And long may the sons of Anacreon intwine
The myrtle of Venus and Bacchus's vine.
I see that they are raising glasses and acting drunk. Forgive the repeat information from a while back, but our national anthem was not based on a drinking song. I had this out with the Smithsonian (not that I love them either) when I was on a different user list a long time ago. I thought it was. They adamantly assured me that it wasn’t.
Yep. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is both set to a bar song and in bar form.
Misunderstanding aside, I'll wager that many hymns are set to old popular tunes and drinking songs. William Booth and Ira Sankey both set gospel lyrics to melodies from the theater, for example. Wouldn't surprise me that the practice went back farther than the 19th century.