The stage lights flicker. The MAGA faithful whoop at the first tinkle of piano keys. They’ve been here a hundred times. They know what’s coming.

If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life And I had to start again With just my children and my wife

If tomorrow all the things were gone

I’d worked for all my life

And I had to start again

With just my children and my wife

“God Bless the USA” has been through several iterations since it first appeared on Lee Greenwood’s third album, You’ve Got a Good Love Comin’.

It was a Gold-certified single in May 1984 and the soundtrack for a short film about Ronald Reagan, which was shown at that summer’s Republican National Convention. Greenwood performed the song at the 1988 RNC – and it resurged in popularity after the First Gulf War and the 9/11 attacks. Until the 2010s, it served as a paean of right-tinged American unity. But over the past decade or so, it has taken on a new meaning: Donald Trump is about to take the stage.

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“I did 16 United Service Organizations tours all around the world. ‘God Bless the USA’ became a military anthem long before it became a national anthem,” says a softly spoken Greenwood. “It was popular among those people who were citizens of America by indoctrination, that would come to America to become citizens. At baseball games and football games, it became a song of spirit, rather than what it is today. As I look back at the past ten or 15 years, and now with the 25th anniversary of 9/11, it’s really become a part of American fiber.”

Henry........

© The Spectator