I know where I was and I know where Jackson Browne was on Independence Day in 1989. This was the first summer I spent as a dedicated employee of the college radio station in Stevens Point, filling airshifts on an almost daily basis. By the timeframe that covered the end of June and the beginning of July, my cohorts and I were starting to get a little anxious and needing some breaks from keeping our slice of the left end of the day operational. Luckily, that stretch of days corresponded nicely with Summerfest, the annual music, comedy and beer drinking festival that took place on the lakefront of Milwaukee. Wisconsin’s biggest city wasn’t exactly close, but it was close enough, and several times during the fest, some combination of my friends made the journey north to see one of the handful of bands that appealed to our fairly rarefied interests.

My roommate and fellow station executive staff member, who went by, among other names, Uncle Rob Bob, was a fan of Jackson Browne. He was especially pleased that the album cover for the vinyl release of Lives in the Balance, Browne’s 1986 album, ignored the packaging conventions of the music industry and opened to the left, a nice, sly statement of political viewpoint for a record built around impassioned pleas for better, more human policies. The title cut was especially notable at the time, and it’s become sadly pertinent again in recent years. Browne was booked for the main stage of Summerfest and got the plum 4th of July slot, a scheduling choice that, if it happened today, would undoubtedly raise the easily inflamed ire of the Republican Noise Machine, which needs asinine outrage like vampires need blood. We celebrated America’s birthday by going to the show.

I have two clear memories that relate to this occasion. Browne was fairly indulgent about the encores, helping orchestrate it to make several returns to the stage (which I guess makes sense given that he likes encores enough to write a song about them). The other actually took place after we got back. I was the Program Director of the station at the time, and Uncle Rob Bob was the Station Manager. Our roles were the primary caretakers of station operations during the summer months. In the era before cell phones were ubiquitous, going to a concert in Milwaukee meant we were both unavailable for a minimum of twelve hours. Realistically, it meant a full day without us keeping an eye on things. While we were gone, a whole bunch of dominoes that we though were standing just fine (or, to be honest, didn’t think much about at all) came tumbling down. Our Faculty Advisor came down to the station offices when we returned and meticulously explained everything that went wrong in our absence. I think there may have even been a strong suggestion proffered regarding an unofficial policy that future road trips that summer should always leave one of the two of us behind.

As for Browne, one of the things I most appreciated about the music he was creating at the time, along with the public statements he was making, was that he refused to accede to the malicious right-wing falsism that any Americans who didn’t subscribe to their worldview did so because they were insufficiently patriotic. To offer criticisms of or counterpoints to Republican governmental policy–not policy in general as the past couple of years under the Obama administration have decisively proved–was akin to treasonous refutations of the nation itself. That notion has only been cemented further in recent years as the media has thinned out to the point that blindered commentary is available in abundance, reinforcing belief systems and distorting reality to soothe minds that might otherwise be troubled by cognitive dissonance. Browne wasn’t having it. He was an American, he was a patriot and he wasn’t going to allow anyone to take that away from him. He believed in the country, and his statements against destructive policies were a way to try and rouse it from complacency, to awaken the part of the nation with a singular capacity for man-made miracles.

The idea of patriotism from the left still isn’t expressed often enough and even more rarely without someone from the right rushing in to scoff. I hold views that would make Roger Ailes vomit from sheer anger, but that doesn’t make me any less patriotic than he, despite his carbon-fiber certainly otherwise. I can simultaneously believe that the wealthy should pay more in taxes so that poor people can get medical care and that it’s terribly wrong to fly the American flag at night without a illuminating it.

In the title essay of her collection The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Sarah Vowell writes about loudly singing along to “The Star Spangled Banner” when she was protesting at George W. Bush’s first inauguration. Those she was among, literally and figuratively, were silent during the song and were so caught up in their anger that they didn’t understand her enduring feelings of national pride. She wrote, “But I was standing there next to my friend Jack, and Jack and I put our hands over our hearts and sang that song loud. Because we love our country too. Because we wouldn’t have been standing there, wouldn’t have driven down to Washington just to burst into tears if we didn’t care so very, very much about how this country is run.”

With 235 candles on the cake, I offer this song instead of “Happy Birthday.”

Jackson Browne, “For America”

(Disclaimer: It appears that Lives in the Balance is one of the only Jackson Browne albums that’s out of print. Additionally, I don’t see “For America” among the songs on Browne’s main “Best of” album, which is a little curious since it was released as a single. The song is available for digital purchase, but the level of suspicion held around these parts is well documented. I strongly encourage those interested in Browne’s music to head to their favorite local, independently-owned record store and make a purchase. However, since it seems that’s not an option for this song, it is presented here for open sharing. If anyone with due authority to police the songs use contacts me and demands, requests or even suggests its removal, I will comply as quickly as possible. But Browne has got to enough of a lefty to still believe in fair use. Right?)