Released July 28, 2009 Genre Country Label Show Dog Nashville | Format Music download Length 2:49 Writer(s) Dave Pahanish
Joe West | |
"American Ride" is a song written by Joe West and Dave Pahanish, and performed by American country music artist Toby Keith. It is the first single and the title track for Keith's 13th studio album, released in October 2009. Released in July 2009 as the 47th single of his career, it debuted at No. 38 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. It became his 19th Number One hit on the chart dated October 10, 2009.
Contents
Content
The song is an up-tempo song in which the narrator lists off various politically oriented issues in the United States, such as illegal immigration ("Tidal Wave comin' 'cross the Mexican border"), political correctness ("Don't get busted singin' Christmas carols"), lawsuits ("Spill a cup of coffee, make a million dollars"), rising gasoline prices ("Why buy a gallon when it's cheaper by the barrel?") and the decreased importance of religion ("Plasma gettin' bigger, Jesus gettin' smaller"), but states that he is still proud to live in America. It also references Donald Trump's outlash at the 1996 Miss Universe winner, Alicia Machado's slight weight gain. (YouTube video at 1:30).
Dave Pahanish and Joe West, the writers, had originally titled the song "American Life" when they submitted the demo to Keith. Pahanish and West talked about "the funny, but irritating, things in life that really tick people off." Keith also had the song on his iPod a year before recording it.
Reception
The song has been met with mixed reception. Dan Milliken of Country Universe.net gave a mixed review. In his review, he says that the intro sounded like a "hamster dance" version of Reba McEntire's "Strange", and that the rest of it sounded like a car commercial. He also said that he could not tell if the song's lyric was an attempt to be serious or satirical: "I can’t say I don’t find it all amusing on some strange level. There seems to have been a serious attempt to make social commentary here, and it was pretty hit-or-miss, or maybe more of one than the other, depending on your perspective." He ultimately declined to give the song a letter grade. Jed Gottlieb of The Boston Globe said that the song "lets him make fun of his status as a political punching bag while mocking both the right and left." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic described it positively, saying that it was not "jingoistic" and that it "casts a cynical eye[…]not celebrating down-home values but wondering where we're all headed[.]"
Music video
The song's music video debuted on the television network CMT on August 13, 2009. Directed by Michael Salomon, it is animated save the very beginning and ending in a style of the JibJab online cartoons. The song's music video consisted of Keith and three guys riding motorcycles while passing a bunch of scenes related to the song's lyrics. Other scenes include evangelist Pat Robertson riding on former United States President George W. Bush's back, and Wall Street, where President Barack Obama is being hoisted in the air by bankers. The last scene of the video shows Keith falling into the boat full of American flags, and then the foreign dictators Muammar Gaddafi, Kim Jong-il, and Fidel Castro portrayed as pirates on larger ships start shooting him with cannons. But Keith goes through and passes through a set of television monitors, where they all have political talk shows on, and the hosts are fighting each other. The video ends with the sign reading "Thanks for visiting America... y'all come back now". Keith told Country Weekly magazine that he was criticized by "blogger terrorists" the day that the video was released, adding, "But they really can't get a fire started in the direction they want to go because the video makes fun of everybody."
Chart performance
"American Ride" debuted at No. 38 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for the chart week of July 18, 2009, and reached No. 1 on the chart week of October 10, 2009, becoming his 19th Number One hit. It also debuted at No. 60 on the Swedish Singles Chart for the week of December 19, 2010.