Posted on 11/08/2013 8:36:37 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Via the Blaze, a possible sneak preview of the left’s next sports-related cause celebre once they’re done making “Redskins” unfit for polite conversation among the enlightened. To be clear, it’s not all pre-game patriotic music that this guy objects to, just the national anthem, and not because it’s the national anthem but because it’s a “war anthem.” The theory, I gather, is that the glory of victory in sports reflects on the song, which in turn reflects on the subject of the song, which in turn conditions people to think that war is awesome and a big game. But all of that depends on the unlikely assumption that most people have the slightest idea what “The Star-Spangled Banner” is about. Here’s an idea for Jimmy Kimmel’s next man-on-the-street feature: Ask people to explain the meaning of the SSB in their own words. There’s something in there about rockets and bombs bursting in the air, and … that’s about as far as the average Frank Drebin can take you, I’d bet. In which case, how much of an ad for militarism is it really? Blackistone seems to think that it persists as a pre-game tradition because it’s about war when obviously it persists because it’s the national anthem, irrespective of its subject. This argument would make more sense as a critique of using sports to instill national loyalty than it does as a critique of militarism.
Fair point, though, in noting the occasional Air Force flyovers at football games. As a young Robert Downey Jr once warned us, football is a cryptofascist metaphor for nuclear war. Exit question: How come we don’t sing the national anthem before movies and concerts too?
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
You’re a Grand Old Flag is truly a great song and would more than suffice if the SPB didn’t exist.
Either
The Star Spangled Banner, OR
The Internationale [Oturdo's fav!} OR
The Horst Wessel Song
I like The Stars and Stripes Forever, as a blood-boiler... YMMV
This Land is Your Land would be a suitable choice for the Progressives, given that it was written by a communist, Woody Guthrie.
It doesn’t matter when or where we play our national anthem. No one knows the words anymore. Even if they do, the anthem is too difficult to sing. I could never hit the notes of “and the rockets red glare” even when I was a girl.
WUSSVILLE!
PING!
If you start out low enough you could hit it.
Liberals are too stupid to be idiots.
I blame bob costas. Before he came along, sportscasters simply called the game. he couldn’t keep his pie hole shut in general, but he started out trying to frame every inning of a baseball game in some sort of historical context. then he would crawl up on his soapbox (steroids, for example) for innings upon innings. next thing you know, he thinks we care to hear his opinion on the issues of the day.
After a decade or two of his relentless droning on about stuff, you get this jackwagon.
Actually The Star Spangled Banner began as a spirited English drinking song, “To Anacreon In Heaven” before Key turned it into a bloodthirsty war tune. Same with the ‘America’ tune, I believe.
Hey, we like a little drink every now and then.
The commies are feeling confident...
I just tried it. I couldn't get low enough for the SECOND word..."say." SOMEwhere there's an anthem in my old voice. I'll keep trying. :o) LalalaLA!!!
I wasn’t suggesting the SSB *needed* to be replaced, just that the main reason most people cite for wanting to change it is the difficulty. And it’s not just that it covers a very wide range (an octave and a half), it’s the interval jumps that the singer is required to make. There are several jumps of a major 6th, and one jump of a 10th (octave plus a major third).
Get ready for THE ULTIMATE rendering of the National Anthem response by a sporting crowd. You’ll get chills...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvpxVE_kQXg
I didn’t think you wanted to replace the SSB. I can’t begin to discuss it in technical musical terms as you have. I just like it, mostly for tradition. And it sounds fine when played by a band.
If he was not Black, he would have been fired day ago!
“Can’t think of what that might be. Any ideas?”
That faggot like song that Michael Jackson and a collection of “stars” pushed 15 or so years ago...”I’d like to teach the world to sing.......”
I agree, though having played it as a musician as well, it’s still a pain in the ass to perform, and most arrangers end up “cheating” their way around that big jump to the “and the rockets’ red glare” stanza by having the brass play the passage before:”o’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming”, and then let the woodwinds take the high stanza. “America The Beautiful”, “My Country ‘Tis Of Thee”, or “Grand Old Flag” as mentioned below are all good alternatives.
“I’d Like to Teach The World to Sing” would b a good choice for the Libs. Also “Kumbaya.”
“I’d like to teach the world to sing” is *WAY* older than pop-king-era Michael Jackson. It dates back to 1971, when it was a jingle to sell Coke. It did get rewritten shortly thereafter and became a normal pop hit.
You’re probably thinking of “We are the world”, which was one of those misguided “feed Africa” projects.
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