A bunch of people in the Star Spangled Banner thread mentioned that they thought the national anthem should be America the Beautiful (I mostly agree). I’m not so crazy about the Ray Charles version everyone loves, but I found this bizarre celebrity singalong version of it, led by Willie Nelson, part of a 9/11 fundraiser to be touching. I remember watching it at the time.
Two other American songs I like that have, to me, a national anthem feel are “Amazing Grace” and “Lift Every Voice” (sometimes called “the black national anthem), but I don’t know of a version of either that I like better than the others. Is there a version of either that any of you especially like?
Suzan
The Blind Boys of Alabama singing Amazing Grace to the tune of House of the Rising Son. You can find it on YouTube as I don’t know how to post links here and I’m afraid of getting yelled at if I do it wrong.
DougJ
@Suzan:
Yes, that is a good one, I agree.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Amazing Grace? Seriously?
I guess that would make Sarah Palin happy. It would make me throw up in my mouth.
MoeLarryAndJesus
I mean Amazing Grace was written by a SLAVE SHIP CAPTAIN. A bastard who continued to run slaves for years after being “saved.” That’s the worst notion ever presented on this site. By far. You might as well go with “Dixie.”
MikeJ
@MoeLarryAndJesus: And we all know bad people are incapable of making good art.
DougJ
@MoeLarryAndJesus:
I didn’t know that about the origin. I just like the song. And it always sounds spiritual rather than specifically Christian to me.
demimondian
There’s no better national anthem than Guthrie’s This Land is Your Land. It’s always good to listen to the whole thing as Guthrie himself performed it…
Cat Lady
The DFH national anthem is This Land is Your Land.
Here’s a version for the ages- Los Lobos, Jerry Garcia and a larval Bob Weir in bad 80’s short shorts. Nothing adds to a song like an accordion. David Hidalgo rocks my world.
DougJ
@demimondian:
I agree. That’s a good one too.
MoeLarryAndJesus
It’s about as Christian as you can get. And I’m not saying it’s “bad art.” It’s not. But making it the US national anthem would be like making Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” the Israeli national anthem.
Suzan
I’d add “My Country tis of Thee” primarily because it was the opening son Marion Anderson sang at the Lincoln Memorial.
That Other Mike
As a non-American, I’d like to put forward America, Fuck Yeah for consideration. It’s a bit more catchy, musically speaking, and it pretty well distils most of the real patriotic songs.
Cat Lady
@demimondian:
Whoa. Beat me by ….that much.
Warren Terra
I’m not sure about the This Land Is Your Land suggestion – the complete version, with many verses, includes a lot of politics I like but am not sure are normative or core to the American experience.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Continuing with my 60’s time tripping theme for the weekend. I vote for this tune as a new National Anthem. Sing is Joan Seems apropo for the times.
MoeLarryAndJesus
“America, Fuck Yeah” would be fun at school assemblies.
demimondian
@Warren Terra: No, really? Did you play the video I pointed you to?
Warren Terra
The national anthem should be easy to sing reasonably well – which would eliminate the incumbent and, I think, America The Beautiful.
How about We Shall Overcome? Never happen, but the message fits.
demimondian
@Cat Lady: Although I’ve always thought of it as the American subversive’s national anthem.
Then again, my parents taught me all the verses, and I made sure that my kids knew them, too.
Eric U.
the fact that the new linkads banner doesn’t get the true meaning of their links makes it pretty funny
Warren Terra
@ Demimondian
I didn’t, but I’ve encountered some of the extended verses before.
@ Suzan
My Country Tis Of Thee is easy to sing and I like the prominence for “liberty”; a solid candidate.
MikeJ
I don’t care what song we have as long as we can translate it into Spanish and piss off wingnuts.
demimondian
@Warren Terra: I actually like the second verse of _My Country Tis Of Thee_ very, very much. The problem is that it’s sung to the tune of _God Save the King_.
JenJen
I would never suggest it to replace “The Star Spangled Banner” (which I find glorious, moving, stirring, and awesome despite the war metaphors) as the anthem, but my second favorite patriotic song is and will always be “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.”
