Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

England's national anthem: 'God Save the Queen' versus 'Jerusalem'
Coventry Telegraph ^ | Jul 2018 | Bobby Bridge

Posted on 07/24/2019 9:18:08 AM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege

Why is it Wales and Scotland, who share our monarch, both have stirring national songs while England plough on with our homage to Queen Elizabeth II? It's hardly the most uplifting and melodic of tunes...Compare it to France - whose tune La Marseillaise commences at 100mph without slowing down before it's defiant ending...Queen Elizabeth is our monarch, and quite rightly we sing for her. As we did for King George in the anthem's original adaption God save great George our king.

If we got rid of God Save the Queen, what would we sing?

When England compete in the Commonwealth Games, they sing the poem Jerusalem, it's regarded in many circles as the unofficial anthem of England. As well as its use at the Commonwealth Games, cricket fans following the country's fortunes sing it with gusto before play - however, the team still sing GSTQ.

"And did those feet in ancient time, Walk upon England's mountains green?"

It meanders through three verses before the final section that boasts the dramatic end...

"Till we have built Jerusalem, In England's green and pleasant Land."

What about any other options? The patriotic song 'Land of Hope and Glory' is a contender.
'Rule, Britannia!' Now this is a song that could rival Brazil or Italy for its upbeat tempo. It screams out patriotism and defiance.

(Excerpt) Read more at coventrytelegraph.net ...


TOPICS: History; Music/Entertainment; Society
KEYWORDS: borisjohnson; brexit; england; godsavethequeen; jerusalem; johnson; may; nationalanthem; queenelizabethii; royals; uk; williamblake
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-82 next last
To: Mrs. Don-o

I’m not accusing Blake of radical egalitarianism but of “Romantic” pipe-dreamery.

America’s alabaster cities weren’t built solely on the oppressive labor practices of English industrialization. Feudalism had reigned in England for centuries, and merely shed its ermine for tweed when industry supplanted agriculture. America had rejected the feudal structures of the Mother Country and even though it indulged some of the same abuses, it did not go to the extremes Britain did in shunning its oppressive past.

We never empowered a Cromwell because we never needed one.


61 posted on 07/24/2019 12:47:14 PM PDT by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 59 | View Replies]

To: MarDav

Both are incorrect, when taken in the extreme.


62 posted on 07/24/2019 12:48:23 PM PDT by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 60 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Prior to WWI the music and similar lyrics were used by Germany as its national anthem. Also Our “My Country Tis of Thee” came close to being our National anthem


63 posted on 07/24/2019 1:49:42 PM PDT by mosesdapoet (mosesdapoet aka L,J,Keslin posting for the record hoping some might read and pass around)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: IronJack
OK, I get your point of view--- and I like the image of "shedding its ermine for tweed."

You might be interested in reading "Labor's Untold Story" by Morais and Boyer. My father put it in my hands when I was about 12. (I'm a desendant of iron foundry workers and runaway indentured servant girls). You want land and labor stolen and sold, murder in the mines and mills, hungry mothers, battles, and bloody betrayals---

There are a number of things different about the US and Britain, of course. The oppressed in the British Isles died alongside their children in the workhouses --- or came to the USA. And the oppressed in the USA went West. We had that safety valve: one step ahead of the Pinkertons, change your name and make a new start in Wichita.

64 posted on 07/24/2019 2:00:43 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Stone cold sober, as a matter of fact.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator; Fiji Hill

RE Russian anthem:

Did they just keep the same music, but change the lyrics?


65 posted on 07/24/2019 2:18:00 PM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Mrs. Don-o
You want land and labor stolen and sold, murder in the mines and mills, hungry mothers, battles, and bloody betrayals---

Nah. I want a fair wage and reasonable working conditions. But I also want profits and capital and personal accountability and freedom from overweening government that, in the name of mercy and compassion, actually tyrannizes its citizens.

And I don't believe for an instant that Man is capable of building any but a poor imitation of biblical Jerusalem.

