I’m not that big on patriotic songs. I think the wingers do protest too much when they go on about them. I mean, maybe if I supported a president who was selling us out to Vladimir Putin, then I’d have to crank up the Lee Greenwood to try to convince people I wasn’t a traitor. But I don’t so I don’t have to.
I love this version of the Star-Spangled Banner and I try to remember to post it every year. What’s your favorite rendition?
Cheryl Rofer
This is good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo4Zel85Rn8&feature=youtu.be
JPL
Whitney Houston
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_lCmBvYMRs
lamh36
@JPL: Yasss!! Was just gonna say Whitney Houston and I actually love it more than Marvin’s
fuckwit
José can you see
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
AKA as Treason Day! (I’m American btw)
Wag
We could consider thisas a new national anthem.
JPL
@lamh36: I don’t think it’s a contest. She was that good.
zhena gogolia
Better get used to this one.
Facebones
I’m voting for this as the new anthem.
jharp
Marvin Gaye was one of the coolest dudes ever.
Mnemosyne
Really, Doug missed his chance to link to this song themed to today?
I don’t even know this guy anymore. ?
Mike J
Everyone
Everyone is so near
Everyone has got the fear
It’s holding on
It’s holding on
HRA
No doubt at all it was Whitney Huston at the Bills game. I shared it today on Facebook.
Mnemosyne
@Facebones:
I once met someone who used that song for her wedding. They had to find an instrumental version, for obvious reasons.
(Technically, I think it was at the reception, not during the actual ceremony.)
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
Hendrix’s, duh.
Also: Happy 79th, Bill Withers!
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
I didn’t know anybody could sing the anthem in a way that makes it worth listening to. It’s a truly awful, wretched song. I can’t believe we still have it. The Stars and Stripes Forever, that should be the anthem. Who cares whether it has any words or not? You can’t help but feel like this country is worth a shit when you hear that song.
RepubAnon
Matt “Bleeding Gums” Murphy on the Simpsons – 24 minute version : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4c2KDLWpI0
David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch
Typical secular liberal.
Wants to talk about independence day instead of Christmas music.
Mnemosyne
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
“Stars and Stripes Forever” does have lyrics, but they don’t start until a full minute into the song. And it sounds best with a full orchestra, anyway.
Cheryl Rofer
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Stars and Stripes Forever is the national march! I didn’t know that until I listened to this introduction. Particularly well done. Always makes this old marching band piccolo-player tear up.
Mike J
The US is firing missiles into the water off South Korea to show North Korea how tough we are.
Mnemosyne
I would love to bring back “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, but the internet atheists would have a shitfit.
JPL
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
Truth be known, I love this song in celebration of the season we can now celebrate, and I’m agnostic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57l6dSbVppM
James Powell
@Mnemosyne:
I always sing along with “Be kind to your web-footed friends, ’cause that duck might be somebody’s mother . . . ”
Being a Boy Scout made me who I am today.
Mnemosyne
@Mike J:
Great. There’s no way that could possibly go wrong.
JPL
@Mnemosyne: Today I spent the day with friends and family at a celebration at Barrington Hall, the founder of Roswell. My friend reminded me that she spent the day where Julia Howe lived. Lydia Child is also buried in a nearby cemetery.
lamh36
@JPL: Agree, Marvin’s may be the “coolest”, but for straight up clear vocals and perfection…and also the state of the nation at the time, it’s the one that I listen to, when I’m feeling patriotic…and the only one I can listen to outside of the 4th
lamh36
@JPL: Oh and I’d say every rendition since has been compared to Whitney’s version ever since
phein55
Ray Charles, singing America, the Beautiful: When I’m in charge, that’s what it will be.
Until then, how I imagine Willie Nelson would sing it, if he would.
(((CassandraLeo)))
I still favour “This Land Is Your Land” for the national anthem. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is certainly awful. We’re pretty much the only country I’m aware of that has a national anthem about how
awesome
we are at war.Mike J
@phein55: Willy sang it at the 19080 Democratic Convention.
Mike J
@(((CassandraLeo))): France. Their anthem talks about watering their fields with impure blood.
Wag
@Mnemosyne:
As an atheist on the internet I 100% support making the Battle Hymn of the Republic the national. Greatest patriotic song ever.
Edit: Any song that inspired Union soldiers to kick Confederate asses is ok by me
Heywood J.
Next to the Team ‘murka one upthread, this is a great one.
gbbalto
@James Powell: The very words my mother learned at summer camp in the 30s!
eclare
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Absolutely, Jimi rules. Didn’t know that about Bill Withers, the documentary Still Bill is very good.
Citizen Alan
@Mnemosyne:
I would be happy to bring back Barrle Hymn if we sang the third, pro-abolitionust verse.
germy
Schlemazel
If we can’t have America the Beautiful I would vote for the Jimi Hendrix version from Woodstock as the official version.
cmorenc
“America the Beautiful” would make a FAR better national anthem than the awkward “Star Spangled Banner”. Ray Charles sang a magnificent “America the Beautiful” as the prelude to the second Sugar Ray Leonard v Roberto Duran fight, and you can clearly see that Ray’s rendition moved Sugar Ray Leonard from “fight face” to a huge grin, and Leonard hugged Ray Charles immediately after the final note. Trivia: this turned out to be Duran’s infamous “no mas” fight, but that takes nothing away from Ray Charles’ moving rendition.