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir just kicks the shizz out of this song.
Right after that, I’d say “Simple Gifts.” And as Cat Lady already mentioned, our DFH anthem, “This Land Is Your Land.”
Happy 4th everyone!
Cat Lady
@MikeJ:
Here you go.
MattR
@That Other Mike: OTOH, Blame Canada is not a bad option either.
DougJ
@MoeLarryAndJesus:
Newton became an abolitionist later in life. He waited far too long to speak out and do so, but he wrote a abolitionist pamphlet that was considered influential.
FlipYrWhig
@DougJ: Yes, “Amazing Grace” is much more tied to the abolitionist cause than to I’m-special godbaggery for me too. But it’s British, not American.
At any rate, that liberal/abolitionist/evangelical nexus was politically very interesting. MoeLarryAndJesus, don’t let today’s evangelicals have “Amazing Grace” without a fight.
demimondian
@Cat Lady: FTW
Warren Terra
@JenJen
It’s a great song, and there’s a lot to be said for pissing on the Confederacy (though John Brown’s Body would be even more effective), but too much Jesus.
No religion please, we’re American.
Davis X. Machina
In the early, early days of the readily-available Internet (’95) there was a website and petition to change the national anthem to “We Shall Overcome”….
JenJen
@Cat Lady: Winner!!
@Warren Terra: Like I said, I’d never suggest “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” as the anthem. Way too much Jesus (which is also why I don’t like the more serious suggestions of “America The Beautiful” as the actual anthem; not so much the religious thing, but just asking God to like one country over another seems arrogant to me, whereas “The Star Spangled Banner” might be arrogant, but only about a flag).
But as a patriotic stirring-of-the-bones kind of song, I dig “Battle Hymn of the Republic” muchly.
demimondian
@Warren Terra: I just can’t get past the image of an Alabamian choir singing “I have seen him in the watchfires of a thousand thousand camps // They have builded him a temple in the evening dews and damps // … // Our God is marching on.”
JenJen, FWIW, I’m not big on that version. The original hymn is (by design) monotonous and not syncopated. The whole point of the piece was to emphasize the slow, steady, march of the Union over the Trai…errr, sorry, that’d be Confederacy.
MoeLarryAndJesus
I don’t care who claims to own “Amazing Grace,” but it’s completely inappropriate as an anthem. It’s 100% hymn and this is America, not Jesusland.
The author also wrote about his experiences in the slave trade and as much as admitted that he raped slave women. Anyone who wants to regard the guy as some sort of moral example is welcome to it, but I want no part of it.
tomvox1
How about America–Fuck Yeah!? I’m sure it’s Little Billy Kristol & Sarah Starburst’s favorite.
JenJen
@demimondian: Right on. I’m probably partial to that version because I got to hear the Choir live on a gorgeous summer evening, and it was surprisingly wonderful. Not into choral music or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir in general, but they really did blow me away.
ETA: This cheesy Disneyfied version of “Simple Gifts” isn’t too, too horrible, but still wish I could find something that does this gorgeous song justice.
Cat Lady
@Davis X. Machina:
In 2006, this version of Freedom should have been piped into every American’s eyeballs like Alex in A Clockwork Orange.
debbie
Defintely My Country Tis of Thee. Easy to sing, all about liberty and freedom, no mention of God. Tough if the tune’s the same as the Brits. After all, we did descend from them.
MoeLarryAndJesus
“Living In America” – James Brown
b/w
“The Star Spangled Banner” – Jimi Hendrix
Napoleon
@demimondian:
I agree with you also and I recall that so does Bruce Springsteen.
MikeJ
America the Beautiful can never be the national anthem because advertising ruined it.
Oh beautiful for spacious skies
for amber waves of grain
AH-CHOO!
Michael
“Living in America”, by James Brown.
Martin
@demimondian: A thousand times this.
JenJen
You know, as patriotic songs go, “The Battle of New Orleans” by Johnny Horton is pretty damned fun.
