What is your favorite American “patriotic” song?
This could be anything from “God Bless America” to “Born in the USA” to “My Country Tis of Thee”?
What is your favorite American “patriotic” song?
This could be anything from “God Bless America” to “Born in the USA” to “My Country Tis of Thee”?
Spoiler- “Born in the USA” isn’t a patriotic song.
Neil Diamond’s America.
Probably not a favorite of the anti-immigration people.
I think the most stirring is Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The Star Spangled Banner.
Nice and militaristic, with bombs and rockets and ships and forts… Originally based on a drinking song: haw!
But the best reason is that it begins and ends with a question, and what could be more American than that?
I like to be loose with the definition.
Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA is a pretty good one.
Many by George M. Cohan … particularly Yankee Doodle Dandy and She’s a Grand Old Flag
Also many by John Philip Sousa … particularly Stars and Stripes Forever (although it doesn’t have words, so isn’t technically a song)
Believe it or not, it does – and they were written by Sousa himself.
http://www.usa-flag-site.org/song-lyrics/stars-and-stripes-forever/
Other people have written lyrics for it, too.
VOA by Sammy Hagar
Wow! I never knew that! I like how the photo of the sheet music in that Wikipedia link is titled, Stars and Stripes Forever Song, and WP captions that as “Song”. I’m surprised it doesn’t also say, “Greg, you big doof!”
You can only consider Born in the USA to be a patriotic song if you’ve never listened to the lyrics. It’s an indictment of the treatment of Vietnam veterans after they came home. It’s like saying that Brother Can You Spare a Dime is a patriotic song.
*Come back home to the refinery
Hiring man said “son if it was up to me”
Went down to see my V.A. man
He said “son, don’t you understand”
I had a brother at Khe Sahn
Fighting off the Viet Cong
They’re still there, he’s all gone
…
Down in the shadow of the penitentiary
Out by the gas fires of the refinery
I’m ten years burning down the road
Nowhere to run ain’t got nowhere to go*
Only if you define a patriotic song as one that unthinkingly glorifies the nation. Criticism can be patriotic.
If Ray Charles’ “America the Beautiful” doesn’t get you weeping, there’s something wrong with you.
In that case, John Prine’s Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore:
I doubt very much that that’s the definition that the OP was using, nor would most people use it in that way.
It should be.