The Rockologist Puts Together A 4th Of July 2008 Mixtape - Page 2

They've even been known to shoot their guns off on a few occasions.

In short, we're talking about the party of the year here. This unofficial fireworks display — consisting of illegal contraband mostly obtained at the neighboring Indian reservations — beats the firepower of the two official Seattle celebrations, hands down.

It usually falls upon me to put the official 4th Of July mixtape together. Now of course, I realize that the term "mixtape" is something of a misnomer these days, and perhaps even the CD I'll actually be making tonight is a bit outdated, at least in today's MP3 terms.

The idea here however, is to share our music with our neighbors. Sound is something which really carries on a private lake out in the boonies, and if we don't do it, someone else will. Like that year the jackass across the lake played Jethro Tull's Aqualung over and over until like 5 A.M. MP3 downloads just aren't gonna' cut it here. Nope.

Putting together a 4th Of July mixtape isn't as easy as it sounds either. The mission at hand — putting together a selection of songs with themes about America, our independence, and the holiday itself — is of course an obvious one. And therein lies the problem. The one thing you don't want to do is include anything too obvious. The other, is you want to avoid repeating too much from the past thirty or so years we've been doing this.

So what do you include regardless of all those past mix tapes? I think Hendrix's "Star Spangled Banner" goes without saying. That's the one you use for the grand finale to be timed with the fireworks. In porn terms, this is what you would call the "money shot."

Other decisions are less easy.

Take songs like Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" or John Mellencamp's "R.O.C.K. In The USA" for example. Both have been done to death, and in the case of Springsteen's song, it has also been just as often misinterpreted. Fortunately, in the case of Springsteen, there are a wealth of other choices. So this year, I'm going literal and picking "Independence Day" from The River, and in honor of the late, great Danny Federici, "4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)" from The Wild, The Innocent, And The E Street Shuffle.

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. Glen is also the author of Neil Young FAQ, scheduled for a spring 2012 release by Backbeat Books/Hal Leonard …

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