However, this is a Vietnam War protest song through and through.
This 1969 hit starts off sounding like an ode to those patriotic folks "born made to wave the flag". FORTUNATE SON, CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL Petty's classic, however, written in 1976 as the US fully emerged from an age of innocence, captures a generation's ennui, telling of an American girl who "couldn't help thinkin'/That there was a little more to life somewhere else".
Stick the word "American" in your song title and people tend to think it will be reverential. The home of the Chicago Cubs is a historic arena that lives up to its "Friendly Confines" nickname.ĮSSENTIALS Chicago is bitterly cold in winter, though otherwise pleasant (if not windy). See DON'T MISS Though it has little to do with jazz and blues, if you love sport, no visit to Chicago is complete without catching a baseball game at Wrigley Field. This 1937 classic was later popularised by the Blues Brothers, who changed the lyric to "Back to that same old place" it's now settled as an elegy to a modern city that retains its links to blues culture.ĮXPERIENCE IT If you're interested in Chicago's jazz and blues scene, check out any of the myriad clubs in the Bronzeville neighbourhood, or visit icons such as Buddy Guy's Legends and the House of Blues. THE PLACE Johnson's Chicago ode is a little confusing, given its chorus of "Oh baby don't you want to go/Back to the land of California/My sweet home Chicago". THE LYRIC Baby don't you wanna go/ My sweet home Chicago It wouldn't happen in Australia, well not to such a degree, but isn't that the whole point?Ĭome with us as Traveller celebrates America through song and the corresponding places that are the embodiment of certain lyrics. "America, I love you America," sings Ray Charles. "Living in America/ Got to have a celebration…" James Brown hollers. "Ain't that America/ Home of the free" John Mellencamp proclaims. Maybe that's why their songs celebrate their "American-ness" and for a lot of Australian visitors to the US, they are a perfect, authentic soundtrack for their travels.
It's no surprise that Americans don't have an equivalent of the Tall Poppy syndrome. And play The Eagles too loud in its stereo, who cares, they sure don't.) Many of us had a quasi-American childhood thanks to too much American television (and yes, all their school buses are orange, their national park service workers do dress like Ranger Smith and highway patrol cops do wear those skin-tight pants), so everything feels familiar there and yet completely foreign at the same time.Īnything pretty much goes in the US: wear those cowboy boots you bought in Denver, go roller-blading in Miami Beach, hire that Mustang convertible in LA - (take the red one, you know you want to.
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