The Mardi Gras episode of “Treme” endeared this song to me further, to be sure.
Davis X. Machina
@Cat Lady: I still get apoplectic whenever I see That Man….
I used to have a link — lost to linkrot — to an mp3 of a Xhosa version of ‘We Shall Overcome’ from the days of the rent strikes. And I heard it as a lad in the background on the BBC years ago sung in Irish in Derry, on a documentary about the early, optimistic days of the Civil Rights campaign in Ulster. It always sounds like it belongs to the people singing it. It’s one of our gifts to the world — like W, unfortunately.
MikeJ
How about Squeeze:
Some Americans are very pretty
Some Americans are very shy
Some Americans are Disney people
Some Americans eat apple pie
Svensker
I’d go for Song of Peace (Finlandia), but then I’m a DFH.
Wish I could find someone singing it in English besides Joan, but she does add to the DFH motif.
Batocchio
“Amazing Grace” is a great song, but it’s very god-heavy. The narrative film Amazing Grace covers its connection with the slave trade and the abolitionist movement. Bill Moyers also did a special or two on the song and its meaning through the ages.
The main problem with our current national anthem is it was adapted from a club song (“To Anacreon in Heaven”) that was written in parts. That’s why it starts so low and goes so high – Bass, baritone, tenor in the original, although some modern arrangements easily use alto and soprano as well. For public events, it’s important to pick a good key, otherwise average citizens without pretty good vocal range will struggle to sing every line. So – either pick a good key, pick a good soloist, or sing it in parts. “America the Beautiful” would be a good second choice, or “This Land is Your Land,” but I also like the current one, and listen (and sing along with) Marvin Gaye’s version all the time in the car.
Cat Lady
@JenJen:
I agree. The Treme version was fun. Marching Through Georgia also works in the “pissing off wingnuts” category. Suck it, confederate sympathizing assholes. This holiday is for people who love this country.
JenJen
@Cat Lady:
Whoop! There it is. :-)
And I freaking love “Marching Through Georgia.” I’m from Ohio after all.
frankdawg
I really do not like SSB for the anthem, the second verse of My Country ’tis but the tune would have to change. I love Amazing Grace (as a devote atheist :) ) particularly on pipes, but no way can we use that. I actually would Like America the Beautiful, th JesusJuice is pretty thin & tolerable.
As a pinko I do like the idea of This land is Your Land but that won’t happen.
But here is a left field suggestion – Phil Och’s “We’re the Cops of the World” It seems fitting & avoids the obscenity of “America Fuck Yeah!”
General Egali Tarian Stuck
Horses stampede at parade, injuring 24
Kind of awful way for a celebration to turn out. Well, at least Svensker’s dad wasn’t there with his little brass cannon..
Litlebritdifrnt
@Suzan:
Except that it is “God Save the Queen” with different words, would get really confusing at World Cups.
demimondian
@frankdawg: Um “We’re hairy and horny and ready to shack // and we don’t care if you’re yellow or black // just take off your clothes and get down on your back // Cause we’re the cops of the world” is less obscene than _America — Fuck Yeah_?
wrb
I nominate Iko Iko
It makes as much sense as this country does but it includes our good juice.
Jocomo fe na ne!
Dead:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iUK9Pyl4FE&feature=fvw
Nevilles
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BGyrWBK1xos
Dixie Cups
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Yrt3Pnk9qA
New Yorker
Add me to the list for a number of reasons: one, the melody to “America the Beautiful” isn’t lifted from a British drinking song. Two, the song really captures the idea of America better than “The Star-Spangled Banner”. The latter is really just an homage to the defenders of Ft. McHenry, with references to the country almost an afterthought. Finally, the line “America, America, God mend thine ev’ry flaw”….I mean, who expects a national anthem to be self-conscious enough to understand that we should always strive to improve ourselves as a people and a nation?
lol chikinburd
I vote for some kind of jazz standard. Billy Strayhorn’s Take The A Train, for example.
