Posted on 06/23/2013 3:12:59 PM PDT by 1rudeboy
CHICAGO — Backed by some 20,000 harmonists in Blackhawks sweaters, most of them presumably red-blooded Americans, Jim Cornelison tore through “The Star-Spangled Banner” one more time Saturday night at the United Center before the Bruins and Blackhawks met in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Cornelison is more than a voice. He is a presence. He is the Statue of Liberty come to life, a gift not from France, but from Vienna, Va., his birthplace, a town fittingly within a rocket’s red glare of our nation’s capital. Lady Liberty’s torch ain’t got nothin’ on Big Jim’s pipes.
If you’ve never witnessed the Cornelison version of the national anthem, or if you’re simply in need of a patriotic pick-me-up, take a minute or two and watch it on YouTube. It will give you the sense of it, although, much like hockey itself, there is nothing like seeing it in person, in the moment, with the thunderous stampede of words storming out of Cornelison, and his group harmonists in the stands cheering and saluting and otherwise carrying on as if the song itself just liberated this great city from German occupation.
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What an ode to Old Glory. The fans, already crazy from the first note, go totally bonkers. If that’s what opera is about, get me a front-row seat (aisle, of course) at “La Boheme.”
All in all, it’s a spine-tingling, goosebump-making, chocolate-thunder-flying, Seabrook-crying performance that can’t be beat. True hockey fans know it’s a disgrace not be seated for the opening faceoff. Here at the United Center, when the Blackhawks are ready to play, it borders on crimes against the state not to be standing at your assigned seat in time for the anthem.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
Absolutely splendid.
Worthy in all respects of the greatest nation ever seen on the face of the Earth.
Please. The Spurs gave game 6 away.
In this house, we turn it all the way up when Cornelius belts out the anthem, his is a treasure!
Go Hawks!! One.more.game :)
Ugh, Cornelison! Dang it
Heh, I started watching in the Seventies when I moved up here from Maryland...Rene has been the only national anthem singer.
Rene is fun, but we call him “The Cowardly Lion” because there are passages in the music where we think he sounds just like the cowardly lion in the Wizard of Oz… :-)
Nothing against René, he’s a fixture around here. But it was interesting for me to read this thread after watching the opening game in Chicago, and I pointed out to my fellow Boston fans that that was a very impressive singing of the national anthem!
You know you’ve got something good, when you make an observation like that and your buddies watching the game with you DON’T grab your sweater, pull it over your head, and beat the snot out of you… :-)
Yeah, and for what it’s worth, that’s what I told my Blackhawks friends after that first performance: “cut the guy some slack, he’s probably a legacy.” That being said, he came back strongly in Boston game 2. He knew the eyes of the nation were upon him.
Full disclosure: I'm a transplant to this sh*thole of a state named Illinois. Frankly, the Chicago Blackhawks are about the best damn' thing about Illinois. Love me some hockey, Chicago Blackhawk style!
Well, as far as pro sports franchises go, the Blackhawks are all you’ve got.
Here's a question for ya: do you know why Iowa doesn't have a professional baseball team?
Answer: Because then Illinois would want one too!
Question #2: Do you know why Iowa doesn't have a professional football team?
Answer: Because then Illinois would want one too! Although, now that that POC Lovie Smith is finally gone, perhaps the Bears can get back to playing real football. Now if they'd just dump Jay Cutler for a REAL QB .......
must be what they are all playing at the funerals in chi-town lately.
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