Living in America

Album

Rocky IV: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Label

Scotti Brothers

Genre

Film Soundtrack

Media Type

45s

Duration

4:42

Composer(s)

Charlie Midnight;Dan Hartman

Entered Chart

Dec 7, 1985

Peak Date

Mar 1, 1986

Released

December 1985

Recorded

Unknown

Catalog #

Scotti Brothers 4-05682

B-Side

Farewell (Vince DiCola)

This was written by Dan Hartman ("I Can Dream About You") and Charles Midnight. It was recorded by James Brown at the request of Sly Stallone for his film Rocky 4. Brown was a legend and known as "The Godfather Of Soul," but the younger audience (especially the white audience) was generally unfamiliar with his work. Jim Peterik, who wrote "Eye Of The Tiger" for Rocky 3 and "Burning Heart" for Rocky 4, told us that Stallone was exceptional when it came to reinventing himself for a new audience and had a great sense for how to use music in his films. Stallone could also be very convincing, and was able to put Brown in a position he wasn't familiar with - singing someone else's song in a mainstream movie. The move paid off for Brown, who hadn't charted on the Hot 100 since 1976. "Living In America" became one of his biggest hits and introduced him to a new generation. The movie Rocky IV was over-the-top in its jingoism, as the boxer Rocky fights the evil Russian Drago. In 1985, the cold war was at a peak, and the underdog Rocky played very well with an American audience. James Brown was used effectively in this context, as this song was used early in the film before American boxer Apollo Creed is killed by Drago in the ring. >> The song won the 1986 Grammy Award for Best Rhythm & Blues Vocal Performance. In the years after this song was released, Brown's music became the basis for hundreds of hip-hop tracks that sampled him without his consent. It was the fresh new sound, but Brown felt ripped off. His 1988 album I'm Real both blasted hip-hop and incorporated it, especially the title track. It was his last his last studio album to chart in America (#96), but once the legal issues were worked out, he got paid for all those samples and claimed his place as a forebear of the genre. In 1986, Weird Al Yankovic recorded a parody of this entitled "Living with a Hernia." The original line "got to have a celebration" is replaced with "got to have an operation." The horns were supplied by The Uptown Horns, a New York section that backed the J. Geils Band on their Freeze Frame album and played on "Love Shack" by The B-52s.

Yeah, uh
Get up, ow
Ow
Knock it out this
Woo

Super highways, coast to coast
Easy to get anywhere
On the transcontinental overload
Just slide behind the wheel
How does it feel

When there's no destination that's too far?
And somewhere on the way you might find out who you are, woo

Living in America (ow)
Eye to eye, station to station
Living in America
Hand in hand, across the nation
Living in America
Got to have a celebration

Rock my soul, huh, ow, huh

Smokestack, fatback
Many miles of railroad track
All night radio, keep on runnin'
Through your rock 'n' roll soul
All night diners keep you awake
On black coffee and a hard roll, woo

You might have to walk a fine line (say it)
You might take the hard line
But everybody's workin' overtime

Living in America (huh)
Eye to eye, station to station
Living in America
Hand in hand, across the nation
Living in America
Yeah, got to have a celebration, woo

I (I) live in America
Say it loud
I live in America
Wait a minute

You may not be lookin' for the promised land
But you might find it anyway
Under one of those old familiar names
Like New Orleans (New Orleans), Detroit City (Detroit City)
Dallas, uh (Dallas), Pittsburgh, PA, (Pittsburgh, PA)
New York City (New York City), Kansas City (Kansas City)
Atlanta, woo (Atlanta), Chicago and L.A.

Living in America
Hit me
Living in America, yeah
I walked in and out
Living in America

I live in America
Say it loud, It'll make you proud, uh
Said, I live in America
Hey, I know what it means, ah

Living in America
Eddie Murphy, eat your heart out

To the bridge, ay

Living in America
Hit me
I said now, eye to eye
Station to station
Living in America
Oh, so nice with your bad self (uh)
Living in America
Whoa, I feel good