The best Veterans Day songs

This spoken-word song, the title-track on Cash’s 47th album, is a heartfelt nod to the patriotism that persisted during the Watergate scandal.

Mellencamp sings honestly about racial inequality in America, a patriotic gesture that asks America to live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all.

Diamond’s sweet crooning gets to the core of what America is at its best: a shiny refuge for the huddled masses that yearn to be free.

As this song describes, there’s nothing more American than searching for the county’s soul on the open road.

If you like American music (baby), then you should bump this gentle acoustic ode to a quintessentially American dilemma: not having a date for prom.

In 1944, this folk classic foretold the fall of the Axis powers at the hands of “the great destroyer / made of fire, flesh, and steel.” (That’s us.)

This angst-laden number was featured in the film Clueless, and is sure to resonate with the sulky, sneering kids of America for a long time yet.

Despite many attempts at clarification, McLean refuses to explain what this song’s lyrics mean: You might say such explanation-seekers are driving their Chevys to the levy and finding it dry.

No musician since has injected such raw iconoclasm into the National Anthem.

In 1969, this seething country song struck a chord with the nation’s good ol’ boys, providing a counterpoint to the idealism of the Summer of Love.

In America, the promise of possibility intoxicates most of us, notably here, one American girl described by Tom Petty.

Maybe Miley Cyrus didn’t write this song but then, what’s more American than paying someone else to do it for you? There’s no doubt, though, that she’s the one driving this timeless ditty about carefree teenage Americana.

In this song, Springsteen laments the poor treatment received by Vietnam War veterans. But his point was valid, and, if we want to be a good country, it’s a lesson we should never forget.

This punk track attempts to jibe the narrator’s patriotism with America’s conflicted history: As the song goes, “You’ve got to know the truth, before you say that you’ve got pride.”

Part of being American is enjoying freedom of speech—that includes the liberty to loudly disapprove of its government, a right that Bemis exercises in this obscure but truly rocking lambasting of the then-president.

This track packs funk and pride into a slick, groovy jam about a vast and gorgeous country full of bad selves. Woo—get up now!

This inspirational ballad deals with the difficulty of coming of age in America and ways in which we can overcome that struggle.

If there is a streak of American life marked by pride, it’s found in the South, and no song describes such Dixie love with more aplomb.

As this sweet ditty instructs, “be young, be dope, be proud—like an American.”

More than 50 years later, Dylan’s queries about freedom and justice are as relevant as ever.