Howdy Ya’ll! (Ya’ll as in a group, not a single person…but that was already discussed in other threads )
A dear friend of mine (and fellow Doper- as mentioned a few times before) RandMcNally is currently serving us in the USAF and I’m looking to make him a CD of the cheesiest, laugh-out-loud funny country songs with a “God Bless the Military” theme.
I know these songs are out there-hell, I live in Bakersfield for cryin-out-loud! For instance, yesterday on the radio I heard a lady singing about how she has a “Sticker for the US Marine Corps on the bumper of my SUV.” Magical.
So Dopers, I call out to you! Unite! Let’s support our troops with what will give them hours of laughing.
I’m guessing you’ve already thought about God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood? Toby Keith has American Soldier and then that other song about putting a boot in your ass, it’s the American Way (Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue). Some other guy wrote a song called The Ballad of John Walker Lindh (Steve Earle?), and then Dale Worley’s Have You Forgotten come to mind.
They aren’t all MEANT to be funny, but they tend to be the kind of country songs that are slightly over the top and HOO RA USA. From my standpoint, that could be construed as humorous.
A song that I truly LIKE and has to do with miliary is John Michael Montgomery’s Letters from Home that I think is a real touching song. Slightly on the glurge side, but as someone who’s written letters to a loved one on deployment, I relate.
Dammit, I had the best (worst?) song to offer you and now I can’t find the site again!
My friend recorded a CD of instrumental harp music, but something went wrong at the factory and some of her CDs came back with a single track that wasn’t hers.* It’s this totally cheesy country/rock ditty obviously dedicated to 9/11. Snippets of the lyrics:
“In New York City and Washington, DC
We couldn’t believe what we saw on TV. . .
we’ll restore our nation, with honor, courage, and pride . . .
(Chorus)
Because America is our home . . .
In the land of the free and the home of the brave
The red, white, and blue will always proudly wave.”
Gack. I’d fill in the blanks, but I’ve already listened to the awful thing twice. When I first looked it up a few years ago, a search on these lyrics brought the singer’s page right up, but now it must be gone. All I know is that it’s a woman and I think her first name started with A. That’s all I’ve got.
My friend learned about the error only when people who had bought copies of the CD started returning them, saying, “Um, this doesn’t sound like what I thought I was buying . . .”
I’m not sure if this fits the bill, but Alan Jackson wrote a song called “Where were you when the world stopped turning?” right after the 9/11 tragedy. I heard it a couple of times and it sounded pretty cheesy to me.
If you can get a hold of the Nashville soundtrack (from the Robert Altman film), the Henry Gibson song “200 Years” would be perfect. Completely sincere and hilariously parodic all at once.
While waiting for movies to start in AMC theaters around Xmas time, I was subjected to a song called “All I Want for Christmas (Is A Soldier Coming Home)” on their theater-radio-network nonsense.
A quick search tells me it was on a generic christmas compilation, with apparantly no source or listed artist (or some guy named Monty Lane Allen). A sound clip showing how funny it is can be found on ubl.com.
And of course any of Toby Keith’s insultingly xenophobic bass-ackwards “patriotic” songs work, as others have already mentioned. Then again, if they were put on a joke compilation for me, the biggest joke would be skipping them by every time.
Only Mostly Dead, the thought had occurred to me that if I got a mix CD with the songs I suggested I would never want to listen to it. I realize I don’t find those songs humorous, but intolerable!
Good call on the Alan Jackson song - I’d forgotten that one.
nitpick
The song “John Walkers Blues” that scout alluded to earlier is not exactly a patriotic song in the usual Rah Rah way. It took a whole bunch of flak from the right wing noise machine when released.
If we go back to the Carter administration, there were several songs that came out of the Iranian hostage crisis, including Chicken Shiites, and Bomb Iran (sung to the tune of “Barbara Anne”).
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