Greetings PJ Media music lovers. On July 4, this girl is surrounded by 20-30 people who come together to share food, babies, and life. We make funny hats and pick stuff out of the garden, we've decorated notes for our troops, and always try to take an annual picture, but our music and fireworks are decidedly adult affairs. If we're not blowing things up, then we're mesmerized by our neighbor's legit, professional fireworks show, awestruck at what it must be like to light that much money on fire.
But though our July 4 festivities are days long and good for the soul, I've been feeling decidedly meh about Joe Biden's America these days. For a list of my complaints, please see my latest piece, entitled, "Joe Biden IS the Cheap Fake."
Complaining is something I do, but it's not in my soul. Ambivalence seldom controls my comportment. My default is action but I wasn't feeling very patriotic. I was volunteered by Chris Queen to do this music list and I figured it would be no sweat. I thought I would just go through the songs we like to hear while blowing things up but my heart really wasn't in it.
It took a trip to another country to regain some of my American mojo.
A week ago, my husband and I stood on the sands of Omaha Beach to see the place where Americans came to liberate this Nazi-occupied country and restore it to freedom. A 55-year-old American general commanded his troops on this beach.
I took off my shoes, grounded my toes on the sands of Omaha Beach, and dipped my toes in the English Channel. "Can you bring me back some sand from Omaha Beach?" a friend asked. "I lost an Uncle at Normandy on the second wave. Then lost an Uncle at the Bulge. Grandpa went gray overnight," she wrote to me. I gathered the sand.
We stood at Pointe du Hoc where American Army Rangers climbed the 100-foot rock wall while under fire to destroy German gun emplacements. We walked to an overlook and compared those French beaches to photos of what the Normandy beaches looked like on D-Day. Fifty-five miles of bloodstained sand and grit.
We came to Normandy and I was reminded of the best of America. We stayed in Bayeux, the first town liberated by American soldiers after the world's best stormed Omaha and Utah Beaches to free Occupied France. I felt pride in my country.
We stayed at a hotel named for Winston Churchill, which was just down the path from where the Nazi military elites commanded a large building where they plotted their final solution. The old hotel was festooned with American, Canadian, and British flags—a thank-you for their freedom. It was filled with World War II memorabilia. Americans were welcomed, not merely tolerated.
And then we went to the American Cemetery at Omaha Beach. At 5 p.m. every afternoon, the colors are retired, and "Taps" is played.
So "Taps" is where we begin our July 4 music list. If you're on Spotify, I've created a PJMedia July 4 playlist to enjoy. Some of it is fun, some of it is deeply patriotic, and all of it honors freedom and sacrifice. I've highlighted the first ten tunes here, but there are more on the PJMedia July 4 list on Spotify so knock yourself out over there.
After "Taps" our family hears from my sister, a bagpiper, who at golden hour, shares "Amazing Grace" with all of the neighbors. Applause from all over the neighborhood follows and helps to reset July 4. I don't have her rendition, but this will suffice. A July 4 list isn't worth its salt without it.
No one has done a better rendition of the "Star Spangled Banner" (the National Anthem) than Whitney Houston. And don't even try to talk me out of it.
Though Whitney covered "America the Beautiful" in spectacular fashion, which is included later in the extended PJMedia July 4 Spotify list (where there are no commercials, unlike YouTube), we prefer to get things going with Ray Charles' version. It's a family tradition.
And where's a July 4 playlist without an anthem to sing along to? Here we go. "God Bless the USA" is a tune that requires the listener to reset their "me, me, me" mindset and think about something bigger, like being "proud to be an American, where at least I know I'm free."
And as long as we're feeling grateful, Toby Keith is the next on our list of anthemic July 4 tunes with his "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue." This post-September 11 tune captured the outrage and hopefulness of a nation with a raw, unabashed need to kick some terrorist ass. By the looks of the border crisis, America will be confronting this again soon. Keep your head on a swivel.
Sorry, but not sorry. Here comes John Mellencamp with "Pink Houses" because, hey, "ain't that America?"
"Sweet Home Alabama." That's it. That's the tune.
Before the planners and experts tried to regulate pure, unadulterated joy from the American psyche, there was "Fast Cars and Freedom." Turn it up.
Don't let the kids forget what freedom means. "FREEDOM!"
And as long as we're into the spoken word portion of our playlist, here's The Duke, John Wayne, with the Pledge of Allegiance.
Back to the music with Toby Keith's "Made in America." Love this song.
Find the rest of the playlist here which includes "Mr. Red White and Blue" and others.
Celebrate what's left of our freedom this Independence Day.
