VERSE 1 You want to know the American sound? It's a delta blues rising up from the ground It's a gospel choir shaking the steeple It's the music of every kind of people It's a trumpet in Birmingham cutting the air It's a fiddle in the mountains going anywhere It's a Hammond organ breathing like a soul It's the sound that no one nation can own PRE-CHORUS It wasn't built by one hand It wasn't born in one place It came from every story Of every human face CHORUS This is the American sound Nine voices, all of them profound Gospel, blues, and soul and grit Every sound that ever fit Into this complicated land Built by every kind of hand This is who we are, this is what we found This is the American sound VERSE 2 You want to know the American sound? It's the Motown heartbeat, Detroit ground It's the New Orleans spirit on the street It's the Chicago blues beneath your feet It's Appalachian truth from the mountain's soul It's Savannah grace and history's toll It's Muscle Shoals magic in the air It's the sound that says everybody's welcome there PRE-CHORUS Not just one story Not just one song Not just one people This is where we all belong CHORUS This is the American sound Nine voices, all of them profound Gospel, blues, and soul and grit Every sound that ever fit Into this complicated land Built by every kind of hand This is who we are, this is what we found This is the American sound BRIDGE (each instrument takes a solo bar — fiddle, slide guitar, trumpet, saxophone, trombone, organ, bass, drums, then all together) CHOIR: Tell me where you're from JACKSON: Clarksdale CHOIR: Tell me what you carry JACKSON: Everything CHOIR: Tell me what you're building JACKSON: The American sound ALL: THE AMERICAN SOUND FINAL CHORUS This IS the American sound Every voice above the ground Every color, every creed Every heart that ever bleeds Into song and into story Into ordinary glory This is who we've always been This is the American sound This is the American sound THIS IS THE AMERICAN SOUND OUTRO (brass riff, joyful, fading) (Jackson laughing into microphone) Yeah. That's it. That's exactly it.