Hell, Minnie the Moocher or St. James Infirmary Blues would kick SSB up and down the street as a national anthem. Tell me the former wouldn’t be the ideal choice to precede any of our major-league sporting events as a sing-along.
For that matter, Killdozer’s Hamburger Martyr would be preferable to most sung renditions of SSB. Best song ever recorded.
Litlebritdifrnt
Speaking of Amazing Grace this version
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLOnkbfgUMU
(Mike Oldfield – Millenium Bell)
Is the best ever.
Svensker
@General Egali Tarian Stuck:
Ha ha ha. That sounded really odd.
Can you imagine how terrifying that would be with the horses freaking out? Yikes. Amazing no one was killed.
wrb
@lol chikinburd:
Miles’ “So What” would work in many ways.
fucen tarmal
god is a bullet by concrete blonde,
it has god in the title so the right can’t complain, the unifying theme of bullets not only ties it to our existing anthem, but i think is the defining technology of our national progress, it also mentions john lennon and dr king in that order, so that brings in the dfh/boomer crowd, and it talks about the kind of person who becomes a police officer, which is a window into our soul as a nation that talks freedom, but embraces order, with equality an afterthought, in either event.
SiubhanDuinne
I’m no big fan of “Amazing Grace” — let me amend that, if anyone plays it at my funeral I’ll come back and haunt them forever — but it improves considerably if you sing the words to the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song.
:-)
Warren Terra
@New Yorker
Saying the US needs progress is nice – but not if you ask God to do it for you. The American idea is rational humans working together to achive progress, not a reliance on divine guidance.
demimondian
@Napoleon: Oh, yes, he does. Check it out starting at about 3:17.
SiubhanDuinne
@me #62: May not have been clear. Sing the “Amazing Grace” words to the “Gilligan’s Island” tune.
wmd
Fourth verse of the Star Spangled Banner has a lot of Christian imagery:
Warren Terra
@SiubhanDuinne
I doubt they ever did that combination, but have you ever heard the “One Song To The Tune Of Another” feature of the long-running BBC radio comedy show “I’m Sorry, I Haven’t A Clue”?
David White
I always dug the version of Lift Every Voice & Sing that Kim Weston sung at Wattstax.
Elizabelle
In the nonpatriotic music category:
Reuters item in New York Times on Jack White’s (White Stripes) new project, The Dead Weather, debuting as group at Montreux Festival (presumably Switzerland).
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2010/07/04/test/life-us-montreux-music-dead-weather.html?hp
Have found a new favorite — Alison Mosshart, Dead Weather’s vocalist, also of The Kills.
Really like DW’s “Treat Me Like Your Mother” and trying to figure out where video was filmed.
Here’s (duo) The Kills’ “Black Balloon”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruc1jTK2H_s
Got to love the internets. Had never heard of either group on waking today; with Youtube and Wikipedia you can get a head start.
Elizabelle
Here’s link to The Dead Weather’s “Treat Me Like Your Mother.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7QSkI6My1g&feature=related
fucen tarmal
@efgoldman:
are these american enough
mojo nixon redneck rampage
ufo’s, big rigs, and bbq
Napoleon
@demimondian:
Nice – It never occurred to me to look on YouTube.
I recall being taken aback when reading he thought it should be the national anthem, since America the Beautiful is what you always hear suggested, but when I listened to it again I like the idea.
New Yorker
@Warren Terra:
I’m an atheist and all, but I don’t mind me some god imagery in art. Given the progressive themes found in the song, I have to think Ms. Bates wasn’t literally calling for god to fix the problems of America, especially when in the next verse, she contrasts sacrifice for the country with the robber barons of the era.
David White
And here’s a version of Lift Every Voice and Sing by Ray Charles that I never heard before.
SiubhanDuinne
@Warren Terra #67: No, although I’m very familiar with the concept. Started with prowling through the metrical indeces of the Protestant hymnals of my childhood and making substitutions. The old “Muppet Show” helped, too: remember “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” to the tune of “Hernando’s Hideaway”?
My best original contribution to the genre is singing the “Brady Bunch” words to the tune of “Columbia the Gem of the Ocean.”