Here’s the link to Charles’ performance on Youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9tdHQkfxXY
Schlemazel
@zhena gogolia:
in that genre I am more partial to this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaTbI7FCLl0
Brachiator
@(((CassandraLeo))): I always thought that the anthem was as much about surviving against huge odds, even more than it is about a victory.
Scanning the Internets, I read that the song became the national anthem in 1931, during the Depression, when things were tough.
I think all renditions of the song are pretty crappy. I kinda like “This Land is your land” as an alternative. Maybe even “We will rock you.”
germy
@Brachiator: “Hail, hail Freedonia, land of the brave and free”
Schlemazel
@Brachiator:
Believe it or not, Ripley began campaigning for the damn song during WWI. He was a jingoistic piece of work so the song fit the times & the man
Baud
America the Beautiful mentions God. Too many people on our side would object.
Patricia Kayden
@David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch:
No more “Happy Holidays” for me now that Trump has come along. Glory be!!
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Like we complain about the slavery lines in the SSB?
BTW: here is a comic from Cyanide and Happiness fitting for this discussion
OldDave
On singing The Star Spangled Banner
JanieM
@JPL: @lamh36: @HRA: Yes, yes, and yes again. I get chills every time I listen to Whitney’s version.
Here she is singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: Tweets like that make it crystal clear that Trump is shocked like hell that he actually won the election. I really don’t believe that he ever intended to actually be President. It was all a huge joke that got way out of hand once the Russians decided that he was their man.
hellslittlestangel
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: More and more I wish we’d lost the Revolutionary War. At the very least, slavery would have been abolished sooner.
Baud
@Schlemazel: No one cares about any stanza except the first.
Baud
@Patricia Kayden: Maybe that’s the real reason he fired Comey.
germy
@hellslittlestangel:
And we’d have the National Health Service
efgoldman
This was almost the Anthem
I’ve always loved the tune, but the lyrics leave a lot to be desired.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
Not many care about that one either
germy
How about Paul Simon’s “American Tune” for a new anthem.
germy
Baud
@germy: True.
EBT
Would a disastrous war with NK harm the GOP?
JPL
One of my favorite movies was In America and Sarah Bolger’s version of Desperado was perfect. I still miss Mateo. (yes I know he was a fictional character)
https://vimeo.com/29692313
Baud
@EBT: Depends how it came about.
Cheryl Rofer
@EBT: Depends on how many of us are left afterward.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Mike J:
I’ve always figured that Willy would be with us in 19080, I’m not sure about the Democratic Party though.
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: lol Now you are sounding like me yesterday. What bothers me is that there are some among us, not on this site, that think that North Korean lives are not worthy.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin would object.
That’s good enough for me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Ah, there it is. And this is needed as well.
Hal
So is Trump not being able to find the limo right in front of him a sign of jet lag or senility?
JPL
At the event today that I went to there were several activities for children. One was a scavenger hunt of a picture of a bald eagel. Yup, an eagel. Not sure how many of the eagels were found.
JPL
@Hal: My reaction was is this for real..
khead
Stars and Stripes Forever
Patricia Kayden
The illegal fireworks are in full effect tonight here in Southern Maryland. Boom boom boom. My dogs are strangely quiet because usually they go crazy when fireworks go off.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@EBT: *Kim Jong-Un launches missile towards West Coast, which is intercepted*
*Trump then immediately proceeds to turn North Korea into a parking lot*
Assuming conservative antiwar sentiment is primarily concerned with “loss of ‘Murican lives,” probably not much, though hopefully enough.
EBT
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): My thought is that he will swing in a couple of carriers within a few hundred miles and Un spends his 50 or so ship busters and two or three get through and sink or mortally wound a carrier.
Omnes Omnibus
If we are doing patriotic songs that should be our national anthem, I suggest this one – the full version.
efgoldman
@Cheryl Rofer:
I think it depends whether we care if South Korea survives as an entity, and the US troops who are sitting ducks. Seoul will be gone, for sure.
Uncle Cosmo
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (Formerly Mumphrey, et al.): FOADIAF.
germy
Mnemosyne
The annual viewing of 1776 has begun. This year, I’m watching for connections to Hamilton, of course. There’s definitely a costuming connection, especially when it comes to the colors used.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
@germy: Hah! Please grow a backbone CNN. Do something concretely defiant against that loser and/or his minions.
efgoldman
@germy:
I’m sure Orange Julius never heard Mark Twain’s old maxim: Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.
Maybe updated to “Never pick a fight with people who issue pixels by the billions”
Bruuuuce
@(((CassandraLeo))): I also prefer “This Land Is Your Land”, provided that it’s mandatory to sing the penultimate and antepenultimate verses:
As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said “No Trespassing.”
But on the other side it didn’t say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.
