormous hit for Supertramp — it was perched at #1 for six weeks in the summer of 1979.  The title track (which stalled at #62 compared to the other three Top Ten hits from the LP) is about a poor British boy who fantasizes about visiting the US but lacks the money to do so:  “Take a jumbo across the water, like to see America, see the girls in California, I’m hoping it’s going to come true, but there’s not a lot I can do…”

“This is Not America,” Pat Metheny Group with David Bowie, 1985

In the 1985 spy film “The Falcon and the Snowman,” Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton play young Americans who sell secrets to the Soviets.  In one scene when they are beaten and tortured while in custody, they protest, “We are Americans!”  The response: “This is not America.”  The song, a collaborative effort by jazz guitarist Pat Metheny and the late great David Bowie, examines how our rights and privileges are often taken for granted until they disappear when on foreign soil:  “There was a time, a wind that blew so young, this could be the biggest sky, and I could have the faintest idea, for this is not America, this is not America…”

“I Love American Music,” Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, 2013

This eclectic band from Eugene, Oregon, has specialized in swing and ska music since the early ’90s.  While they have reached the mainstream pop charts only once, with their “Zoot Suit Riot” single and album in 1997, the group has been one of the hardest working touring bands in the nation for many years.  From their 2013 LP “White Teeth, Black Thoughts” comes the single “I Love American Music,” which celebrates the diversity of musical styles you can hear as you travel around this country:  “When the lights go down and my scales stop showin’, I’ll smash my fingers down on the only truth that’s still worth knowin’, play it, play it again Sam, I want American music, play it, play it again Sam, I need American music…”

“Goodnight America,” Mary Chapin Carpenter, 2004

Although she has largely escaped the attentions of mainstream music listeners, Chapin-Carpenter has been a consistent presence on country charts for 25 years, with three platinum albums and numerous Top Five singles there.  Her 2004 album, “Between Here and Gone,” contains the lovely ballad “Goodnight America,” which focuses on the gypsy lifestyle of being a musician on the road — “a weary traveler, but grateful to have the freedom to be one,” as she put it.  Sample lyric:  “I’m a stranger here, no one you would know, I’m from somewhere else, well isn’t everybody though, my ship has not come in, I don’t know where I’ll be when the sun comes up, until then, sweet dreams, goodnight America…”

“For America,” Jackson Browne, 1986

One of the premier singer-songwriters to emerge from Southern California in the 1970s, Browne has written dozens of articulately worded ballads and anthems to love and life (“For Everyman,” “Fountain of Sorrow,” “The Pretender”).  By the mid-’80s, the left-leaning Browne had grown disheartened with the actions the Reagan administration was taking abroad, and subsequently released the overtly political album, “Lives in the Balance,” which included the modest #30 single, “For America,” another song that wishes for better days ahead:  “I have prayed for America, I was made for America, I can’t let go ’til she’s comes ’round, until the land of the free is awake and can see, and until her conscience has been found…”

“Independence Day,” Elliott Smith, 1998

This talented singer-songwriter, based in Portland, struggled with depression, paranoia and drug addiction for most of his adult life before dying at age 34 in 2003. He released six LPs beginning in 1994, and wrote and recorded the Oscar-nominated song “Miss Misery” from the “Good Will Hunting” soundtrack in 1997. His “XO” album in 1998 included the delicately melodic “Independence Day,” an examination of the difficulty of change and inevitability of a finite life: “I saw you at the perfect place, it’s going to happen soon, but not today, /So go to sleep, make the change, I’ll meet you here tomorrow, /Independence Day…”

“Living in America,” Aztec Two-Step, 1986

The duo of Rex Fowler and Neal Shulman formed the nucleus of Aztec Two-Step, a lighthearted, lively folk rock band out of Boston.  From their roots in 1971, they have continued to release music and perform live ever since, although without much chart success.  In 1986, they came up with this quirky, optimistic ditty in tribute to Americans everywhere:  “Here’s to the silver screen, ah-ah, the music scene in America, here’s to the arts and crafts, people who make us laugh in America, here’s to the songs, the dance, the true romance, all those who take a chance in America, and here’s to the people too, whose dreams have all come true in America…” 

“America Street,” Edwin McCain, 1995

Emerging from South Carolina in the mid-1990s, McCain found success with his first three LPs and the 1998 single “I’ll Be,” which reached #5 on the pop charts. His debut album “Honor Among Thieves” is something of an underrated alt-rock classic, and includes the thought-provoking “America Street,” which bemoans the inequality found here and warns of the need to turn things around: “Riding down America Street, funny that it’s one way, /riding down from uptown to where the buildings are broken down in decay, /Well, America Street, it’s right nearby, land of the free and the brave, /And if we can’t work and make some change, there won’t be much of this land left to save…” 

“Living in the U.S.A.,” Steve Miller Band, 1968

Before Miller became a staple of mid-’70s mainstream rock, the Steve Miller Band was one of San Francisco’s more melodic counterculture groups, back when Boz Scaggs was still in the lineup. Their second album “Sailor” reached #24 on US album charts in 1968, and although “Living in the U.S.A.” stalled at #95, it earned its place as one of the great FM rock classics of its era. The hippie-ish lyrics may seem dated, but not the sentiment behind them: “Come on baby, /I see a yellow man, a brown man, a white man, a red man, /Lookin’ for Uncle Sam to give you a helping hand, /But everybody’s kickin’ sand, even politicians, /We’re living in a plastic land, somebody give me a hand…”

