Boards
Great American Self-Mythologising Rock Lyrics
There's a certain type of American rock lyric that most non-Americans just can't get away with, especially English people. Those great, chest-beating, misty-eyed, self-mythologising paeans to distant memories of a glorious summer, when you left the darkness on the edge of town, headed out in your Chevy and hit "the road" in search of truth, freedom, and the American dream.
One of my favourites was written by a Canadian, but couldn't be more American if Captain America pounded a Stars and Stripes beltbuckle into its forehead with a baseball bat:
"I got my first real six-string
Bought it at the five-and-dime
Played it till my fingers bled
It was the summer of '69"
There's just no English equivalent of that (and I say "English" because Welsh, Scottish and Irish people tend to be a bit better at getting misty-eyed about their heritage without sounding like a Daily Mail columnist standed in Brixton on a Saturday afternoon).
"I bought a well nice guitar
Cost me about 50 quid
From Costcutters in Huntingdon
I played it while I was waiting for the bus to St Neots
But I broke some strings, 'cause it was a bit nippy out"
ARE there any examples of English songwriters who've managed to self-mythologise without sounding like complete twats?
And what are your favourite Grandiose All-American Anthems?