66 posted on 07/24/2019 2:27:53 PM PDT by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 64 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

“Jerusalem” by Herb Alpert would make a dandy national anthem:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7lJJDiYyHo


67 posted on 07/24/2019 2:33:07 PM PDT by bigbob (Trust Trump. Trust the Plan.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: NFHale; dfwgator
Did they just keep the same music, but change the lyrics?Did they just keep the same music, but change the lyrics? Yes, they did. And some of the phraseology is eerily similar to the Stalinist and Brezhnevist versions. For example, the chorus begins, as did the Communist versions, "Slavsya otechestvo nasha svobodnoye!" (glory to our free fatherland!). It also seems to rip off from another Stalinist patriotic song, "Shiroka Strana, Moya Rodnaya" (Vast Country, My Homeland), which is still used today, although the phrase "in big golden letters we write the Stalinist code" has been replaced.
68 posted on 07/24/2019 2:36:11 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 65 | View Replies]

To: IronJack
Yikes! Sorry, my fault, I wrote ineptly. I didn't mean "you want..." (that's what I wrote!) as if to say "Hey creep, this is what you want, eh?" but I meant "OK, historically if you want to see a real picture of..."

Not a personal or rhetorical accusation.

"But I also want profits and capital and personal accountability and freedom from overweening government that, in the name of mercy and compassion, actually tyrannizes its citizens."

Rightly so. We're on the same page here.

69 posted on 07/24/2019 3:08:26 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Stone cold sober, as a matter of fact.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

I Vow to Thee My Country or Land of Hope and Glory are my picks. Jerusalem seems a touch modernist to me. Or just stick with God Save the Queen.


70 posted on 07/24/2019 5:20:56 PM PDT by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fiji Hill

It also seems to rip off from another Stalinist patriotic song, “Shiroka Strana, Moya Rodnaya” (Vast Country, My Homeland)

I believe that was the source for the Interval Signal for Radio Moscow. Any shortwave enthusiast will recognize it immediately......

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rn0pzC5T3GU


71 posted on 07/24/2019 6:45:51 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
I believe that was the source for the Interval Signal for Radio Moscow. Any shortwave enthusiast will recognize it immediately......

I did--I listened to Radio Moscow during the Soviet era.

Vast country, my homeland
Filled with forests, mountains and rivers.
I know of no other country
Where a man would want to breathe.

72 posted on 07/24/2019 9:12:17 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 71 | View Replies]

To: CondoleezzaProtege

Both are absolutely beautiful. Thanks for those links.


73 posted on 07/24/2019 9:25:39 PM PDT by nutmeg (democRATs: The party of Infanticide, Open Borders, Crime, High Taxes and "Free" Sh*t)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: IronJack

Cromwell was regarded as a hero to the American revolutionaries though.


74 posted on 07/25/2019 1:32:36 AM PDT by sinsofsolarempirefan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: dfwgator
I like the Polish national anthem - very defiant. The music's good too -- or the Italian
75 posted on 07/25/2019 3:08:07 AM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 19 | View Replies]

To: NFHale
well the trees were planted by Napoleon - who wanted his soldiers to march in their shade.

you must remember that it was essentially France who created Germany - by invading it and destroying the HRE and creating the German union, it created Germany

76 posted on 07/25/2019 3:11:54 AM PDT by Cronos (Re-elect President Trump 2020!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: sinsofsolarempirefan

Because he defeated the notion of absolute monarchy, the very thing the Revolutionists were fighting as well.

But, like the Jacobins and Napolean a century after him, Cromwell simply substituted one tyranny for another.


77 posted on 07/25/2019 5:11:29 AM PDT by IronJack
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 74 | View Replies]

To: Cronos

I always like to point out that the Polish anthem includes a reference to Napoleon. Poland is one of the few countries where Napoleon is still thought of rather fondly.


78 posted on 07/25/2019 7:46:46 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 75 | View Replies]

To: Fiji Hill

Interesting background for that song.

It was introduced in a movie, that plot was basically, a woman from the US had a black kid, and fled the US for the Soviet Union because of racism, and finds a home in the Soviet Union where she meets a circus performer, and they live happily ever after in the Stalinist paradise.


79 posted on 07/25/2019 8:04:11 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]

To: Fiji Hill

I always liked how Radio Moscow closed with a swinging version of “Moscow Nights”.


80 posted on 07/25/2019 8:05:11 AM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 72 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-82 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson