Posted on 06/07/2012 4:27:51 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If it wasn’t odd enough for MSNBC weekend talker Chris Hayes to feel great discomfort at the idea of calling our war veterans “heroes” because it was too warlike, on Tuesday’s Full Court Press on Current TV, lefty Bill Press said he finds “The Star-Spangled Banner” is just embarrassing because of the “military jargon” in it and the idea that somehow we live in the “land of the brave,” as if nobody else is grave.
Not only is it apparently “absolutely, monumentally unsingable,” Press proclaimed, “But it’s an abomination. First it ranges two octaves most people can only do kind of one octave. I mean when you think about it, it’s bombs bursting in air rockets red glare it’s all kinds of, you know, a lot of national anthems are that way all kinds of military jargon." (Video from Current TV below)
The musical complaint came first: "It is a major crusade of mine a major cause of mine and that is to get rid of the Star Spangled Banner. Now I know you’re going to say I am not a true American I’m not patriotic. I don’t think patriotism has anything to do with it. The National Anthem is just absolutely monumentally un-singable. I mean it’s – there’s so much wrong with it. I don’t know where to start."
Press brought up the subject because the CBS folks at 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair magazine decided to take a poll asking who should write a new national anthem -- as if there was a demand for such a thing. (It would be a better idea to ask if the CBS Evening News should get a new theme song to get them out of third place.)
It should be said that Press doesn't hate other patriotic songs. He said the "words are perfect” in My Country, Tis of Thee. And "I really love God Bless America, nobody belted it out better than Kate Smith." And Ray Charles singing America the Beautiful "still gives me goosebumps.”
But our Anthem? “It’s time to junk it,” he said.
And where is that band that so vauntingly sworeAs I have mentioned in other posts, this verse contains a Bible reference: "...like the slave longing for the evening shadows and the hireling waiting for his wages..." Job 7:2
In the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight nore 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.
The Viet Nam victors had strong allies in Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Walter Cronkite and most of the US media of the time.
The rest of the United States could not overcome this coalition.
Here’s the National Anthem Bill Press would be most “comfortable with:
The Obama National Anthem
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l46t_nrySg4
BTTT
The thing I like about Bill Press is that he is always wrong.
RE: “America the Beautiful” would make a much better anthem than the current one.
__________________________
Since Bill Press hates ‘Military Jargon’ and ‘Home of the Brave’ Stuff, how would he feel about this stanza in the song you just mentioned?
O beautiful for heroes proved
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 every gain divine!
Many people do not know this...
But for the first over 150 years of this nation’s history — WE DID NOT HAVE A NATIONAL ANTHEM.
On November 3, 1929, Robert Ripley drew a panel in his syndicated cartoon, Ripley’s Believe it or Not!, saying “Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem”.
In 1931, John Philip Sousa published his opinion in favor of the Star Spangled Banner, stating that “it is the spirit of the music that inspires” as much as it is Francis Scott Key’s “soul-stirring” words.
On March 3, 1931, on a law signed by President Herbert Hoover, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted as the national anthem of the United States.
There is no way I can believe that he didn’t expect to catch hell for this. His talk show must not be doing so well so he thought he’d throw something obnoxious out there to get some attention. I also heard that someone said, and I can’t remember who it was, that Bruce Sprintsteen should write a new national anthem. I can’t understand how anyone isn’t filled with a sense of pride and doesn’t get goosebumps when the Star Spangled Banner begins to play.
Many people do not know this...
But for the first over 150 years of this nation’s history — WE DID NOT HAVE A NATIONAL ANTHEM.
On November 3, 1929, Robert Ripley drew a panel in his syndicated cartoon, Ripley’s Believe it or Not!, saying “Believe It or Not, America has no national anthem”.
In 1931, John Philip Sousa published his opinion in favor of the Star Spangled Banner, stating that “it is the spirit of the music that inspires” as much as it is Francis Scott Key’s “soul-stirring” words.
On March 3, 1931, on a law signed by President Herbert Hoover, “The Star-Spangled Banner” was adopted as the national anthem of the United States.
Who the hell is Bill press? He must be important.
RE: Who the hell is Bill press?
For those who don’t know who Bill Press is ....
William “Bill” Press (born 1940) is a US talk radio host, political commentator and author. He was chair of the California Democratic Party from 1993 to 1996.
He started his broadcasting career in Los Angeles for TV stations KABC-TV and KCOP-TV. He has worked as a political commentator for CNN and MSNBC. He is best known for co-hosting CNN’s Spin Room opposite Tucker Carlson, and Crossfire and MSNBC’s Buchanan and Press.
his opinion AND five bucks will get him a cup of coffee too...
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.