Posted on 04/12/2006 11:20:33 AM PDT by Pyro7480
...Given its circumscribed ceremonial function, and the general shortage of non-sports public gatherings these days, "The Star-Spangled Banner" doesn't get around the way it used to.... A recent Harris poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans don't even know the words.....
The enthusiasm of new Americans for the national anthem only underscores the indifference and ignorance of the rest of us. This gap between what the anthem could be and what it is has prompted the National Association for Music Education, a teachers' group, to create The National Anthem Project to try to reinvigorate "The Star-Spangled Banner."
There is, however, another point of view: Some of us feel that the current national anthem is not worth saving....
In "Angels in America," Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, an African-American character named Belize suggests that the difficulty was part of the composer's plan. "The white cracker who wrote the national anthem knew what he was doing," Belize insists. "He set the word 'free' to a note so high nobody can reach it."
Over the years, there have been numerous suggestions for songs that could replace "The Star-Spangled Banner." My suggestion, since I have a weakness for American popular songs, and a sentimental attachment to immigrant success stories, is "God Bless America,"....
There are two obvious objections to "God Bless America," of course: the first two words of the song, "God" and "bless." I'll admit this is a problem, although I feel sure that only the twitchiest atheists would object to the nonsectarian deity that "God Bless America" — and "In God We Trust," for that matter — evokes. The song is literally a prayer, but it's far gentler than one a crazed theocrat might concoct....
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Man these guys hate this country
oy...any article which quotes that piece of S**T play, Angels in America, is an article not worth reading.
I must be a softy for overrated songs. Every time I hear the Star-Spangled Banner my eyes well up with tears and I get chill bumps too.
Yet, as I mentioned above, this editorial is all over the map. He doesn't like the current national anthem, quotes a character from a play who uses a racist term, and uses the term "crazed theocrat," yet he suggest "God Bless America" as a replacement.
The Star Spangled Banner is a second-tier work, compared to the beauty of the words and music of "America, " which really ought to be our National Anthem.
The only problem with "America" is the tune is exactly the same as "God Save the Queen."
Don't these folks have something better to write about?
Me, too.
Go ahead and cheat. Take it down an octave. Don't hurt yourself, for goodness sakes.
Ditto... unless some pop star decides to do a horrible rendition of it.
But of course we should never question their patriotism.
SNORT
And they wonder why they are losing readership!
Oh, really?
/sarcasm
The reason many people do not know the words, is because you F'n liberals won't let it be taught in school!!!
Man these guys hate this country.
_______
They hate themselves almost as much as they hate us.
What about "America The Beautiful"? (Wonderful lyrics!)
O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
O beautiful for pilgrim feet
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America!
God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.
O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
And ev'ry gain divine.
O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.
Eff em!
Forever the rockets red glare!!!
http://homepage.mac.com/lightningrodpictures/iMovieTheater19.html
I still have trouble singing it without getting tears in my eyes. I love that song and what it stands for.
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