Pick one American song

Subject: Pick one American song
From: Cool Beans
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:01 AM

On a recent trip to Argentina I heard a singer-guitarist who, besides performing songs from all over Argentina, asked audience members where they were from and then played a song from each country: a Beatles song for England, "Hava Nagila" for Israel, "La Vie en Rose" for France, and assorted South American songs I'm unfamiliar with for people from Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela etc. So...Which song would you choose for the Americans in the crowd? You can pick only one. I'll tell you which one he chose, eventually.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Bill D
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:11 AM

I suppose he would likely do an Elvis or Dylan song....

I'd pick something like "Sweet Betsy from Pike" and probably get blank stares.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Leadbelly
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:12 AM

For americans?

Perhaps "Lyndon Johnson told the nation" by Tom Paxton? It's an evergreen even today in regard to american activitis worldwide.

But afterwards, I have to leave the place in a hurry.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:14 AM

I don't quite understand your question, Cool Beans.

You ask for one American song, but state that he played assorted South American songs. Sorry, but it does not compute.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:20 AM

I would pick "True Love," as sung by Fred Astaire in the movie 'High Society.'

Another story: I gave a tip to a toothless old fiddler with a squawky old fiddle at Santa Lucia on the Bay of Naples. He asked where we were from, and when he heard America, he played 'O Susanna.'

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST,Rahere
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:42 AM

I don't get why everyone has to be represented by just one cliché. Which Beatles song? Nowhere Man? Blackbird? Eleanor Rigby? Or for the US, Who By Fire? We Shall Overcome (whether you want us to or not)? Leaving on a Jet Plane?
Anthems tend to be foisted on everyone else as a matter of jingoistic self-agrandisement, into the bargain: the famous Mexican Alonzo Fonz de la Patriya, God Save Our Gracious Queen (from her Ministers), The Star-Bangled Spanner.
Perhaps it starts with us each finding our own. Le Moribond. The Fool on the Hill. Sitting on the Dock of the Bay. The list could be long.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:46 AM

... "True Love," as sung by Fred Astaire in the movie 'High Society.' ...

That would be Bing Crosby, not Fred.


DC

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: michaelr
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 03:24 PM

"Hard Times".

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 10:01 PM

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:17 PM

Home on the Range

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Aug 14 - 11:46 PM

I've Been Working on the Railroad

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 12:05 AM

I remember reading something in the 1950's which said that many foreigners thought that "the blues" was our national anthem, and that ships' orchestras would play it when told that an American was on board. I guess they meant a standard 12-bar blues instrumental. I was in elementary school then and had never heard of blues before.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 12:25 AM

And when I was learning La Golondrina a few years ago, I read somewhere that it was the best loved folk song of Mexico. The article added that it was the Mexican equivalent of Home on the Range. That surprised me at first, but I guess it could be true. Home on the Range expresses the American dream in an innocent and affectionate way, glossing over the genocide of the original range dwellers, and La Golondrina was written by a Mexican prisoner of war in France, to express his longing for his homeland.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Bert
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 12:28 AM

This Land is Your Land.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: LadyJean
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 12:32 AM

I think I'd pick a western song, "Good bye Old Paint", or something of that kind. Most people outside the U.S. think of the wild west. Otherwise, being a proud and loyal daughter of the city of Pittsburgh, I would have to say something by my fellow Pittsburgher Stephen Foster, perhaps "Hard Times Come Again No More".

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Janie
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 02:10 AM

Tomorrow I will surely pick another. But tonight, "There Ain't Bugs on Me."

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 11:44 AM

I've never heard of There Ain't Bugs on Me, so I don't see how it could be the one representative song.
It's not even a grammatically correct sentence; it should be There Ain't No Bugs on Me.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 12:00 PM

Hi Doug. You're right, that was Bing, not Fred. What WAS I thinking?

As for "Hard Times," probably 98% of Americans have never even heard of it. Forget it.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Lighter
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 03:58 PM

https://archive.org/details/HoraceWright

Humorous. Multicultural. Westward-looking. Historically significant. Catchy. Utterly forgotten.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 04:20 PM

Pastures of Plenty

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Elmore
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 04:28 PM

Kumbaya.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: pdq
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 04:42 PM

If you want a Stephen Foster song, it would be "Oh, Susanna".

Modern song that everybody can sing: "You Are My Sunshine".

More traditional: "Red River Valley".

I think "Lorena" is perhaps the most brilliant American song, but only about three living people can sing it and get all the words right.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Janie
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 07:46 PM

Thanks, Guest, for correcting the title of the song. Sorry about leaving out the 'No.'

I'm guessing you do know or have heard the song or you would not have picked up on that.

Re: being representative - that's the rub - or not - really just interesting - there are no songs that are prototypically representative of any nation, though in countries that are smaller geographically, there may be less diversity. That song is very representative of the subculture in which I was born and raised.

Red River Valley, Stephen Foster, Lorena, are not songs that represent the American experience of my family or my subculture. I suppose some of the show tunes or songs that arose out of widely viewed movies may be more widely representative of 20th century White USA, from east to west. Don't know if folks in Mexico and Canada, (I'm assuming America refers to North America,) would agree, but they might.

Regardless, a fun and thought-provoking thread, Coolbeans. Thanks for starting it. Enjoying reading the comments and offerings.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: olddude
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 08:16 PM

Tear in my beer

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: olddude
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 08:44 PM

I. Don't look good naked anymore

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: robomatic
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 08:57 PM

I Get a Kick Out of You

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Rapparee
Date: 29 Aug 14 - 09:04 PM

Yankee Doodle.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Aug 14 - 12:06 AM

Colorado trail and Shady Grove

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: RoyH (Burl)
Date: 30 Aug 14 - 06:18 AM

Old Joe Clark

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: fat B****rd
Date: 30 Aug 14 - 06:29 AM

The Battle Hymn of the Republic or maybe something by Elvis Presley.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Doug Chadwick
Date: 30 Aug 14 - 06:36 AM

I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 30 Aug 14 - 08:39 AM

This land is your land by Guthrie, or The Times they are a changing by Dylan

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Haruo
Date: 30 Aug 14 - 09:40 AM

Annexation, with the Gulf War addendum. Granted, the rest of it was written by a Canadian, but it's about the US and the recent add-on is by a USer.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Cool Beans
Date: 01 Sep 14 - 10:42 AM

And the answer is (was)...
When the Saints Go Marching In.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Cuilionn
Date: 01 Sep 14 - 11:49 AM

I'd echo those who suggest "This Land is Your Land," with the caveat that it ought to be sung with ALL the verses, including the ones Woody warned Arlo not to let people forget--the verses that nobody included in the sanitized school songbooks.

Another thought-- how's about Buffy Sainte-Marie's song, "Now That the Buffalo's Gone" or Johnny Cash's song, "The Ballad of Ira Hayes." Not everyone knows them, but these songs capture the effect of colonialism on some of North America's indigenous people, and that's a big part of our nation's story.

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: GUEST,DTM
Date: 01 Sep 14 - 01:19 PM

American Trilogy
or
California Dreamin'

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: mayomick
Date: 01 Sep 14 - 04:57 PM

Flintstones yabadabadoo

Subject: RE: Pick one American song
From: Acorn4
Date: 01 Sep 14 - 06:57 PM

Anything except "American Pie"?