4 Juillet 2013
The Declaration of Independence of the
Thirteen Colonies In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen
United States of America,
Independence Day is the birthday of the United States of America and is celebrated on the Fourth of July each year. Independence Day is the anniversary of the day on which the Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776.
John Adams, one of the founders of our new nation, said, "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward for evermore." Independence Day was first celebrated in Philadelphia on July 8, 1776.
In 1941, Congress declared July 4 a legal public holiday.
(Ani Di Franco)
you gotta have the right tools for every job so I invite myself in through a hole in the fence I am tripping through the junkyard scanning over the piles the thin cats raise their skin in defense I know he's watching me I can see him through the cracks his eyes are small and shy on my back he says his name is jason he lives in the last trailer on the right and he'll be seven on the fourth of july only the people who live here know the name of this place my path through iowa would be hard to trace all the adults in this town try not to frown when I walk by but jason smiled at me he met my eye he don't ask me where I'm from or why I came here alone we all go looking for paradise then we go back home we cut out the small talk go right to the way things are he showed me his squirrel skull I told him I locked myself out of my car so there goes the only friend I have in iowa his hand flapping behind him waving good-bye his name is jason he lives in the last trailer on the right and he'll be seven on the fourth of july
Shall I tell it again how we started as friends
Who would run into one another now and again
At the yippee cai o or the mesa dupree
Or a dozen different everyday places to be
I was loping along living alone
We were ever so brave on the telephone
Would you care to come down for fireworks time
We could each just reach
We step out of line
And the smell of the smoke and the lay of the land
And the feeling of finding ones heart in ones hand
And the tiny tin voice of the radio band singing
Love must stand
Love forever and ever must stand
Unbelievable you, impossible me
The fool who fell out of the family tree
The fellow that found the philosophers stone
Deep underground like a dinosaur bone
Who fell into you at a quarter to two
With a tear in your eye for the fourth of july
For the patriots and the minutemen
And the things you believe they believed in then
Such as freedom, and freedoms land
And the kingdom of God and the rights of man
With the tiny tin voice of the radio band
Singing love must stand
Love forever and ever must stand
And forever must stand
Oh the smell of the smoke as we lay on the land
And the feeling of finding my heart in my hand
With the tiny tin voice of the radio band
Singing love must stand
Love forever and ever must stand
All on the fourth of july
On the fourth of july
Shower in the dark day
Clean sparks driving down
Cool in the waterway
Where the baptized drown
Naked in the cold sun
Breathing life like fire
Thought I was the only one
But that was just a lie
Cause I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of july
Pale in the flare light
The scared light cracks & disappears
And leads the scorched ones here
And everywhere no one cares
The fire is spreading
And no one wants to speak about it
Down in the hole
Jesus tries to crack a smile
Beneath another shovel load
And I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of july
Now Im in control
Now Im in the fall out
Once asleep but now I stand
And I still remember
Your sweet everything
Light a roman candle
And hold it in your hand
Cause I heard it in the wind
And I saw it in the sky
And I thought it was the end
And I thought it was the 4th of july
Trembling Starry eyed
As you put your hand in mine...
Verse
It was twilight
On the Fourth of July
Sparkling colors were
Strewn across the sky
And we sat close enough
That we just barely touched
While roman candles
Went soaring above us and baby
Chorus
Then you put your hand in mine
And we wandered away
I was trembling inside
But I wanted to stay
Pressed against you there
and leave the world behind
On that Fourth of July
Verse
So starry eyed
On the flowery hillside
Breathless and fervid
Amid the dandelions
As it swept over me
Like the wind through the trees
I felt you sigh with a
Sweet intensity and baby
Chorus
Then you put your hand in mine
And we floated away
Delicately lay entwined
In an intimate daze
A crescent moon began to shine
And I wanted to stay
Tangled up with you among the fireflies
On that Fourth of July
Bridge
Thunder clouds
Hung around
So threateningly
Ominously hovering
And the sky
Opened wide
Showering
Chorus
Then you put your hand in mine
And we ran from the rain
Tentatively kissed goodnight
And went our separate ways
And I've never truly felt the way that I
Felt the Fourth of July
Outro
Truly I have never felt the same inside
Like that Fourth of July
Truly I could never feel the same as I
Felt that Fourth of July
Today's the fourth of July
another June has gone by
and when they light up our town I just think
what a waste of gunpowder and sky
I'm certain that I am alone
in harbouring thoughts of our home
it's one of my faults that I can't quell my past
I ought to have gotten it gone
Oh, baby, I wonder - if when you are older -
someday-
you'll wake up
and say, 'My God, I should have told her -
what would it take?
But now here I am and the world's gotten colder
and she's got the river down which I sold her.'
