looking for some good music to ring through your headphones while watching teenage kids bowl over toddlers for that tootsie roll the county supervisor threw from his car in the fourth of july parade? well, you're in luck. note that lee greenwood, toby keith, and kid rock are conspicuously absent.
* lincoln portrait - aaron copland. there are many renditions of this lengthy classic from copland's library. my more recent infatuation has been with this collaboration between the seattle symphony and james earl jones.
* living in america - james brown. the hardest working man in show business sets it off in rocky iv. i love it when apollo creed grooms his head with his boxing glove just before he gets clobbered by that huge russian with the butch haircut.
* skies of america - ornette coleman. even i will admit that this album as a whole is tough to swallow, but the image of ornette and don cherry sitting indian-stlye on organic rugs in the middle of the london symphony orchestra certainly helps. good call on keeping this track under three minutes.
* liberty city - jaco pastorius. i love this live version from his birthday concert. brecker brothers, herbie, othello, etc. "i want to say hello to my mother."
* freedom - dr. john. i always forget about this guy. i think i inadvertently categorize him as a novelty act, but am intrigued every time i hear him. i got this from a hal willner mingus project album. other players include chuck d, don byron, and henry rollins.
* declare independence - bjork. is this a shameless attempt at including my dream girl in a post? guilty as charged, but don't sleep on this cut. primal meets feedback.
* star spangled banner - bruce hornsby and branford marsalis. i smuggled this tune from someone back in my napster days. the soprano is on point, the piano clear and spacious. runner-up nods go to marvin gaye and whitney houston.
* american baby - dave matthews band. it seems like everybody i know had seen dave before he got big, and it took me forever to figure out that the weird asexual dancer person stuck to the back glass of every midsize suv in my college town was in support of the dmb. beyond the fashionable acceptance of this band on fraternity row, this tune sounds pretty good.
* firework - katy perry. this is the jam. yeah, i said it.
* america the beautiful - charlie haden quartet. some of my personal favorites on today's jazz scene show up here - brad mehldau, brian blade, and the late michael brecker. sublime.
* born in the u.s.a. - bruce springsteen. no summer is complete without stuffing a red cap in your back pocket and belting out the chorus with rocks in your throat. my mom scored cool points by bringing home this album on cassette.
* americans, universal phenomenon - scott johnson. somehow, somebody super intelligent bought this for the isu music library. anything on tzadik gets top priority for my ears.
and, the coup de gras...
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