"Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue"

By Toby Keith

And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
All, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.


Since this song came out back in 2001, I have always loved it.  I know there was a bit of controversy surrounding it, but in my own opinion, it seemed to describe the situation perfectly and I believe it described the feelings of many Americans accurately.


Tonight we can celebrate, that the leader of that horrible attack against our beloved nation, is no longer out there to threaten our country further.  Osama Bin Laden is dead.


I will never forget that fateful day--September 11, 2001.  I was a junior in high school.  I was such a naive and oblivious teenager.  I remember driving to pick up my friend Emily for school.  As she ran out and hopped into my truck she said, "Did you hear a plane flew into the World Trade Center?"  My (unfortunate) response was, "What is the World Trade Center?"  I quickly learned what the World Trade Center was and learned the seriousness of what had happened to our nation.  As TVs throughout the high school played the scene over and over the fear grew in all our hearts.  No one EVER attacked the United States--not in our lifetime.  I still remember sitting in my first period English class and my teacher, Ms. Coe (Crazy Ms. Coe) wouldn't believe us when we tried to tell her what had happened.  Someone ended up looking up the footage for her on her computer.  The entire class period she sat at her desk and watched it over and over crying and gasping at the scene.  I remember coming home from school that afternoon and seeing the footage played and replayed on every TV channel.  I couldn't take my eyes off the TV.  How could someone do this to US?


Songs, books, movies etc. came out about the events of that day.  Plenty of people just wanted to make a pretty penny off of America's sorrow.  But some of them really made an impact.  I made a CD just of patriotic songs--mostly ones that came out after 9/11.  "Where were you when the world stopped turning..." "And we'll fight, for the right, to live in FREEDOM!" "Have you forgotten, how it felt that day?  To see your homeland under fire.  And her people blown away..."  But of all of them, my favorite was always, THE ANGRY AMERICAN (Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue).  Everyone seemed to become significantly more patriotic--and I do believe that the events of that day brought our nation closer. 


In case you hadn't noticed on this blog, I relate and often express myself through music and lyrics.  Sometimes songs just say it better than I could.  Rumor has it, Toby Keith wrote this song for himself.  He wanted to express his feeling and it came out in lyric form.  He had never planned on singing it or ever making it public, but when he showed it to his family they insisted others needed to hear it too.  I don't know if it's true or not, but either way, I love this song.  Thanks Toby!  :)


COURTESY OF THE RED, WHITE, AND BLUE
(The Angry American)

American girls and American guys, will always stand up and salute.
We'll always recognize, when we see ol' glory flying,
There's a lot of men dead,
So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our heads.
My daddy served in the army where he lost his right eye,
But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me.
To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.

Now this nation that I love is fallin' under attack.
A mighty sucker-punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye,
Man, we lit up your world like the fourth of July.

Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
All, brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.

Oh, justice will be served and the battle will rage:
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.
And you'll be sorry that you messed with the U.S. of A.
'Cause we'll put a boot in your ***, it's the American way.

Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty started shaking her fist.
And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
All brought to you, courtesy of the red, white and blue.

Oh, oh.
Of the red, white and blue.
Oh, hey, oh.
Of my Red, White and Blue.