[330] Galaxie 500 - Fourth of July

2026-02-26
Categories: galaxie 500 my record collection

My record collection
[330] Galaxie 500 - Fourth of July

If I’d have been smarter I’d have posted about Galaxie 500’s Fourth of July single on the Fourth of July but no… here we are at the end of Feb celebrating #Galaxie500Day.

Some plays of Fourth of July over the years

Because Galaxie 500 have a song called Fourth of July, and because every year has a Fourth of July I have written so many posts about this song/single over the years, although most have just been collections of links/mp3s/videos and I suspect that there’s no reason that this one won’t turn out like that too.

This is another record that I know when and (sort of) where I bought it, and indeed how much I paid for it. That’s because I never removed the price sticker from the front of it. I sort of wish I’d done that with more of my records (particularly the ones where the sticker damaged the sleeve) - obviously the curse of shrink-wrap has pretty much done for stickers being stuck to the actual record sleeve.

So… I bought this in HMV for £3.49, I don’t of course know which HMV but it was likely either the one in Ealing, or one of the two big stores they had on Oxford Street back then.

I do sort of love that Galaxie 500 were so prudent in their releases, three albums, one single from each album. That’s the way it should be.

OK… links/mp3s/videos as promised. First up, of course, is Sergio Huidor’s official video:

Galaxie 500 - Fourth of July (Sergio Huidor, 1991) (play on YouTube)

… and, obviously, what the kids made of that:

Galaxie 500 - Fourth of July - kids korner (play on YouTube)

“creeeeeepy” and “discombobulated” and “I got a little tired”.

The b-side is their cover of The Velvet Underground’s Here She Comes Now… I remember thinking at the time that this felt like they were asking for trouble given that lazy reviewers would always throw in a VU comparison (I was never convinced that it was warranted), but I sort of get the feeling that Galaxie 500 (in particular Dean) never really had much time for journalists and so probably didn’t care.

Here are Galaxie 500 playing Here She Comes Now for UK TV in 1990:

Galaxie 500 - Here She Comes Now (play on YouTube)

In 2013 Esopus magazine had a lovely “Special Collections” edition which included a booklet with scans from Dean’s “early drafts” including a proto-Fourth of July (that has crashed into Luna’s Crazy People):