Were An American Band – Is The Original Still The Best?
It's everybody's favorite, patriotic rock anthem. Even though it's usually not a good idea to mess with such a classic song; some of these other versions are pretty good ...
In honor of the fourth of July and all associated parties, get-togethers and other festivities, I recently posted a list of patriotic rock songs and one song made the list 3 times. It actually could have been more so, let's take a look at just THAT song.
First, some background:
- It was originally written by Grand Funk Railroad (aka Grand Funk) in 1973.
- It was inspired by life on the road and features, lyrically, partying, poker games and groupies. One famous, (infamous??), rock groupie is mentioned by name.
- The aforementioned groupie, Connie Hamzy, is referred to as "sweet, sweet Connie".
- The line "We're An American Band" wasn't written until the song had been fully completed.
- Guitarist Mark Farner played the last KLAQ/El Paso Downtown Street Festival in 2018. (See pics here.)
Ok, enough about that, let's listen. As I searched some of my favorite cover versions of "We're An American Band", I began finding one after another, after another. ... there are tons of them, some done by some pretty big names. The following links will take you to different renditions that you and your friends can compare and contrast at your 4th of July bash. Enjoy!
Yoyoka (Ok, she's not "famous" but; she's 9 years old, she kills it & she's cute as hell.)
Metallica (Granted, they're really just screwing around here but; still ...)