James Brown – Living In America

4th of July memories… I have a few but one of the many stupid things I remember is my sister (who is 8 years older) and I would chase each other around with Roman Candles on the 4th of July.

Price guide for Lot of 5: Roman Candles From 1950s-1970s. Includes:

These fabulous weapons of destruction shot out fireballs and sometimes I landed a great shot. I was 8-10 years old and harder to hit. By some miracle, we were never hurt…bad anyway. Scorch marks yea…but we kept all of our limbs. Sorry…now to the song.

I first heard this song in Rocky IV. It was good to see Brown have a hit song. Living In America was released in December of 1985 and was his first Billboard charting song since 1976. The horns on this song sound incredible. They were called The Uptown Horns who also backed The J. Geils band on the Freeze Frame album and The B-52’s on Love Shack.

This was written by Dan Hartman (“I Can Dream About You”) and Charles Midnight. The song won the 1986 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance. The song was a huge hit. It peaked at #4 on the Billboard 100, #5 in Canada, #5 in New Zealand, and #5 in the UK in 1986. The song blends elements of soul, funk, and R&B.

When I saw the lead guitar player on this song I was stunned because I’d never heard of him playing on this. The guitar player was Stevie Ray Vaughan and this was around the time when his career was really taking off. He finished up playing on David Bowie’s album Lets Dance just a couple of years before.

The song’s co-writer Dan Hartman later included his recording of the song on his 1994 album Keep the Fire Burnin’.

Living In America

Yeah, uh
Get up, ow
Ow
Knock it out this
Woo

Super highways, coast to coast
Easy to get anywhere
On the transcontinental overload
Just slide behind the wheel
How does it feel

When there’s no destination that’s too far?
And somewhere on the way you might find out who you are, woo

Living in America (ow)
Eye to eye, station to station
Living in America
Hand in hand, across the nation
Living in America
Got to have a celebration

Rock my soul, huh, ow, huh

Smokestack, fatback
Many miles of railroad track
All night radio, keep on runnin’
Through your rock ‘n’ roll soul
All night diners keep you awake
On black coffee and a hard roll, woo

You might have to walk a fine line (say it)
You might take the hard line
But everybody’s workin’ overtime

Living in America (huh)
Eye to eye, station to station
Living in America
Hand in hand, across the nation
Living in America
Yeah, got to have a celebration, woo

I (I) live in America
Say it loud
I live in America
Wait a minute

You may not be lookin’ for the promised land
But you might find it anyway
Under one of those old familiar names
Like New Orleans (New Orleans), Detroit City (Detroit City)
Dallas, uh (Dallas), Pittsburgh, PA, (Pittsburgh, PA)
New York City (New York City), Kansas City (Kansas City)
Atlanta, woo (Atlanta), Chicago and L.A.

Living in America
Hit me
Living in America, yeah
I walked in and out
Living in America

I live in America
Say it loud, It’ll make you proud, uh
Said, I live in America
Hey, I know what it means, ah

Living in America
Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out

To the bridge, ay

Living in America
Hit me
I said now, eye to eye
Station to station
Living in America
Oh, so nice with your bad self (uh)
Living in America
Whoa, I feel good

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

36 thoughts on “James Brown – Living In America”

  1. I love the literal transcription of the James Brown lyrics. This is a fun song.

    You were brave to shoot Roman Candles at each other. Our parents scared us with stories of how they can backfire, so we never did it. But we blew plenty of stuff up with Black Cat firecrackers.

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    1. I know…the Ohh and uh…in all of his songs. We were stupid to do that. My sister has always been on the edge. She likes riding the biggest rides at a carnival and any risk taking while I played it safe but I was too young to know lol.
      I told her…I got the brains and she got looks.

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      2. Yea I run from my sister at carnivals. We went to a small one before and I love to spin…she likes heights and spinning… there was hardly anyone there and she talked a guy into turning it full blast. It was spinning so fast I could breathe…and she wanted more…that is the last time I rode a ride with my sister.
        To bad you don’t know each other…she would be there right with you.

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      3. I love it. She has me beat in asking to have it turned up. I admit now that I’m more grown up I do scrutinize the ride and decide if it looks well maintained and operated. Some look pretty dodgy.

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      4. I was on the swings as a kid holding on to both sides…one chain popped…I was holding one side of myself up…last time I rode the swings.

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  7. Not necessarily my favorite James Brown tune, but certainly not a bad song either. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, James Brown could have made singing the phone book sound great. Until I read your post, I didn’t know either that Stevie Ray Vaughan played on this one. I primarily remember the song for the horns. I got to go back and check for Stevie. I love his guitar-playing!

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    1. Yea…not my favorite one either…but it fit. I had no clue about SRV playing either. He must have started this right after Bowie’s Lets Dance.

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      2. The horns are really tight on that tune and stand out musically. There’s some funky guitar action going on throughout, but I’m not even sure it’s guitar or keyboard. If I hear it correctly, SVR is coming in at around 2:42 minutes into the song, playing fill-ins. But they’re really mixed to the background, and if you don’t pay close attention, you can easily miss it!

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      3. Yea SRV sounded great in this…from what you can hear…those up and down fast strokes. Of course Brown is Brown

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  8. Good tune for the holiday. Also really like the James Brown video with Carl Weathers and Dolph cameos. Nice touch! Happy 4th of July (and Anniversary!) Older son and I drove over to younger son and his wife’s house and I got to take the grandbaby for a walk. Fun times.

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