Ah, yes. There he rumbles on his Oliver tractor at sunup. Or maybe sunset: he’s losing the farm, after all, even though the song dates back to 1984, when a similarly produced ad told us it was morning again in America.
He curves around. He parks. He leans over the steering wheel, his despondent head eclipsing the sun but for a corona–of hope. And off he goes with “God Bless the USA,” the song that–though it never topped any chart, as seven of his other songs and one of his albums did, and though it was intended as a last-song afterthought on his third album–made Lee Greenwood famous.
It became the Republican Party’s unofficial national anthem and the country’s most orthodox patriotic tune since the cymbals and brimstone of John Philip Sousa. It became an oath of allegiance for legions and Greenwood’s visa to presidential elbow-rubbing: he’s performed the song for presidents–not just Republicans–since appearing with fellow-performer Ronald Reagan in 1984, though never with as much infatuation as when he performed for Donald Trump, as he did at his first inaugural concert and hasn’t stopped since…