A little light lunchtime blogging.
I love Donna Fargo, and especially this upbeat, optimistic, patriotic yet (in its own way) contrary number. Note that the version you see isn’t how it was originally recorded, but included in the spoken bridge:
And I will be proud to continue to pay taxes for the opportunity to live in the greatest nation in the world
I can imagine that didn’t go over well with the powers-that-were. Now if we can get those tax dollars to make lasting improvements here and around the world.
Mere words cannot express how much I love my husband. (And, Scott, you-know-who got a little sniffly during the video. Arrr.) In honor of this post, I dug into my e-mail archive and found the correspondence from 2005 when I asked Donna Fargo (via her Web site):
On the page devoted to “U.S. of A.,” http://donnafargo.com/usofadf.html, why does the line, “I will continue to be proud for the opportunity to live in the greatest nation in the world,” omit after “proud” the words “to pay taxes” that are on the recording I have?
Ms. Fargo (who I like to imagine was wearing a sequined headband, as in the performance clip) was kind enough to respond:
There were two versions of my song “U.S. of A.” I think the record company
may have gotten complaints about the phrase “to pay taxes.” One version even
eliminated the recitation. I can’t remember all the details now, but when I
re-recorded it for Mercury on my WINNERS album/CD, we included the
recitation without the phrase “to pay taxes.”
Well. I, for one, hope that Donna Fargo can someday reclaim the expression of taxpayer pride that was so wrongly repressed in her artistry.
And I love you too. I half-hoped you’d share your anecdote.