@efgoldman #71: LOL! Love it!
Seonachan
My favorite version of Amazing Grace is this one by Tim Eriksen, using the melody that was the most popular for the song in New England in the old days.
As for “Lift Every Voice”, well, no one will ever top Shooby Taylor, the Human Horn.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@efgoldman:
The wingnuts would never go for taking out “bombs bursting in air” . Maybe we could tweak it a little when they weren’t looking to “bongs bursting in air” They can’t spell too good no how.
Keith G
Question for the international crowd:
Do other societies play their national anthems whenever two or more are gathered to play tiddly winks?
USA-based question:
Do they play the SSB before WWE Westling and monster truck events?
QuaintIrene
Was it here in this blog where it was discussed awarding the Medal of Honor to a living recipient? (In this case, a soldier who served in Iraq.)
I just got done watching ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy” and learned that George M. Cohan recieved the Medal for his patriotic songs ‘Over There’ and ‘You’re a Grand Old Flag.” In his life time. And it was the first time someone in the entertainment field was awarded it.
Isn’t it funny. Thinking about a time when ‘Over There’ would be a welcome thing to rest of the world.
Napoleon
@demimondian:
How about this one. For some reason I could not drive downtown to catch this event which had Bruce and Obama and closed out the campaign the Monday night before the election.
Napoleon
@Keith G:
I have read they do not.
fucen tarmal
@efgoldman:
pick anything in the blues, jazz, or rock category, if you want original american, and much of the folk bluegrass traditions as well.
what might be more compelling than how songs written in the 19th and 18th century have an imported influence, is that we have been exporting our musical and cultural influence over the last 100 years or so.
David White
Hunh. I should have been searching YouTube for “Lift Every Voice and Sing” before. There’s some really good versions there. Here’s one sung by Al Green and Deniece Williams, with backup from Patti Austin, Roberta Flack, Melba Moore, and Deborah McDuffie. The song itself starts around the 6:10 mark.
Seanly
Amazing Grace wasn’t written by an American, but here’s a version by one of my favorite artists, Kristin Hersh. LINK
QuaintIrene
Thought that was Yellow Rose of Texas?
Elizabelle
@efgoldman:
Dancing here, and thanks for the suggestion.
Ray Charles, What’d I Say? Pts 1 and 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTIP_FOdq24
Ray Charles. Pitch perfect, except for dying the same week as Saint Ronald.
SiubhanDuinne
@QuaintIrene #83: For some reason, that reminds me of the Brits’ wry plaint about the Yanks during WWII: “They’re over-paid, over-sexed, and over here!”
Keith G
@Napoleon:
Its just that I think that our anthem is terribly over-exposed. There were periods in my life when I got to stand and sing it several times a week. If we did select a “better” song, I think we would still tire of it and begin bitching after a few decades. Like my favorite Christmas carols, moderation is helpful and over playing makes me cranky.
Amanda in the South Bay
The SSB is too hard to sing, and I don’t think the tune is really memorable. A the Beautiful? What is this, DougJ’s secret wish that we could go back to 2002 and sing it at every sporting event? Its just as hard to sing as the SSB.
My Country TOT is soooo much easier than either of the aforementioned tunes, so we wouldn’t have to worry about people butchering it before baseball games.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman: Another former classical music radio host here! I worked with NPR stations in Florida and Michigan for an aggregate of about 13-14 years, wrote symphony program notes, managed an orchestra, was development director for an opera company, etc. It’s still a major avocation for me, but I’ve been in a different line of work for close to a quarter-century now, as I decided I actually don’t miss that feeling of “too much month left over at the end of the money.”
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman: P.S. I know some people who work/worked in Boston/New England classical radio back in the day. We probably know some of the same people. (Heck, given the anonymous/pseudonymous nature of the intertubes, we might know each other!)
Napoleon
@Keith G:
That is part of the militarization of our country. One of the local newscast here spent the first 5 minutes about how today is about how those that have served the country in the military, even though that is completely false and we have memorial day for those that died fighting for the country, and veterans day for those that served. Next up, how labor day is for those that worked for the county in the military.
frankdawg
@demimondian:
F*CK yeah it is! :)
It may have imagery of fucking but it doesn’t contain that word!
