ABSTRACT
This chapter first explores the myth of American “greatness” as it is appropriated and perpetuated in the popular World War II era song “The House I Live In.” The second part of the chapter turns to Randy Newman’s Sail Away album to examine the myth of America through the lens of satire with special attention to the treatment of race and religion as they are addressed in certain songs. The conclusion points briefly to the subsequent development of satire on Newman’s Good Old Boys [NB1][K2]album and considers the risks satire poses for those who would unlock or unleash its perplexing type of humor.
