100 Top Songs of 2007

Because our very existence is an irony, one thing can be said about the Americans I know, including myself, we love the ironic, the sardonic. Randy Newman, a contemporary American songwriter, cornered the market on American musical sardonic humor in his latest release, A Few Words In Defense of Our Country!

While Randy's new song is an apology for America and Americans, we don't get off the hook so easily. He is more than willing to make hay with our current history, including our American Pity Party pursuing terror.

I suppose that may explain why A Few Words In Defense of Our Country quietly became the #2 song in Rolling Stones 100 Best Songs of 2007. There is another irony, so everyone can relate to part of the song, A Few Words in Defense of Our Country while recognizing the validity of all of the song.

I would like to believe that one important reason this song became so highly prized in 2007 is because Americans understand who we are better than people in other countries believe we do. We are Americans, the whelps of the downtrodden, indentured servants and slaves, the dregs of all your countries, the naysayers and the political enemies of many of the most successful dictators in the ENTIRE world. We are Americans, so we know who we are and where we come from in the historical scheme of things.

We are Americans, and we established a country, a democracy, that many want to join and many want to hate.

My mother always told me that the people who want to destroy you the most are the people who want what you have....in plainspeak....they are jealous. That doesn't let us, Americans, off the hook for any issues we have caused, it just explains why some of the issues exist. Don't get it? It is OK, irony is often the tool of subtlety.