I just like the stark honesty of it – none of that God has blessed us so we are pure & perfect, just raw WHO IS GONNA STOP US, NOT YOU PIPSQUEAKS!
We’ll smash down your doors, we don’t bother to knock
We’ve done it before, so why all the shock?
We’re the biggest and toughest kids on the block
And we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world
We own half the world, oh, say can you see
The name for our profits is democracy
So, like it or not, you will have to be free
‘Cause we’re the cops of the world, boys
We’re the cops of the world
phein
Amazing Grace – Ani DiFranco and the Pittsburgh Philharmonic
Lift Up Your Voice and Sing – the Green Street Unitarian-Universalist Sunday Morning choir
But, and I can’t state this emphatically enough, as the Army Veteran, Taxpayer, and school board member that I am:
Anyone who doesn’t thrill to the Ray Charles version of “America the Beautiful” can French kiss my bleeding arse on their one-way trip to another country.
fucen tarmal
@efgoldman:
while i respect the classical music, even the “american standards” though to me that will always first mean a brand of commode, good times, good times…
i must confess to probably only knowing the songs you would surmise are the weatherbeaten plow horses of those genres. i played a violin for a while as a kid, my instructor quit, so i didn’t have to….from that my tastes were a bit scarred…but i at least learned that music is music…
our roster of great composers may be short, but then again the membership in that club was mostly closed before we ever got around to such refinements.
gbear
I’ve fucking hated the song Amazing Grace since my dad died. He got completely obsessed with the song in the last couple days after he’d convinced himself that he had lived life wretchedly and there was nothing that us mere offspring could say to convince him otherwise. It sucked. I never want to hear the song again.
I vote for Steve Miller Band’s “Living in the USA” for new national anthem.
Davis X. Machina
I was in college at the time and remember every ‘BUR, ‘CRB, or ‘GBH overnight host, his (or her) signature tune, and general taste in music. Those were the days when Bill Caveness read me all of War and Peace one cooking-of-dinner at a time. Peter Ross was closer to me than anyone in my family. Dick Kay was my dad.
I have never felt more depressed in my life than when dozing one hot evening in Chapel Hill, a first year grad student far from home, and hearing the immortal words “This is William Pierce, welcoming you to another full-length broadcast concert, part of the Boston Sympony’s centennial season….”
For a moment, I thought I was home….and then I woke up.
I never want to feel that bad again.
MoeLarryAndJesus
Maybe someday there will be a discussion of “The Star Spangled Banner” that isn’t marred by someone who feels compelled to drop the “bombshell” about “Anacreon in Heaven.” It’s just not interesting, folks, and besides, most people have heard that lil factoid by the age of ten. Zzzzzz…
stickler
Way late in the game, might I contribute this suggestion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93F-APVFB1E
The Star Spangled Banner, sung to the tune of the Soviet national anthem.
Very, very uncanny, because the lyrics actually fit. Are we living in some gigantic cosmic spoof?
stickler
Now I can’t edit:
But for those who click on the YuTubbe link, ignore the idiotic imagery.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman: Well, you and I were both in the game at the same time (I started in 1973 and continued until the mid-80s). I’d offer up the name of someone I suspect is a mutual friend (and likely former colleague of yours) but I hesitate to run the risk of divulging any private information.
But anyhow, nice to meet you. LOL on the shy Boston Symphony Balloon-Juicer!
Napoleon
@efgoldman:
Good thing you do not live here, because her heart would explode with this third example.
Cat Lady
@Davis X. Machina:
Watching/listening to the Pops right now. I was in a canoe right there in the boat basin on the 4th in 1976. Thanks efgoldman and everyone else who has participated and contributed to this amazing event every year. It’s pretty great. Makes me feel proud and connected to the revolutionaries who believed in reason and knowledge over superstition and religion. We here at BJ need to keep blowing on those embers.
Davis X. Machina
@efgoldman: Thank you for the compliment, and for the memories. I have assembled a bunch of mp3’s for old Boston FM programming — Lurtsema, Ross (who had one for each day of the week,) Eric Jackson, Fucik’s “The Entry of the Gladiators” for WCRB Saturday Night — and when I want to feel old and sad and sorry for myself, I play them all back to back.
My wife and I met in Chapel Hill, but she had gone to Wellesley when I was going to school in Worcester. When I found out she knew all the themes and announcers I did, I knew I’d found The One. We’d been pulling all-nighters together for years, before we ever met.
Cat Lady
1812 Overture starting now. Goosebump time.
Lysana
@efgoldman:
Oak, Ash and Thorn’s To Anacreon In Heaven is awesome. They close it with a rousing shout of “Play ball!”
Dr. Psycho
I never liked “America the Beautiful” until I read a story in the anthology Alternate Presidents, in which President Tilden saved the nation from a prophesy of doom, and his reward was being ushered into the afterlife by Columbia herself singing the fourth verse.
After that, I started liking it well enough that I incorporated the song into a story of my own (you can see it at my blog, at the link above).
But I think I will still stick with “The Star-Spangled banner”.
General Egali Tarian Stuck
@efgoldman:
I beg your pardon, some of us are most people when we aren’t being some people some of the time. or are other people when that is called for. Being not quite ourselves most of the time is sometimes the only time to be most people.
demimondian
@Davis X. Machina: Whenever I want to find out if someone’s a real Bostonian, I asked them what the call sign CRB stands for. Then I ask what GBH stands for. (And, no, it *doesn’t* stand for God Bless Harvard.)
Matt McIrvin
As American patriotic songs go I’ve always liked William Billings’ “Chester”, a tune that’s pretty obscure today but was quite popular during the Revolutionary War. It gets right into the bombast: “Let tyrants shake their i-i-ro-on rods, and slav’ry clank her ga-a-lli-ing chains…” The meter is a little weird, admittedly.
Then the second verse starts vilifying specific people, one of them being “Clinton” (British Commander-in-Chief Henry Clinton), which I imagine might make the song popular among a certain set.
Also, the God mentioned in it is specifically “New England’s God,” which in the context of modern God-based politics is amusing.
Josh
WGBH stands for We Generate Boring Highbrows, no?
On the “This Land Is Your Land” controversy: I agree with Guthrie that ya don’t want to Make It Official; but there’s a couple of other nice patriotic songs from the Left canon:
“The Power and the Glory”
“The House I Live In
Davis X. Machina
G(reat) B(lue) H(ill), in Milton, where the transmission tower is located, of course.
Davis X. Machina
@efgoldman: I was working at the concession stand at Houghton’s Pond on the Bicentennial Fourth, and the closest I got to the fireworks was the overlook on Chicatawbut Hill on the drive home.
OriGuy
Wikipedia is down because of a cooling problem at its Florida server farm, by the way.
I don’t have a problem with My Country Tis of Thee even though it’s the same tune as God Save the King/Queen. Interestingly, GStK/Q has a similar history to SSB; it was written during a war, the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745. The original lyrics included the following:
Lord, grant that Marshal Wade,
May by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring.
May he sedition hush and like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to crush,
God save the King.
Wade had built the first military road into the Highlands, enabling the British Army to suppress the uprisings. The Brits don’t sing this verse very often these days.
Batocchio
@efgoldman:
Haha. Yes, I’ve read all the original lyrics. They’re pretty bad, but maybe they sounded better when all the singers and audience were drunk!
Amir_Khalid
I’m not American, of course — which must be why I find this peculiarly American discussion so fascinating.
efgoldman (#69) suggested commissioning a new tune for your national anthem from John Williams; I suggest you just take over Williams’ Imperial March. No need words.
Dick Cheney would approve.
demimondian
@efgoldman: The original lyrics are truly stupid, leering, and utterly without literary merit. Thanks so much — I’d managed to forget “the myrtle of Venus with Bacchus’ vine”.
