"4th of July" is a song written by Dennis Wilson and Jack Rieley for the American rock band The Beach Boys. It was recorded for the band's 1971 album Surf's Up but was not released until 1993, on the box set Good Vibrations: Thirty Years of The Beach Boys.
The song was written in 1970 as a veiled comment on the alleged suppression of the NY Times by the US government. Originally intended for the 1971 Surf's Up album, it was pulled by Dennis after an argument with brother Carl over sequencing the album.
Famous quotes containing the words july, beach and/or boys:
“All the experts here ... say “There will be no war.” They said the same thing all through July 1914.... In those days I believed the experts. Today I have my tongue in my cheek. This does not mean I am become cynical; but as President I have to be ready just like a Fire Department!”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“From the beach the child holding the hand of her father,
Those burial clouds that lower victorious soon to devour all,
Watching, silently weeps.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)
“And while I am talking to you mothers and fathers, I give you one more assurance. I have said this before, but I shall say it again and again and again: Your boys are not going to be sent into any foreign wars.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)