The Rockologist Puts Together A 4th Of July 2008 Mixtape - Page 3

As for Mellencamp, "Our Country" might be a good choice, although thanks to those truck ads, that songs meaning has been misconstrued as often as Springsteen's most famous song has. So I'm going with "Pink Houses." The locals will certainly recognize and appreciate it's good old boy patriotism, and the whole "aint that America for you and me" thing.

Speaking of America, there have sure been a lot of great rock songs written about this great land of ours, haven't there? Two of our very best songwriters, Neil Diamond and Paul Simon, have both written standards with that very title. I'm especially partial to the Yes' version of the Simon tune.

But speaking of Yes, Jon Anderson once did this dandy of a tune on an album he did with Vangelis in the seventies called "State Of Independence." The song was later covered by Donna Summer, but I've always liked the version Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders did on one of those Moodswings albums, best. So, I'm going with that.

There have also been a number of songs written with the actual title of "4th Of July." We've already covered the one by Springsteen, but did you know that there was also a song by that name by Soundgarden? Or an instrumental with that title by U2 on The Unforgettable Fire? I may just have to include both of those.

"Beautiful Day" is also an obvious choice when it comes to U2. However, I think I'm going to go with "In God's Country" instead. I love the irony of the way Bono's lyrics show his unabashed love for everything that is America, while at the same time peeling away the injustices found in those "sad eyes and crooked crosses" found on some of our more remote backroads.

Of course, no 4th of July mixtape would be complete without throwing out a few curveballs. Hopefully the local folk will be too drunk by then to notice. So mine come in the form of "Louie, Louie" as covered by Iggy And The Stooges on their classic unofficial live bootleg Metallic K.O.. Since the Kingsmen's frat-rock classic is widely regarded by us Washingtonians as our unofficial state song, the patriotic theme also fits. And the Stooges version is as chaotic as it gets, complete with Iggy dodging bottles from the audience after verbally abusing them.

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics assistant music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blogs The World Wide Glen, and The Rockologist. In a previous life, Glen was a music professional and journalist whose work has appeared in The Rocket, SPIN, Pulse!, and The Source. …

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