Songs That Tell Stories

Well, if were going with 4th of July...


Independence Day

Words & Music by Ani DiFranco
As performed by Allison Crowe

We drove the car
To the top of the parking ramp
4th of July

Sat out on the hood
With a couple of warm beers
And watched the fireworks
Explode in the sky

There was an exodus of birds from the trees
'cause they didn't know
We were only pretending

And the people all looked up and looked pleased
And the birds flew around
Like the whole world was ending

I don't think war is noble
And I don't like to think love is like war
But I got a big hot cherry bomb
And I wanna slip it through the mail slot
Of your front door

You can't leave me here
I got your back now
You'd better have mine

And you say the coast is clear
But you say that all the time

So many sheep I quit counting
Sleepless and embarrassed
About the way that I feel

Trying to make mole hills out of mountains
Building base camp at the bottom
Of a really big deal

Did I ever tell you how I stopped eating
When you stopped calling me
I was cramped up
Shitting rivers for weeks
And pretending that I was finally free

You can't leave me here
I got your back now
You'd better have mine

And you say the coast is clear
But you say that all the time

We drove the car
To the top of the parking ramp
4th of July

I planted my dusty boots on the bumper
Sat out on the hood
And looked up at the sky

thanks for the great prose

Thank Ani Panz! I'm interested that the lyric works for you without hearing the song. If you're bored try and track it down on the web - I got it free from Amazon when they used to do free mp3s - but there's a bunch of sites streaming it. Her site also has links and freebies http://www.allisoncrowe.com/music/

I'm pretty sure it's off the 2005 live album, but it doesn't sound live (as in audience noise) to me. Great delivery. I've never heard Ani sing it. What does the righteous babe do these days?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Usb9N2czOO8
"4th Of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)"bruce springsteen


Sandy the fireworks are hailin' over Little Eden tonight
Forcin' a light into all those stoned-out faces left stranded on this Fourth of
July
Down in town the circuit's full with switchblade lovers so fast so shiny so
sharp
And the wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past dark
And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers
along the shore
Chasin' all them silly New York girls

Sandy the aurora is risin' behind us
The pier lights our carnival life forever
Love me tonight for I may never see you again
Hey Sandy girl

Now the greasers they tramp the streets or get busted for trying to sleep on the
beach all night
Them boys in their spiked high heels ah Sandy their skins are so white
And me I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades bangin' them pleasure
machines
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk where they promise to unsnap
their jeans
And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag
I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
And that Joey kept me spinnin' I didn't think I'd ever get off

Oh Sandy the aurora is risin' behind us
The pier lights our carnival life on the water
Runnin' down the beach at night with my boss's daughter
Well he ain't my boss no more Sandy

Sandy, the angels have lost our desire for us
I spoke to 'em just last night and they said they won't set themselves on fire
for us anymore
Every summer when the weather gets hot they ride that road down from heaven on
their Harleys they come and they go
And you can see 'em dressed like stars in all the cheap little seashore bars
parked making love with their babies out on the Kokomo
Well the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they
do
This boardwalk life for me is through
You know you ought to quit this scene too

Sandy the aurora's rising behind us, the pier lights our carnival life forever

4th Of July
Aimee Mann

Today's the fourth of July
another June has gone by
and when they light up our town I just think
what a waste of gunpowder and sky
I'm certain that I am alone
in harbouring thoughts of our home
it's one of my faults that I can't quell my past
I ought to have gotten it gone
Oh, baby, I wonder -
if when you are older -
someday-
you'll wake up
and say, 'My God, I should have told her -
what would it take?
But now here I am and the world's gotten colder
and she's got the river down which I sold her.'
So that's today's memory lane
with all the pathos and pain
another chapter in a book where the chapters are endless
and they're always the same
a verse, then a verse, and refrain
Oh, baby, I wonder -
if when you are older -
someday-
you'll wake up
and say, 'My God, I should have told her -
what would it take?
But now here I am and the world's gotten colder
and she's got the river down which I sold her.'

great stuff