# July 4th Songs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2009, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/july-4th-songs/501835 "2009-07-03T18:31:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2009, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/july-4th-songs/501835/21 "2009-07-04T22:49:50Z")
If you’re going general USA patriotic songs, you can’t go wrong with country music: _Arlington_ - Trace Adkins _Battle of New Orleans_ - Johnny Horton (note: he performed many songs about history) _Boston Boy_ - any bluegrass band worth their salt _Okie from Muskogee_ - Merle Haggard _Ballad of the Green Beret_ - Sgt. Barry Sadler _The Star Spangled Banner_ - The Statler Brothers (one of my favorite versions, anyway) _Proud to be an American_ - Lee Greenwood These are just a few off the top of my head, but local radio has been playing them all day, with very few repeats and almost nothing else. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2009, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/july-4th-songs/501835/22 "2009-07-04T23:22:30Z")
> [@missred](#): > > If you’re going general USA patriotic songs, you can’t go wrong with country music: > > _Arlington_ - Trace Adkins > _Battle of New Orleans_ - Johnny Horton (note: he performed many songs about history) > _Boston Boy_ - any bluegrass band worth their salt > _Okie from Muskogee_ - Merle Haggard > _Ballad of the Green Beret_ - Sgt. Barry Sadler > _The Star Spangled Banner_ - The Statler Brothers (one of my favorite versions, anyway) > _Proud to be an American_ - Lee Greenwood > > These are just a few off the top of my head, but local radio has been playing them all day, with very few repeats and almost nothing else. Steve Earle has moved to NYC but had a Nashville career for many years. He recorded \*The Mountain \*with the Del McCoury band–who play stone bluegrass. A few of the numbers are Irish in style; Earle has spent considerable time over there & Irish music is definitely in bluegrass’s family tree. [Dixieland](http://www.steveearle.net/lyrics/ly-mountain.php#Dixieland://) tells the tale of an Irish lad who got here in time to fight in the Civil War–for the Union. > [@](#): > > I am Kilrain of the 20th Maine and I damn all gentlemen > Whose only worth is their father’s name and the sweat of a workin’ man > Well we come from the farms and the city streets and a hundred foreign lands > And we spilled our blood in the battle’s heat > Now we’re all Americans As long as we’re talking about Country music that will probably be ignored by the Corporate Country Radio–I just bought [Moneyland](http://www.amazon.com/Moneyland-Del-McCoury-Band-Friends/dp/B00197XF9G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1246749080&sr=8-1), by Del McCoury & friends. That’s Uncle Sam on the cover, sneaking off with a money bag. “Del” was named for Franklin Delano Roosevelt–whose Firesign chats show up on the record. Again, you will _never_ hear this stuff on Corporate Country Radio. Where you will also never hear the DJ’s mention that Merle Haggard always emphasized that he never smoked marijuana–in Muskogee. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/july-4th-songs/501835/23 "2009-07-05T00:04:40Z")
Mark Knopfler seems to enjoy writing songs about small slices of American History. “Boom Like That” is about Ray Kroc and the founding of McDonald’s “Sailing to Philadelphia” is about Mason & Dixon - whose eponymous line became the separator between “North” and “South.” If I was going to go Schoolhouse Rocks! I would definitely go “The Preamble Song” which puts the Preamble of the Constitution to music. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/july-4th-songs/501835/24 "2009-07-05T01:20:14Z")
In addition to those already mentioned: \*\*Hail to the Chief \*\* _James Sanderson (M) and Sir Walter Scott (L) - 1811_ **Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean** _David Taylor Shaw(?) (M/L) and/or Thomas A. Becket(?) (L) - 1843_ \*\*The Battle Hymn of The Republic \*\* _Phillip Simonds (M) and Julia Ward Howe (L) - 1862_ **The Battle Cry of Freedom** _George Frederick Root - 1862_ \*\*When Johnny Comes Marching Home \*\* _Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (as Louis Lambert) - 1863_ \*\*American Patrol \*\* _Frank W. Meacham - 1885_ **The Washington Post** _John Philip Sousa - 1889_ **The Yankee Doodle Boy** _George M. Cohan - 1904_ **Give My Regards To Broadway** _George M. Cohan - 1904_ **You’re A Grand Old Flag** _George M. Cohan - 1906_ **National Emblem March** \* E. E. Bagley - 1907\* **Over There** _George M. Cohan - 1917_ **The Field Artillery Song (As the Caissons Go Rolling Along)**_Major Edmund Gruber - 1908_ **The Marine’s Hymn** _Music adapted from Jacqués Offenbach, Lyrics Traditional - c. 1890s_ **The U.S. Air Force (Army Air Corps) Song**_Captain Robert Crawford - 1939_ **Semper Paratus (The Coast Guard Hymn)**_Words and Music by Captain Francis Saltus Van Boskerck - 1927_ **Anchors Aweigh** _Lieutenant Charles A. Zimmermann (M) and Midshipman First Class Alfred Hart Miles (L)- 1906_ MIDI files for each of the above are available [here](http://www.perfessorbill.com/pbmidi19.shtml). ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/july-4th-songs/501835/25 "2009-07-05T01:32:51Z")
How about one by a Canadian? _Once in a while In a big blue moon There comes a night like this Like some surrealist Invented this 4th of July Night ride home_ [Night Ride Home (YouTube)](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEK9yi3KS4I&feature=PlayList&p=C369973CB5D1E659&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=8), by Joni Mitchell ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Yankee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/southern_yankee/32/2800_2.png) [@Southern\_Yankee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Yankee)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/july-4th-songs/501835/26 "2009-07-05T01:47:43Z")
Of course, there’s Springsteen’s _4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/july-4th-songs/501835.md?page=1)