"American Ride" | ||||||||
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Single by Toby Keith | ||||||||
from the album American Ride | ||||||||
Released | July 28, 2009 | |||||||
Format | Music download | |||||||
Genre | Country | |||||||
Length | 2:49 | |||||||
Label | Show Dog Nashville | |||||||
Writer(s) |
Dave Pahanish Joe West |
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Producer(s) | Toby Keith | |||||||
Toby Keith singles chronology | ||||||||
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"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.
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.
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[.]"