Free MP3 Downloads For a Classic Independence Day
Jul 01, 2010 - By danseitz
So you’ve got the family over, and you’ve got plenty of music on your iPod…then you realize that the latest GaGa track isn’t really going to cut it with the fam. You find yourself faced with downloading songs by sonic offenders like the Oakridge Boys and Lee Greenwood. But don’t despair, it’s possible to download music everybody will love that won’t make you dream of being Canadian. You’ll just have to get a bit…creative.
The Liberty Bell March by John Phillips Sousa
“What?” You might be asking. “Why would I be downloading anything by a guy who was so bombastic they had to invent a new kind of tuba just to play his marches?”
Well first of all, Sousa is as patriotic as it gets. Secondly, you know The Liberty Bell March better as the theme from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Yes, seriously. Despite this, it’s also a common staple at Presidential inaugurations, which we like to imagine is the band making a comment on the absurd nature of politics.
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Yep, your tax dollars went to free MP3s!
Face The Flag, Son by Marion Morrison aka John Wayne
Before you ask, no Hondo himself did not sing. To understand why exactly John Wayne is reading cheesy poetry over lounge music, you have to understand that in the ’60s and ’70s, every celebrity recorded a record. It didn’t matter how dignified you were, eventually you would be forced to make an album.
William Shatner’s is, by far, the most memorable of the species, but it started up at the very top (Robert Mitchum’s surprisingly good calypso album, James Dean’s bongo album) right down to the very, very rock bottom of TV (Sebastian Cabot, who mangled Bob Dylan like you wouldn’t believe).
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Face the Flag, this doesn’t make the song which is truly an epic cheesefest, any less funny. In fact it only intensifies it. But we’re sure some will be weepy by the time the track wraps up.
It’s a Grand Old Rag by George M. Cohan
Who you might ask is George M. Cohan? Well, he’s widely considered the father of American musical comedy and he’s also the subject of the hilariously inaccurate James Cagney film classic Yankee Doodle Dandy (among other things, they left out Cohan’s several wives). He also happened to write a lot of patriotic songs that everybody hears and are probably sick of, like Over There and Yankee Doodle Dandy.
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So pop It’s a Grand Old Rag on. — Yes, the sound quality is going to be terrible, but on the bright side, it’s something inoffensive and different. And it beats the hell out of Yankee Doodle; trust us on that one.
The Presidents by Jonathan Coulton
Coulton usually specializes in songs about eating your brains or code monkeys but now and again, he puts together a little educational number, like his summary of the Presidents to an exceptionally jaunty tune. It helps that Coulton is A) incredibly well-informed and B) sometimes bitingly apt in his summary.
Just for example, his summary of Nixon “a sweaty filthy liar” and Clinton is summarized as giving an intern a cigar. So you know Coulton’s on point and accurate. Plus it’s the only one of his songs that isn’t either depressing or involves explaining elaborate jokes about math to your parents.
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You can download this tune directly from Coulton’s site. And look around a bit more while you’re there; Coulton has some hilarious and touching songs.
My Country Tis Of Thee, Lyrics by Samuel Smith, Song by…???
Here’s something fun you can do; download the dozens of versions of this song that serve as a national anthem, and then see how baffled everybody is to hear this beloved American classic in about a dozen different languages.
My Country Tis of Thee is the first American national anthem, with The Star Spangled Banner only becoming the official anthem in the 1930s. It’s also actually a parody, after a fashion. The music comes from the original British anthem, God Save the Queen. But that’s not the only country that music serves as a national anthem: Germany used it to make their anthem Heil dire im Siegerkranz, and Switzerland used a version, Furst Du, Mein Vaterland, until 1961. Norway STILL uses it for their royal anthem, Kongesangen. In Liechtenstein, it’s Oben am jungen Rhein.
It gets better: we don’t know who wrote the music, either. So not only can you confound and baffle your entire family, you can also put that annoying know-it-all cousin in his place when he tells you Samuel Smith wrote the music. Somebody needs to do it: there’s nothing more proudly American than the humiliation and shame of young children at family gatherings. Do it not for yourself, but for your country.
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Our Norwegian is a wee bit rusty, so we’re not sure if it’s a free MP3 or if we’re downloading a horrible virus.
Any free patriotic songs we missed? Tell us in the comments!