As heartbreaking as this song is, I love it so much!
At first I didn't get the full picture of what the song was saying in the verses, but after watching the music video it clicked. Very well-crafted song!
It's written in the viewpoint of a daughter whose alcoholic father physically abuses her mom. While the daughter is at the Independence Day fair in town, her mom kills both herself and her abusive husband, hence gaining her own independence that day.
After I saw the music video, I couldn't watch it again because it's too graphic and the pain is too real, but here is the link if you want it:
It's sooooooooo sad :(
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYENO6r5vVo(the song starts 30 seconds into the video)
Independence Daywritten by Gretchen Peters
performed by Martina McBride
Well she seemed all right by dawn's early light
Though she looked a little worried and weak
She tried to pretend he wasn't drinkin' again
But daddy left the proof on her cheek
And I was only eight years old that summer
And I always seemed to be in the way
So I took myself down to the fair in town
On Independence Day
Well word gets a round in a small, small town
They said he was a dangerous man
Mama was proud and she stood her ground
But she knew she was on the losin' end
Some folks whispered and some folks talked
But everybody looked the other way
And when time ran out there was no one about
On Independence Day
CHORUS:
Let Freedom ring, let the white dove sing
Let the whole world know that today
Is a day of reckoning
Let the weak be strong, let the right be wrong
Roll the stone away, Let the guilty pay, It's
Independence Day
Well she lit up the sky that fourth of July
By the time that the firemen come
They just put out the flames
and took down some names
And send me to the county home
Now I ain't sayin' it's right or it's wrong
But maybe it's the only way
Talk about your revolution
It's Independence Day
chorus
