L. Kent Wolgamott: Songs celebrate fun, true meaning of the Fourth

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For Shooter Jennings, Independence Day supplied the occasion to write a love song. For Dave Alvin, the holiday became the setting for a story about a breakup.

Both named their songs “Fourth of July” or, in Jennings’ case, “4th of July.”

Both are modern classics.

Shooter’s gem is enshrined with songs by his dad, Waylon, Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash on a recent “Outlaw Country” compilation.

Alvin’s tune has been covered by bands and solo artists for more than two decades, including its initial recording by X, the L.A. punk band in which Alvin was briefly a member.

“4th of July” is a joyous, rockin’ country number, tearing down the road on chiming guitars with a singalong chorus:

“You were pretty as can be, sitting in the front seat

Looking at me, telling me you love me, and you’re happy to be,

With me on the 4th of July

We sang ‘Stranglehold’ ‘til the stereo

Couldn’t take no more of that rock and roll

So we put on a little George Jones and just sang along”

The you in the song is actress Drea de Matteo, Adriana of “The Sopranos,” who, indeed,  is pretty as can be. And the jump between rock ’n’ roll and George Jones is a darned good description of Shooter’s music.

In a final bit of cool, “4th of July” ends with the sound of a radio being tuned, then Jones’ voice singing a few lines of his classic  “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” then the Possom quips, “When are we gonna get paid for this, do you reckon?”

There’s no humor in Alvin’s “Fourth of July,” particularly in the stark, acoustic-rooted country version on his “King of California” album.

A literary song about a couple whose relationship has fallen apart “on the lost side of town in a dark apartment,” “Fourth of July” finds its narrator haunted by loneliness while surrounded by the holiday celebration:

“On the stairs I smoke a cigarette alone

 Mexican kids are shooting fireworks below

Hey, baby, it’s the Fourth of July

Hey, baby, it’s the Fourth of July”

That chorus is a singalong, too, but there’s no uplift to be found, even in the raw kick of X’s demo version from “Beyond & Back: The X Anthology.”

John Doe’s vocals are hammering and direct, and when Exene Cervenka joins him on the chorus, the song soars. The duet makes the lyrics more powerful when she drops away and he sings the song’s key line, “Whatever happened, I apologize/so dry your tears and, baby, walk outside/It’s the Fourth of July.”

I’ve loved both songs from the time I first heard them and always play them on the holiday — usually more than once.

There’s another Alvin song that I always pull out for the Fourth — his signature celebration of “American Music”:

“We got the Louisiana boogie and the Delta blues

We got country swing and rockabilly, too

We got jazz, country-western and Chicago blues

It’s the greatest music that you ever knew

Well it’s American music, it’s American music

It’s American music

It’s the greatest sound, right from the U.S.A.”   

That bridge comes in the middle of a souped-up, crisp and clean studio version of the song on “The Blasters,” the band’s 1981 Slash Records debut. It starts out dirtier and slower in a live version captured on 2002’s “Trouble Bound,” then the train almost leaves the tracks as the reunited band blasts off the stage.

It’s pure rock ’n’ roll. That is American music. And it deserves celebration.

There’ll be lots of beer drinking, barbecuing and blowing things up today. But the reason for the revelry is often forgotten in the fun.

There is, however, a recent vivid reminder of what the Fourth of July is really about.

Earlier this year, HBO produced the brilliant mini-series “John Adams,” with Paul Giamatti playing the Massachusetts lawyer who became one of America’s founding fathers and the second president of the United States.

The second episode of the series takes Adams to the Continental Congress, where he is one of the prime agitators for separating with England, joining with Benjamin Franklin (beautifully played by Tom Wilkinson) in the political maneuvering for independence, then convincing an aloof Thomas Jefferson (Stephen Dillane) to put words on paper.

Those words were, of course, the Declaration of Independence.

When the vote for independence came, it was greeted with sober silence, the recognition of a dangerous movement to form a new country.

When it was read in public and sent out as broadsheets, Jefferson’s declaration resonated with the new Americans. It continues to do so today:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Reach L. Kent Wolgamott at 473-7244 or kwolgamott@journalstar.com.