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15 Rockin’ America-Themed Tunes for Your Long 4th of July Weekend

Turn these up

Paul Combs
5 min readJun 30, 2023
Image: Wikimedia Commons

Much like Steve McQueen and James Garner did in The Great Escape, it’s time again for me to honor a uniquely American holiday: the 4th of July. Where else but the good old U.S.A. would you find people celebrating breaking the bonds of British oppression 247 years ago by getting knee-walking drunk and then playing with explosives? This year, many of us have a four-day weekend for the holiday, so while the brisket may not start smoking for another few days, the drinking has surely begun already. That means you need music, the more ’Merica-themed the better.

Some of these obviously have political undertones, and some are outright protest songs, but ignore that. The only fight this weekend should be over whether potato salad is made with mustard or mayo (I actually prefer a bit of both). We can get back to fighting Wednesday when you get out of the hospital with those third-degree burns.

The songs all speak for themselves, so I’ll only give a brief blurb with each video, and will drop the whole playlist at the end. And just so my British friends Simon Dillon, Mark Holburn, Paul Walker, and Alex Markham don’t think I’m still mad about your boys burning the White House in 1814, sending the Beatles over in 1964 more than made up for it.

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Paul Combs
Paul Combs

Written by Paul Combs

Writer, bookseller, would-be roadie for the E Street Band. My ultimate goal is to make books as popular in Texas as high school football...it may take a while.

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