Week 4: Ain't That America

This week’s playlist is dedicated to songs about America, but I wasn’t necessarily looking for patriotic songs. Instead, I was thinking of Big American Songs about Big American Themes. The list includes likely suspects like Springsteen and Paul Simon, along with some newer voices like Rufus Wainwright and Bleu Edmondson. A foreign perspective is supplied by Neil Young and U2.

Thanks to Kant M. for the Bleu Edmondson tip, to Guy K. for thinking of Spinal Tap, to Traci P. for Don McLean, and to Eric V. for reminding me how great Neil Young is. Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World indeed.

1. "Pink Houses," John Mellencamp

'Cause they told me when I was younger
"Boy you're gonna be president."
But just like everything else those old crazy dreams
Just kinda came and went

2. "The Pretender," Jackson Browne

Caught between the longing for love
And the struggle for the legal tender
Where the sirens sing and the church bells ring
And the junk man pounds his fender.
Where the veterans dream of the fight
Fast asleep at the traffic light
And the children solemnly wait
For the ice cream vendor

3. "Born to Run," Bruce Springsteen

In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway American dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway 9,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected
and steppin' out over the line

4. "American Tune," Paul Simon

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 hours
And sing an American tune
Oh, and it's all right, it's all right, it's all right
You can't be forever blessed
Still, tomorrow's going to be another working day
And I'm trying to get some rest
That's all I'm trying to get some rest

5. "Rockin' In The Free World," Neil Young

We got a thousand points of light
For the homeless man
We got a kinder gentler
Machine gun hand
We got department stores and toilet paper
Got styrofoam boxes for the ozone layer

6. "American Woman," The Guess Who

I don’t need your war machines
I don’t need your ghetto scenes
Colored lights can hypnotize
Sparkle someone else’s eyes
Now woman, get away from me
American woman, mama let me be

7. "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore," John Prine

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of the dirty book store
A plastic flag with gum on the back
Fell out on the floor
Well I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel

8. "Going to a Town," Rufus Wainwright

I'm going to a town that has already been burnt down
I'm going to a place that has already been disgraced
I'm gonna see some folks who have already been let down
I'm so tired of America

9. "America," Spinal Tap

Super highways here and there
Pretty womens everywhere
Brady Bunch and Smokey Bear
Buildings reaching to the sky
Afro-Sheen and apple pie
PTA and FBI

10. "City of New Orleans," Steve Goodman

Good morning America how are you
Say don't you know me I'm your native son
I'm the train they call the City of New Orleans
And I'll be gone five hundred miles when the day is done

10. "Red, White, and Blue," Lynyrd Skynyrd

We don't care if you 're a lawyer, or a texas oil man,
Or some waitress busting ass in some liquor stand.
If you got soul
We hang out with people just like you

12. "American Pie," Don McLean

Now for ten years we've been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rolling stone
But that's not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me

13. "American Saint," Bleu Edmondson

It's another round of sound checks and train wrecks
The lost boys and the rejects
Fallen angels dancing to the music drifting softly on the southern wind
Talking like the heroes that we wont be
Spittin out the game that little Jimmy sold me
Fighting for each other though it seems like we'll never win
American saint
American saint

14. "American Girl," Tom Petty

Well she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn't help thinkin'
That there was a little more to life somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
And if she had to die tryin'
She had one little promise she was gonna keep

15. "In God's Country," U2

She is liberty
And she comes to rescue me
Hope, faith, her vanity
The greatest gift is gold

Sleep comes like a drug
In God's Country
Sad eyes, crooked crosses
In God's Country

15. "America," Simon & Garfunkel

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 gone to look for America