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 ...
Who are we fooling? Let's just change it to The Mexican National Anthem, "La Cucaracha".
Yoko would get it then I assume.
What should we sing, Old Black Joe?
...and Irving Berlin dedicated all the royalties from God Bless America to the Boy Scouts Of America!!
Don't tell the ACLU and the libs!!
Hilarious!!
Exactly. Love the sentiment, hate the song. I want a national anthem that gets the blood up. This is why the French, for all their faults, have the best anthem. You can sing the Marseillaise marching into battle. The SSB you just can't.
Don't get me started on the flag.
Francis Scott Key wrote it as a poem, not a song. It was only later set to music. When the character in Angels in America made the comment about how it the song was written poorly (paraphrase), he was displaying his ignorance of this fact. No surprise there.
I have no problem -- NO PROBLEM -- with the military aspects of The Star Spangled Banner, which is one of the things about the song that drives so many liberals mad. I find the song inspiring, particularly when accompanied by visuals of uniformed military personnel and finished with a flyover.
But . . . every single time I hear Ray Charles' version of America, a tear comes to my eye and I say: that song -- America (the Beautiful) should be our National Anthem.
The problem with choosing one over the other is that the songs deal with different aspects of America that are equally important: The SSB is an in-your-face, this is the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave and Don't Tread on Me and Live Free or Die and we're even coming over there to Kick the Kaiser, kind of song. Frankly, that's the one I want to hear when the flag is raised at the Olympics.
America the Beautiful is about those quiet moments when you look around and see how truly blessed we are as a nation -- thanks, in great part, to those who serve our country with a Star Spangled Banner Attitude. That's the song I want to hear to open a school PTA meeting, or possibly even a baseball game.
Does America the Beautiful has some official status -- the official hymn or something? I seem to think it does, but can't find anything with a quick i'net search.
And even as a Southerner, at the risk of inflaming the Confederates in the Attic . . . I get all verklempt over The Battle Hymn of the Republic as well.
I hate them so much that I don't even like going to their website, because I don't want them to get money from those ads. :)
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE FLAG!?
I'm guessing that context would reveal that line to either be a joke or an intentional depiction of an ignorant character. In any case the music doesn't fit the lyrics.
No doubt those letters were returned with "No such name at this address or on this planet for that matter" stamped all over the envelopes.
You got my vote.
And even Yankees have to admit how pretty Dixie is.
The America hating leftists sole problem withTSSB is that it is excessively patriotic. They would not complain about the tune if the lyrics paid homage to leftist screeds.
The Star Spangled Banner
By Francis Scott Key, 1814
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' 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 thro' 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 wash'd out their foul footsteps' 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.
O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd 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!
Talk about un-PC! I'm a cominnnnnn!
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