[Mr Ramsbotham]

The cadence seems off, too; it sounds like a funeral dirge instead of our national anthem.

That's the way it always gets rendered these days. It's supposed to be a stirring, rousing and martial air, sung in a masculine way ... think of Francis Scott Key in the hold of a ship, wondering how the battle is going, and waking up to see the flag flying in the morning breeze, proof that the enemy had been defeated. That sort of thing.

[Carriage Hill]

I remember it from back in the 50s & 60s, as a rousing anthem, not the pathetic way they do it now.