Outside of America by Neil Diamond, God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood, Living in America by James Brown, can anyone think of
any other, Patriotic 80's American songs?

And no.... Born In The USA, doesn't count.

;D

Outside of America by Neil Diamond, God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood, Living in America by James Brown, can anyone think of
any other, Patriotic 80's American songs?


Night Ranger: You Can Still Rock In America

Sammy Hagar: VOA (timeliness warning: you have to take some of those lyrics in the context of the Cold War, and even back in the 80s, Sammy was to the right of Ronald Reagan), and if you're willing to stretch it, I'd even argue I Can't Drive 55.

But for sheer giddy joy, I'd go with just about anything by Mojo Nixon and Skid Roper.  If I had to pick one track, it'd be This Land Is Your Land (from 1989's Root Hog or Die).  Just when you think he's taken the art of the rant to 11, he turns it up to 12: MOJOWORLD!  Waterslides, with loop-the-loops...

so, why does born in the usa not count? ???

so, why does born in the usa not count? ???


  It could be a patriotic song depending on your viewpoint, but McBain's talking about the Reagan camp's mis-interpretation of the song as morning-in-America flag waving and adopted the song as the soundtrack to his 1984 presidential campaign...

  He obviously never consulted Decades messageboard beforehand and everybody secretly snickered at him...

 

so, why does born in the usa not count? ???


Because it's a pretty scathing condemnation of how the US treated its Vietnam vets, and of how well they held up under the circumstances.

I'd actually argue that it does count - sorta like Mojo's ranting in We Gotta Have More Soul, Springsteen's point is that, dysfunctional as it is, America's fixable.  But those are songs that sing the praises of Americans, not America.  America's not fixable because it's intrinsically awesome, it's fixable because Americans are awesome.

I think what Jamie's after here are songs that don't praise "America, warts and all", but which praise the idealized America.  Which is why I went for Mojo's rendition of This Land.  It treads close to the line, but it's sung in such an irrepressibly upbeat style that I think it qualifies.

Hagar's VOA also qualifies - while it might sound like deliberate self-parody today, Hagar was being dead-on sincere (albeit jingoistic, but this is Sammy Hagar we're talking about) when he sang it. 

(Back when the song was written, the Middle East wasn't about Muslims vs. Everyone Else, it was about the USA and the USSR thumb-wrestling with each other's sock puppets.  We both had nukes, so we agreed to settle our differences via sock puppet thumb wrestling, rather than actually duking it out.  Someone mighta gotten hurt if we'd actually thrown down, and that woulda sucked.  Hey, the Cold War was a funny time.  If you think VOA's nuts, watch Rambo III.  It's set in Afghanistan, and it tells the story of how John Rambo helped a bunch of religious tribesmen fght off the Godless Russian Communists in their struggle for the all-American concept of freedom of religion.  Oops.  Yup, it's the story of how John Rambo unintentionally caused 9/11.)

  I remember watching the Charlie Daniels Band perform American Farmer for Farm Aid...

  "If da man don't work, da people don't eat..."

The song doesn't count, because it's a angry song, about the US's involvement in the Vietnam War.

R.O.C.K. In the USA by John Cougar Mellencamp

'Pink Houses' by John Cougar Mellencamp

"Ain't that America, for you and me"

God Bless The USA - Lee Greenwood
In America - Charlie Daniels Band

Real American...Derringer  :)