Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list
I wouldn’t be surprised if the U.S. national anthem is eventually switched to, (music) “I’m coming out, so you better get this party started...”
The question is answered in the second verse.
It’s refreshing to hear a “let’s change the anthem” piece from someone other than an ardent leftist.
That said, I agree that “America the Beautiful” is a better choice than the current anthem. Key’s poetry is poor and, even if it were good, is tied to the War of 1812 and martial themes. I’m not averse to some war imagery, but it’d be preferable to talk about America’s other fine aspects, too.
Even more clear, IMHO, is that the current anthem is nearly unsingable. “America the Beautiful” is easier on the vocal cords and, in my opinion, the ears too.
Still, I don’t lose any sleep over the current anthem being what it is. When folks get all angry about it, for or against, I think they need to have a lemonade and come watch a ball game with me. Whatever we sing before the game, America is still the same great nation.
I always did like America the Beautiful.
Though the current is good as well, I doubt that changing the anthem would do anything to “improve patriotism” because, lets face it, chances are getting slimmer and slimmer that the country CAN be turned around w/o bloodshed.
This again. Comes up every year about this time. Without going into specifics, try to imagine how fast the ACLU would challenge any song that mentioned God, even one as traditional as that. They don’t even want it on coins. If they ever read the last verse of the Star Spangled Banner their heads would explode.
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 heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
I bet the references to "heav'n-rescued," "Praise the Power" and "God" contained therein would get a condemnation from our current Supreme Court and render it unconstitutional.
Therefore, I propose that this verse be sung at all baseball, football games and all public events.
Albert Brooks covered this topic very well years ago. You can find his take on YouTube is you search for Albert Brooks Rewriting the National Anthem.
THE DEFENSE OF FORT MCHENRY
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, for 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, 1814
Any change during the Obama administration would be to the Internationale.
1. Just because this guy thinks nobody knows all 4 verses but Commies and Birchers (I'm neither and I know them all) doesn't make it true. Moreover, it doesn't make it grounds for changing it (who knows all the verses to "God Save the Queen"? I do, including the one they dropped which prayed God to "arise/Scatter thine enemies/and make them fall./Confound their politics;/Frustrate their knavish tricks/ On Thee our hopes we fix / God save us all!")
2. It's NOT an octave and a half, it's an octave and four, and all except a couple of notes is within the octave.
This guy must be parroting an article that came out a couple weeks ago agitating to change the anthem, because that writer made the same obvious error. This looks like a concerted campaign rather than a groundswell.
3. It's not hard to sing, but there's a trick to it. The third note, not the first note, is the lowest note in the whole tune. If you start in the middle of your range, you'll wind up topping out early (naturally). Just start low.
I wonder who's behind this campaign, and why?
I’ve read and heard these arguments for changing the anthem many times.
Here are my reasons why it should stay.
1. Go to Fort McHenry and hear the NPS guides tell the story. It’s about a free people defending their home.
2. If you are at a ceremony where several anthems are played, you will realize how majestic ours is.
3. Those words are a challenge to us from all who created, built, and defended the country. Does it still wave?
4. Have you ever heard of Capt. Humbert Roque “Rocky” Versace, 5th SFGA? He was awarded the MOH on 12/21/01.
He was executed by the Viet Cong in 1965. He sang the Anthem when ever he could, even when they beat him into the ground.
Our Anthem is special!
As well as The Star Spangled Banner, The Marseillaise; O Canada and God Save The Queen can put quite a strain on the vocal chords.
I think, today, with President Obama at the national helm, more than ever it is fully appropriate to sing the Anthem off key and end it with a question.
With this administration in place we’ll be lucky if we don’t get stuck with the Internationale!
I can sing the “Star Spangled Banner”, but it is a tricky tune. Yet, that’s the point. It should be difficult to sing.
I think it should stay because of its history ... and because of the fact that liberals have always hated it and felt it too “militant.”
It’s not very singable, but everybody knows the tune, and you just drop out on the high notes. Or the low notes, depending on your voice.