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 ...
Timothy! Timothy!
God, what did we dooooooooo?
Spoiler: YOU ATE HIM, DUMBASS
I swear, sometimes I think that we need a gong or something to indicate a joke.
My Southern high school chorus used the Battle Hymn as its signature piece. I can still sing the 1st and 2nd alto parts from memory.
The Star Stangled Banner that Francis Scott Key watched though the dawn early light and by the rockets red glare had how many stripes?
A)10
B)12
C)13
D)15
The NYT knows exactly what to do, their ancestors did the same to Rome in their day.
Wrong. It's unsingable by a not-so-good singer. Sarah Brightman has no problem singing the song.
. . . like there weren't any Brown Thrashers in Georgia before 1970, when it became our Official State Bird . . .
Now that's a historical trick question if I ever saw one. The answer is 15.
I'm totally serious.
The patriotic lyrics can't mask the crappy pop melody
I think the crappy pop melody is what makes it catchy; unlike the Star-Spangled Banner, anyone can sing it.
See, now that's a song that'll get your blood up, that you can sing marching to battle. Unfortunately the lyrics aren't all that's needed in a national anthem. As a northerner, I'll reciprocate and say that "Bonnie Blue Flag" is pretty good, too.
I bet poor Elian Gonzales would love to sing the Star-Spangled Banner...
As a piece of music it is not very good . The meaning of the song however brings chills to me to this day . The Times sucks and anything they say has anti American overtones. I'd like to see someone uncover a scandle that would put them out of business ince and for all.It is no longer a news paper anymore but rather an opinion journal disguised as a news paper.
Who was the Senator who proposed that "The Class of '57" be the national anthem?
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
Francis Scott Key (1779 - 1843)
The Star-Spangled Banner is all about us as a nation, where we came from and how we have fought to be free. It honors not only those patriots who have fallen in the past but those patriots who are dying now to pay the price of the freedom we enjoy.
"America the Beautiful" is a song promoted by anti-gun wussies who want to remove all reference to fighting from the public forum.
That's my opinion anyway, and I'm entitled to it.
No other song makes my skin tingle and my heart and soul rise up like the Star-Spangled Banner - the National Anthem with a History.
I second that (e)motion! I've liked it since I saw the movie "The Horse Soldiers" as a kid (and that was in the 1980s).
You'd be surprized how many people will bet money that there were 13 stripes.
As a musical composition, the Anthem leaves much to be desired.
Agree. "America" is best, especially Verse 2 "...pilgrims' feet..." and Verse 3, "... heroes proved...".
Last verse of "The Star Spangled Banner" is pretty great, too -- but nobody ever sings that one.
I didn't realize who they were, but agree, they did a great job. And talk about teary eyed and goosebumps, I get them every time I watch those flyovers before each race. You can only imagine the shape I was in by the time President Bush said "Gentlemen, start your engines!"
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