Your All-American Fourth of July Playlist (Songs About Hamburgers and Other Grilled Meats, Mostly)

By Lauren Beck

‘MERICA

To be a red-blooded American is to seep yourself in traditions: believing in the Tooth Fairy, going to prom, tailgating, complaining about France, caring about soccer once every four years, and, above all else, clogging your arteries with various red meats while wearing jean shorts on our nation’s birthday. We do it for pride. For honor. For America. It calls for a soundtrack.

This isn’t actually the one for that (per BK Mag tradition). For festive background music to your intoxicated meat-eating/grill-mastering, we recommend a seamless rotation of Weezer’s Blue Album and Tom Petty’s “American Girl,” but to mentally prepare for said meat-eating/grill-mastering, we offer a 33-song playlist devoted to animal proteins that can be prepared on a grill, plus a few supplemental tracks for our health conscious, morally superior vegetarian and vegan comrades.

Listen here on Spotify and let the tradition wash over you. Do it for the USA (namely the USDA)–and for the perplexing number of great songs related, in varying degrees, to meat. Happy 4th!

1.) Stoned and Starving – Parquet Courts
2.) Raw Meat – Black Lips
3.) Meat Step Lively – Thee Oh Sees
4.) The Ballad of Mr. Steak – Kishi Bashi
5.) Steak for Chicken – The Moldy Peaches
6.) Chicken Blows – Guided by Voices
7.) Eat Steak – The Reverend Horton Heat
8.) Steak Knives – Man Man
9.) Don’t Be Eyeballin’ My Po’boy, Boy – David Dondero
10.) Schnitzel Boogie – Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti
11.) Fish Tacos – The Weekend Kids*
12.) Pork and Beans – Weezer
13.) Ribs – Lorde
14.) Out Getting Ribs – King Krule
15.) Pig Pig – The King Khan & BBQ Show
16.) Beef in Box – Architecture in Helsinki
17.) Beef Rap – MF Doom
18.) Grill – MellowHype
19.) Hot Dogs and Hamburgers – John Mellencamp
20.) Hotdog – Simian Mobile Disco
21.) Tropical Hot Dog – Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band
22.) Cheeseburger in Paradise – Jimmy Buffett
23.) Hamburger Hop – Less Than Jake
24.) Big Cheese – Nirvana
25.) Devil’s Lettuce – Black Eyed Vermillion
26.) Canned Tomatoes (Whole) – Courtney Barnett
27.) Ketchup – Catey Shaw w/ Ketchup the Lovebird
28.) Lemonade – Braids
29.) Diet Mountain Dew – Lana Del Rey
30.) Strawberries – WHY?
31.) Kim’s Watermelon Gun – The Flaming Lips
32.) Like Ice Cream – Divine Fits
33.) Ice Cream Man – Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers