Ten for Turkey Day: A Thanksgiving Playlist

Christmas has dozens of sappy carols, and even some hipster holiday hits. Independence Day brings out the painful country anthems. Even Easter has hymns for celebrants. Thanksgiving is lacking in the music department, though. It's all about food and football, but why not gather the family around the iPod Shuffle to listen to these 10 Thanksgiving tracks.

1. "This Land is Your Land" - Woody Guthrie: I will concede this doesn't need to be the new national anthem if it becomes the official Thanksgiving theme song. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is never more fitting than on the Fourth of July, what with the bombs bursting in air and all that war nonsense. But if we're all sitting around the Thanksgiving table pretending to be pilgrims and Indians, we can't pretend to know what the heck Francis Scott Key is jawing about. We instinctively get Woody's socialist folk song, though (except the part about the Redwood forests. We hadn't "discovered" those yet). And it's easier to sing.

2. "The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Gonna Have To Leave Now, Or, 'I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight ..." - Sufjan Stevens: Trust Mr. Epic Song Titles to write a historically inspired track with not one but four names - one for each family faction. The guilty liberals will go with the "Demolish an entire civilization" title. The hawkish conservatives will go with "continue to fight" and mom will try and defuse the ensuing tension with the fairly neutral "Black Hawk War."

3. "Hello Bonjour" - Spearhead: This worldly cheer teaches us to say hello in four languages. It also offers a Native American worldview ("Cause every bit of land is a holy land, and every drop of water is a holy water, and every single child is son or the daughter of the one earth mama and the one earth papa"). That's followed by a plea for religious tolerance ("You say you're a Christian cause God made you, you say you're a Muslim cause God made you, you say you're a Hindu and the next man a Jew. And then we all kill each other cause God told us to?"). That's a lot to think about. You'll need extra time. Better plug in an extended live version.

4. Family Affair - Sly and the Family Stone: Ignore the fact Sly is crazy and his family hasn't sat together for Thanksgiving since about 1970. Just enjoy the jam and get in the spirit of repetition and family acceptance.

5. "Little Birdie" - Vince Guaraldi: This one doesn't even have lyrics, so it's not about the message. Rather it's about the mood. This was the tune playing as Snoopy and Woodstock set the table in the Peanuts Thanksgiving TV special that debuted in the 1970s, but still hits the small screen every November.

6. "Better Days" - Bruce Springsteen: This is the song the pilgrims could have been singing as they looked ahead to days when the New World stopped kicking their butts. "It's a sad funny ending to find yourself pretending. A rich man in a poor man's shirt," Bruce sings. "There's better days shining through." Yeah, go Puritans. Maybe your kids won't starve to death.

7. "Young Pilgrims" - The Shins: I know it sounds like I Googled Thanksgiving words and picked the first song listed. Give me more credit than that. It was at least the third listing. And this is one of the best songs in the Shins' strong catalog. In typically beautiful melancholy tones, James Mercer sings, "Of course I was raised to gather courage from those lofty tales so tried and true and if you're able I'd suggest it, cause this modern thought can get the best of you." And who hasn't gathered courage from lofty tales of the first Thanksgiving.

8. "The Fragile Army" - The Polyphonic Spree: If you don't like this more recent track, dig into the Polyphonic catalog and grab any old song. Really it's the spirit of the band itself that's oh so Thanksgiving. A crazed but enthusiastic preacher leads a scrappy bunch of vagabonds who aren't especially good at what they do. Despite their shortcomings, they overcome the odds and somehow make something beautiful.

9. "Turkey Song" - Adam Sandler: It's no "Hanukkah Song." It's not even "Red-Hooded Sweatshirt," but the Sand-man did write a song for Thanksgiving, so it gets a spot on the list by default. "Thanksgiving is a special night, Jimmie Walker used to say 'Dynomite.'" Pretty lame, unless you compare it to more recent Saturday Night Live skits. In hindsight, Adam Sandler's "SNL" glory days were "dynomite" indeed.

10. "We're All in This Together" - Ben Lee: The always-chipper Lee has the spirit of Thanksgiving down in this song. So what if his native Australia doesn't celebrate the holiday? All the better to honor the idea of bringing everyone together.