The most recent episode of Last Week Tonight included an extended segment about naturalization ceremonies, focusing specifically on their use of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.” Oliver made the argument that Greenwood’s tacky ballad has no place in a naturalization ceremony, especially given Greenwood’s political beliefs. I don’t disagree, and I happen to know the perfect replacement.
In 2009, Brad Paisley released the album American Saturday Night, possibly the single greatest album in all of contemporary pop country. The title track, a diamond-cut ode to multiculturalism, is exactly the sort of thing we should be blasting at naturalization ceremonies. Though wrapped up in all the aural trappings of a “girls, beer, and trucks” song, “American Saturday Night” has a lot more on its mind:
She's got Brazilian leather boots on the pedal of her German car,
Listenin' to The Beatles singin' "Back in the USSR.”
Yes, she's going 'round the world tonight, but she ain't leavin' here.
She's just going to meet her boyfriend down at the street fair.
And it's a French kiss, Italian ice,
Spanish moss in the moonlight.
Just another American Saturday night.
The album as a whole was unobtrusively progressive, and that was cool. This was an artist at the absolute peak of his creative and commercial powers—from 2005 to 2010, Paisley had ten straight number-one hits—pushing the boundaries of what mainstream country audiences were willing to hear. “American Saturday Night” wasn’t all that long after The (Dixie) Chicks were immolated for telling a crowd in England that they didn’t like George W. Bush. For a major recording artist who existed firmly within the same milieu as Toby Keith, Paisley’s stance was quietly brave.
I’ve written about Paisley before, albeit in a different life and on a different blog. His 2012 album Wheelhouse included two of his biggest swings, “Southern Comfort Zone” and “Accidental Racist,” but neither clicked with audiences. To be fair to audiences, the latter song is truly awful, though the intention remains exceptional. Since then, he has retreated into girls, beer, and trucks, losing the freshness that made him stand out. Meanwhile, the country audience has moved on. Paisley no longer charts the way he used to. An Imperial phase can only last for so long.
American Saturday Night will always be there, though. Looking back at it in this moment, with the election a week away, both album and song feel like artifacts from a lost world. For an instant, Paisley advocated for a turn a lot of the audience didn’t take. It’s not that simple, of course. Nothing is. But if I had to pick one message for newly inducted American citizens to hear, to say nothing of the rest of us, you could do much worse than:
Everywhere has something they're known for,
Although usually it washes up on our shores.
When my great-great-great-granddaddy stepped off of that ship,
I bet he never ever dreamed we'd have all this.