Monday, July 4, 2016




There are a few great songs that mention the Fourth of July, but Almost Independence Day by Van Morrison is my favorite.  The fact that I spent much of the 90's in San Francisco may have something to do with it.  That droning Moog synthesizer behind the guitar and vocals is meant to emulate the sound of a foghorn.  July was one of the foggiest months of the year over there - Mark Twain famously remarked, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco."  There were always fireworks on the Fourth, but it was too foggy to see anything more than flashes of color.  Van's guitar and the Moog synthesizer capture the aural mix of foghorns and distant firework shells that I remember so well.  The San Francisco I remember - KFOG on the radio, movies at the Red Vic on Haight Street, renting VHS tapes at Le Video - doesn't exist anymore.  But I still like to listen to this song and remember how it was back then.

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