Warren Terra
The Boston call sign I rather liked was WMBR – Walker Memorial Basement Radio, MIT’s station, housed in the basement of the Walker Memorial building.
KS in MA
@wrb: What could be better than Iko Iko!
Thanks to all of you for some terrific music links.
FlipYrWhig
@efgoldman:
It’s a basic meter: “ballad meter.” 4-3-4-3 count of stressed syllables, A-B-A-B or A-B-C-B rhyme scheme. Because of the common structure you can switch freely from “Because I Could Not Stop For Death” to “Gilligan’s Island” to “Stairway to Heaven” to “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner.”
KRK
@David White:
Thanks for linking to those, David. I always really liked the Kim Weston Wattstax version as well. And I’d never seen the Ray Charles version.
DougJ
@wrb:
Great song.
hamletta
Wales originated the tradition of singing the national anthem before sporting events.
It’s important to distinguish the national anthem from the national hymn.
“America the Beautiful” is our national hymn, and has been for some time.
stickler
Now that everyone’s gone to sleep, save those still tormented by the occasional firework, let me point out that “My country ’tis of thee” is indeed derived from “God save the King.”
…. which was, itself, derived from a hymn written by Georg Friedrich Händel to celebrate Hannover: “Heil dir Hannover, Heil!”. Um, since the King of Hannover was, during the 18th century, also the King of England, (Georges I-III), it seemed obvious to adapt the GERMAN tune to English as “God Save The King.”
To make this even more jarring and obscure, the Prussian monarchy adopted the same tune as its anthem after the Napoleonic wars, as “Heil dir im Siegerkranz,” which became the German national anthem (unofficial) from 1870-1918. Here’s an example:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCFhR7ZW0cY
To be fair, that tune was used all over: Britain, Russia, Prussia/Germany, USA, and I’m probably forgetting a few.
hamletta
@stickler: You’re absolutely right.
I’m a Lutheran, and the first time I had to sing a hymn to Haydn’s tune, it kinda freaked me out.
But I’ve since learned that re-purposing tunes has been the way of church music for hundreds of years.
Batocchio
@stickler:
Cool, thanks! Didn’t know that one!
elaineland
American Pie !
stonetools
I guess ” God Bless America” as the national anthem would not fly with the atheists here?
It does pass the test of singability and being written by an American, though. Just sayin’.
MoeLarryAndJesus
No, “God Bless America” is not acceptable to those of us in the reality-based community, stonetools. Sorry. Well, I’m not really sorry.
I’m also damn sick and tired of having every major league baseball game despoiled by that smarmy, smarmy song. Especially when Ronan Tynan is involved.
MoeLarryAndJesus
@efgoldman:
I’d bet that most of the posters here (regular or not) and most of the non-posting readers already knew that not-so-fascinating Anacreon fact.
It’s still a big Zzzzzz…
MoeLarryAndJesus
@efgoldman – Then as a Sox fan you’d be disgusted to know that the Sox had Tynan in yesterday to sing GBA during their game against the Orioles.
I was not amused.
asiangrrlMN
No god. No hymn. No SSB. No anthem. How about that? No? Ok, then I nominate this song. It’s perfect because it purports to be about this wild, crazy woman who will do anything. I heard the lead singer introducing it, and his idea of a wild woman is so very lame. That in a nutshell is America. We like to think we are all that, but we aren’t really. And, yeah, we’re crazy.
brantl
@demimondian: Demimondian’s right This land is your land, for the win.
Comrade Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
“This Land is My Land” or “America – Fuck Yeah!” get my vote.
In the rest of the English-speaking world, “Battle Hymn’s” tune is primarily associated with “John Brown’s Body Lies A-moldering in his grave, but his soul goes marching on”. I’ve never heard “John Brown’s Body” sung in the U.S., but it’s a popular folk song outside the U.S.
Is John Brown not mentioned in polite company in the U.S., being a terrarist against a cause ancestors of those living in Red States fought for?
Can we revive “John Brown’s Body” as part of Confederate History Month?