So that's today's memory lane
with all the pathos and pain
another chapter in a book where the chapters are
endless
and they're always the same
a verse, then a verse, and refrain
Oh, baby, I wonder - if when you are older -
someday-
you'll wake up
and say, 'My God, I should have told her -
what would it take?
But now here I am and the world's gotten colder
and she's got the river down which I sold her.'
Sandy, the fireworks are hailin' over Little Eden tonight
Forcin' a light into all those stony faces left stranded on this warm July
Down in town the circuit's full of switchblade lovers so fast, so shiny, so
sharp
As the wizards play down on Pinball Way on the boardwalk way past dark
And the boys from the casino dance with their shirts open like Latin lovers
on the shore
Chasin' all them silly New York virgins by the score
And Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us
This pier lights our carnival life forever
Oh, love me tonight for I may never see you again
Hey Sandy girl
Now, now baby
Now the greasers, oh they tramp the streets or get busted for sleeping on the beach all night
Them boys in their high heels, ah Sandy their skins are so white
And me I just got tired of hangin' in them dusty arcades bangin' them pleasure machines
Chasin' the factory girls underneath the boardwalk where they all promise to unsnap their jeans
And you know that tilt-a-whirl down on the south beach drag
I got on it last night and my shirt got caught
And they kept me spinnin', didn't think I'd ever get off
Oh Sandy, the aurora is risin' behind us
This pier lights our carnival life on the water
Runnin' laughing beneath the boardwalk, oh with the boss' daughter
I remember Sandy girl
My my my my baby
Sandy, that waitress I was seeing lost her desire for me
I spoke with her last night, she said she won't set herself on fire for me anymore
She worked that joint under the boardwalk
She was always the girl you saw bopping down the beach with the radio
The kids say last night she was just like a star in one of 'em cheap little seaside bars
And I saw her parked with lover boy out on the Kokomo
Dj'hear the cops finally busted Madame Marie for tellin' fortunes better than they do
For me this boardwalk life's through baby
You ought to quit this scene too
Sandy the aurora's rising behind us
This pier lights our carnival life forever
Oh, love me tonight, and I promise I'll love you forever
Oh, I mean it sandy girl
My my my my my my baby
Yeah, I promise Sandy girl
Shalalala my baby
As a schoolboy I played with a plastic grenade
It was grey and with caps it was loaded
In the dirt we would cry and dramatically die
As it flew through the air and exploded
As a young man my dream was to be a marine
My flag was worth all I could bring it
The country felt young. When the anthem was sung
Well it gave me the goosebumps to sing it.
[Cho.]
I was born on the fourth of July
No one more loyal than I
When my country said so, I was ready to go,
And I wish I'd been left there to die.
When I landed in 'Nam I was great Uncle Sam
I was fighting for God and my mother.
And I knew what to do when my first tour was through,
I signed up and went back for another.
But it all tumbled down when we ambushed the town,
In the night how the metal was flying.
We blew it to hell. Really did our job well,
But just women and kids did the dying
[Cho.]
In the damn DMZ it all ended for me,
The fighting broke out and we scattered.
One shot hit my heel, the last thing I'd feel,
The next hit my spine and it shattered.
In my hospital bed I could hear what was said,
And the word will stay with me forever.
With my whole life ahead, my body was dead,
And the word they were using was never.
[Cho.]
Now I wheel myself down to the crossroads of town,
To see the young girls and their lovers.
And my mind is afire, it's alive with desire,
Christ, I'd barely begun, now it's over.
In my wheelchair for life, my mechanical wife,
I'm supposed to be cheerful and stoic.
I'm your old tried-and-true, Yankee Doodle to you,
Clean-cut, paralysed and heroic.
[Cho.]
Alone with the morning burning red in the canvas in my head
Painting a picture of you
And me driving across country, in a dusty old RV
Just the road and its majesty
And I'm looking at you with the world in the rear view
Chorus
You were pretty as can be, sitting in the front seat
Looking at me, telling me you love me, and your happy to be,
With me on the 4th of July
We sang Stranglehold to the stereo
Couldn't take no more of that rock n roll
So we put on a little George Jones and just sang along
Those white lines get drawn into the sun if you aint got no one
To keep you hanging on
And there you were like a queen with your nightgown,
Riding shotgun from town to town
Staking a claim on the world we found
And I'm singing to you, your singing to me, you were out of the blue to a boy like me
Chorus
You were pretty as can be, sitting in the front seat
Looking at me, telling me you love me, and your happy to be,
With me on the 4th of July
We sang Stranglehold to the stereo
Couldn't take no more of that rock n roll
So we put on a little George Jones and just sang along
and im looking for you in the silence that we share
Chorus
You were pretty as can be, sitting in the front seat
Looking at me, telling me you love me, and your happy to be,
With me on the 4th of July
We sang Stranglehold to the stereo
Couldn't take no more of that rock n roll
So we put on a little George Jones and just sang along