Recorded on July 4, 1976, America’s bicentennial, it features these memorable lyrics:

🎵 she was an American girl, raised on promises 🎵
…
🎵 it's so painful when something that’s so close is still so far out of reach 🎵

In addition to the famous lyrics, it has a unique, swinging drum beat, the blazing guitar solo outro, the so-called “laser vocal” near the end, and at the beginning the band used some random machine they found in the studio to add another sonic element to the song.

Here is a video of Mike Campbell explaining how they composed it and then the live version from Super Bowl in 2008:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=E81Ct9Lx88hG-xly&v=_XEeZmsv5fc&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=7mbbSX7optwN22i7&v=XsSZI5C2S50&feature=youtu.be