5 Rock Songs People Mistakenly Think Are Patriotic

It happens all the time — as the years roll on, the meaning of a song gets forgotten, ignored and abandoned, ultimately leading many to mistakenly confuse the song for being passionately patriotic.

This is a world where the political lean of Rage Against the Machine is almost entirely lost, with overreacting conservatives astonished that Tom Morello has progressive tendencies while reacting with a bottom-feeder quip about raging for the machine. What did everyone think? That he's a full-blown anarchist?

So, naturally the verses to Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." have been conveniently brushed aside in favor of blurting out the chorus like a blaring car horn salute to the red, white and blue.

The truth is that these songs were never a rallying cry, rather candid and honest critiques.

And if you think we're just talking about the U.S. of A., you're wrong! One of these five songs is across the pond where Olympic games promotions completely failed to look into the meaning of an iconic punk band's words.

Let's start it off with The Boss:

1. Bruce Springsteen, "Born in the U.S.A."

Overlooked lyric: "Down in the shadow of the penitentiary / Out by the gas fires of the refinery / I'm 10 years burnin' down the road / Nowhere to run, ain't got nowhere to go"

For anyone who has bothered to pay attention to the verse lyrics, you already know that this Bruce Springsteen hit paints an all-too-candid picture of life in the U.S. for a post-Vietnam War soldier. A generation of conscripts, shipped off to a war they did not enlist in returned home as outcasts and pariahs in their communities. That's the life of a young adult born in the country at the time.

Springsteen was critical of the Regan administration as well, seeing the country's problems mount while division amongst the citizens was being sowed.

Regarding his thoughts on Regan, Springsteen told Rolling Stone's Kurt Loder in 1984:

I think he presents a very mythic, very seductive image, and it’s an image that people want to believe in. I think there’s always been a nostalgia for a mythical America, for some period in the past when everything was just right. And I think the president is the embodiment of that for a lot of people. He has a very mythical presidency. I don’t know if he’s a bad man. But I think there’s a large group of people in this country whose dreams don’t mean that much to him, that just get indiscriminately swept aside. I guess my view of America is of a real bighearted country, real compassionate.

Astonishingly, the song has continuously been used by political parties to invoke a sense of prideful nationalism, its true meaning lost in exchange for feckless virtue signaling.

2. Neil Young, "Rockin' in the Free World"

Overlooked lyric: "Now she put the kid away and she’s gone to get a hit / She hates her life and what she’s done to it / There’s one more kid that’ll never go to school / Never get to fall in love, never get to be cool"

Largely a satirical political critique of the newly-minted George H.W. Bush administration and tensions with Iran. Two specific parts of Bush's campaign were mocked, from pre-election slogans to a plagiarized quote in accepting the Republican nomination for President.

"Rockin' In the Free World" feels like a should shrug dig as Neil Young depicts a downtrodden life in America that feels impossible to mistake for a sense of celebration. But this Canadian-born freedom-lover also caps the song off with a twinge of optimism! And perhaps exercising the freedom to openly criticize your government is patriotic after all, at least in the United States.

3. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, "American Girl"

Overlooked lyric: "Well, she was an American girl / Raised on promises / She couldn't help thinkin' that there / Was a little more to life / Somewhere else"

It's right there in the opening line. For so long, the U.S. has been associated with the idea of promises — a better future, equality, freedom. These spoon fed ideas, for some, become difficult to reconcile when maturing into adulthood, awakening to the cruel realities of the world we all share.

"American Girl" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers is a blanket summary of those trapped in their ordinary lives, disillusioned, fantasizing about what else life can afford them and where. The implied answer seems to suggest, "Anywhere but here."

4. The Clash, "London Calling"

Overlooked lyric: "The ice age is comin', the sun's zoomin' in / Meltdown expected, the wheat is growin' thin / Engines stop runnin', but I have no fear / 'Cause London is drownin' and I live by the river"

Patriotism — not exclusive to the United States. Shocking? It shouldn't be.

Punk innovators The Clash used a World War II era broadcasting ID ("This is London calling") balled up a bunch of sociopolitical and environmental problems (police brutality, flood risks, nuclear catastrophes) into one decade-straddling hit.

The chorus spells outright doom and gloom, a notion that seems to have been entirely neglected when "London Calling" was featured in advertisements for the 2012 Olympics. The host? You guessed it — London.

John Mellencamp, "Pink Houses"

Overlooked lyric: "'Cause they told me when I was younger / Said, "Boy, you're gonna be president" / But just like everything else, those old crazy dreams / Just kinda came and went"

On the surface, the lyrics to this 1983 John Mellencamp song seem to suggest that, while things might not be perfect, a sense of contentment will do just fine. The "Ain't that America, you and me / Ain't that America, home of the free" chorus has a rootsy, bootstrappin' feel to it, but this song points to the so-called "American dream" being just that — a dream.

For the reality of many is not a life of promise, but promises broken.

"I was driving through Indianapolis on Interstate 65 and I saw a Black man holding either a cat or a dog," Mellencamp told Rolling Stone in 2013, "He was sitting on his front lawn in front of a pink house in one of those shitty, cheap lawn chairs. I thought, 'Wow, is this what life can lead to? Watching the fuckin' cars go by on the interstate?'" The musician understood that this still brought happiness, which inspired the less-than-scornful mood of the song.

He also confirmed that it is indeed "an anti-American song."

Below, see 50 songs that name-check the 50 United States of America.