“American Prayer,” Dave Stewart, 2008

In 2002, Stewart, formerly with Annie Lennox and the Eurythmics, paired up with U2’s Bono to write this “paean to America based on the poetry of the Declaration of Independence and the taut truth in the Constitution.”  It was first performed during Bono’s Heart of America speaking tour that year to rally support for the fight against the AIDS crisis.  In 2008, Stewart altered some of the lyrics and recorded it “in honor of those working to make the world a better place.”  Sample lyrics:   “These are the hands, what are we gonna build with them, and this is the church you can’t see, and remember, give me your tired, your poor and huddled masses, you know they’re yearning to breathe free, this is my American prayer…”

“Real American,” Rick Derringer, 1985

Ricky Zehringer was only 17 when his band, The McCoys, had a #1 hit with “Hang On Sloopy” in 1965.  He became Rick Derringer in the Seventies and went on to become a solo star (“Rock and Roll Hoochie-Koo”) as well as an in-demand guest guitarist for Steely Dan, Edgar Winter, Alice Cooper and Todd Rundgren.  He wrote and sang “Real American” in 1985 for the World Wrestling Federation, and specifically Hulk Hogan, to use as entrance music.  The music and lyrics, which capitalized on the Cold War patriotic jingoism prevalent at the time, were ideal for the bombastic showbiz of pro wrestling.  Sample lyric: ” I am a real American, fight for the rights of every man, I am a real American, fight for what’s right, fight for your life…”

“Independence Day,” Martina McBride, 1994

A singer-songwriter named Gretchen Peters came up with this heartwrenching song in 1994, and country artist Martina McBride made it a platinum hit single on country charts that year. Its lyrics tell the story of a young girl who heads into her small town for the Independence Day fair, and while she was there, her mother — a victim of longtime domestic abuse — burns the house down with her alcoholic husband and her in it. The words convey a double meaning for “independence day”: It happened on the Fourth of July, and it was the day the woman tragically declared her independence from her intolerable marriage and life: “Well, she lit up the sky that fourth of July by the time that the firemen come, /They just put out the flames, and took down some names, and sent me to the county home, /Now, I ain’t sayin’ it’s right or it’s wrong, but maybe it’s the only way, /Talk about your revolution, it’s Independence Day, /Let freedom ring, let the white dove sing, /Let the whole world know that today is a day of reckoning…”

“America,” Imagine Dragons, 2012

This Las Vegas-based pop rock band has won a bevy of awards and chart successes since their debut in 2009, most notably the hit singles “Radioactive,” “Demons,” “Believer” and “Thunder” and four top-ranked LPs in the 2010s. On their 2011 EP “It’s Time” comes a marvelous track entitled “America,” co-written by Imagine Dragons members Dan Reynolds, Wayne Sermon and Ben McKee. The song offers words of encouragement and hope in the face of struggle and setback: “From farmers in the fields
to the tallest of the towers that fall and rise, /1-7-7-6, the names upon the list of all the ones who gave until they died, /don’t you hold back… /Rise to the top of the world, America, don’t you cry, /lift me up, give me strength to press on…”

“Surfin’ USA,” The Beach Boys, 1963

Wherever in the world there are big waves, you’ll find surfers, but thanks to Brian Wilson’s lyrics, Southern California beaches became a magnet for young Americans interested in surfing. The Beach Boys had already released two songs about the sport (“Surfin’ Safari” and “Surfin'”) and would release one more afterwards (“Surfer Girl”), but the iconic “Surfin’ USA” would reach #3 on the pop charts in 1963 after Wilson took the music from Chuck Berry’s hit “Sweet Little Sixteen” and wrote new words about the California hot spots: “If everybody had an ocean across the USA, /Then everybody’d be surfin’ like Californi-a… /You’d catch ’em surfin’ at Del Mar (inside, outside, USA), Ventura County line
(inside, outside, USA)… /All over La Jolla (inside, outside, USA), at Wa’imea Bay (inside, outside), /Everybody’s gone surfin’, surfin’ USA…”

“America the Beautiful,” Keb’ Mo’, 2001 

There are dozens and dozens of versions of this stunning piece, which I’ve always felt would be a better National Anthem than “The Star Spangled Banner.”  It was first written as a poem by Katherine Lee Bates in 1893, then tweaked a bit with a few new lyrics in 1903 and again in 1911.  Samuel Ward wrote the music back in 1882 to an altogether different lyric, “O Mother Dear, Jerusalem.”  Ward’s hymn-like melody was first combined with Bates’s patriotic words in 1910 into the song we all know today.  In the Bi-Centennial year of 1976, two recordings received considerable airplay — Ray Charles’ stirring rendition on the R&B charts, and Charlie Rich’s commanding version on the country charts.  For something different but memorable, check out Keb’ Mo”s version from his “Big Wide Grin” album in 2001.

“American Tune,” Paul Simon, 1973  

I’ve always felt that this song from Simon’s “There Goes Rhymin’ Simon” LP is one of his best works.  The majestic melody is lifted from Bach’s “St. Matthew Passion,” with poignant Simon lyrics that are simultaneously comforting and troubling.  Even a half-century ago, Simon was proud of his country, but concerned about its future:  “We come on the ship they call the Mayflower, we come on the ship that sailed the moon, we come in the age’s most uncertain hour, and sing an American tune, oh, but it’s all right, it’s all right, you can’t be forever blessed, still, tomorrow’s gonna be another working day, and I’m trying to get some rest…”

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And here’s my Honorable Mention list of other “American” songs:  

“4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy),” Bruce Springsteen, 1980;  “What Now America,” Lee Michaels, 1970; “American Girl,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 1976;  “In America,” Charlie Daniels Band, 1980; “All the Way From America,” Joan Armatrading, 1980; “American Beauty,” Bruce Springsteen 2014;  “Independence Day,” David Byrne, 1989; “American Girls,” Counting Crows, 2002; “American Music,” The Blasters, 1981;  “American Idiot,” Green Day, 2004.