11/14/06: Derringer: “Real American” (1985)

We went to a Rick Derringer show earlier this year—but not out of conservative sympathies. Our main interest was checking out the guy who made 1973’s All American Boy, which we’d recently rediscovered as one of the finest albums of the ’70s.

A guy with Derringer’s amazing history couldn’t be expected to dwell on any one album. The only guarantee was that we’d hear “Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo.” It was still a great show, and only made better when Derringer asked the audience to remember our brave troops fighting overseas. He got a stirring response, and not just by Manhattan standards.

Derringer then launched into “Real American.” We’d forgotten all about that one.

Back in the ’80s, “Real American” was probably heard by more folks than “Hang On Sloopy” and “Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo” combined. The song was Hulk Hogan’s entrance theme during the glory days of the World Wrestling Federation. Ask the local anarchist poet at your coffee shop, and he can probably still recite the lyrics out of a sense of bitter assimilation:

    I am a real American
    Fight for the rights of every man
    I am a real American
    Fight for what’s right
    Fight for your life

    I feel strong about right and wrong
    And I don’t take trouble for very long
    I’ve got something deep inside of me
    Courage is the thing that keeps us free

Those are words to live by in a world where John Murtha is about to be anything other than a dogcatcher who’d likely be doing his job from three counties away. It’s been a week, so let’s get jingoistic already.

Make it your own: You can find “Real American” on the CD reissue of The Wrestling Album—cheap. Also, All American Boy finally got a proper remastering this year. It’s really the definitive ’70s album. Derringer captured the present with prog and glam, and forecast the future with soulful pop and a song written with Patti Smith. Even then, his politics were probably set for 1980.

 

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