In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?
Because they make the actual meaning of the song clear, and not just some paean to an imaginary perfect place. Woody was no sugarcoated sop writer, and people tend to forget that.
Another Scott
@efgoldman: Maybe not. Kyle Mizokami at National Interest:
Successful war is hard.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
khead
@Patricia Kayden:
Not just southern MD. Folks in Cecil Co. are doing their thing too. The cats are freaked.
JPL
As the crow flies, I’m pretty close to the local fireworks, and the patchwork of colors through the trees is amazing. Finch is not appreciating it though.
Uncle Cosmo
@Mnemosyne: Heard a riproaring version of TS&SF by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra (David Zinman cond.) in their first concert after returning from a tour of the USSR in 1986, in which they essentially reprised the progam they played at every stop in the Evil Empire.
Bruuuuce
@Mnemosyne: In a one-to-one comparison, I prefer 1776 to Hamilton. Musically, the latter is maybe slightly better, but the fact that the writers of the former used primary sources (especially the letters between the Adamses) solidifies it for me. Besides, while I grew up wanting to play Adams, I always knew I was physically and vocally much more suited for Franklin, as I now am temperamentally, as well.
TriassicSands
My favorite rendition of one of the worst songs ever written? Gee, that’s a tough one. I think I’ll go with…
…None. It’s a terrible song and a terrible national anthem. I guess that means:
1. I hate America
2. I’m a communist
3. I hate the Baby Jesus
4. I don’t think the NRA is the world’s most benevolent organization
If I have to pretend to like, revere, or in any way approve of the Star Spangled Banner as our National Anthem, then I’m turning in my membership card to the US of A.
I doubt there is any point in our even considering switching to something better — is there any song that could garner majority support? I doubt it. Today, iDixie might win a plurality.
Patricia Kayden
@germy: The Reddit creator of the anti-CNN video which Trump re-tweeted has now “apologized” after CNN discovered his identity. Of course, he’s come through with the “My best friend is X, so I can’t be a bigot” defense.
efgoldman
@Another Scott:
Would you like to be the president making the call? Would you trust the current WH fraud to deal with it at all?
ETA: Rhyme was accidental
Patricia Kayden
@khead: Maryland really needs to crack down on this because a couple of years back, one of our neighbors burned down his house with illegal fireworks. You’d think the rest of our neighbors would have learned their lesson from that but obviously not. They’re out in full force tonight.
germy
@Patricia Kayden: He said “trolling is addicting.”
I think he would have continued merrily if he hadn’t experienced some pushback.
Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)
@Bruuuuce: Didn’t see Hamilton, but I loved Mr. Feeny.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott: Have you ever seen the damage that even a militarily ineffective artillery barrage can do?
germy
@Patricia Kayden: I wish they’d leave the fireworks to the professionals. At least that’s a nice display.
Our cat right now is very tense. Stupid drunken amateurs in the neighborhood are blowing up their explosives. Just random, ugly noise.
Omnes Omnibus
@TriassicSands: You are a cheerful-ass person.
Another Scott
@efgoldman: War would be a disaster. It always is. Even moreso when it’s blundered into, and when it’s started by knownothing braindamaged blowhards.
The point of the post, though, was to say that at least a few people (who are better informed about this stuff than me) say that while NK has lots of artillery, that doesn’t mean they could “flatten” Seoul.
That is all.
Cheers,
Scott.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: I do not like him in a boat. I would not like him with a goat.
J R in WV
@Cheryl Rofer:
Wow, what a great performance. We will miss him…
efgoldman
@Omnes Omnibus:
Is he a friend of Kaus’?
TriassicSands
@Omnes Omnibus:
Yawn. Liking or not liking the Star Spangled Banner has nothing to do with being cheerful or not. Your comment is ridiculous. But typical.
Why don’t we agree — I’ll ignore you, you ignore me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott:
That rather depends on the meaning of flatten. London* continued to exist after the Blitz. A shitload of London was flattened.
*Feel free to substitute Manchester, Berlin, Hamburg, Dresden, Coventry, PloiestI, etc.
Mnemosyne
@Bruuuuce:
Hamilton is quite surprisingly historically accurate, though they did fiddle with the sequence events right at the end to have Phillip die prior to the election of 1800 (his fatal duel was part of the aftermath). Several of the lines actually are taken directly from letters between the various characters, including “if you really loved me, you would share him” (yes, Angelica actually wrote a version of that to Eliza!) and the whole “comma after dearest” bit.
But, yes, 1776 does make much more of an effort to be a period piece, while Hamilton tries to update the language for modern audiences. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. I like ’em both.
It’s pretty obvious watching the movie that Miranda’s characterization of Hamilton is very influenced by William Daniels’ John Adams. Not only are they both obnoxious and disliked and convinced they know better than everyone else, they have the same hairstyle, fer goshsakes!
Franklin is by far the best part in the play, though — he has all of the best lines. I have a couple of friends who are involved in a local theater company and I keep saying they need to do a production of 1776 just so one of them can play Franklin. The poor guy even has gout, too!
WestTexan70
Hendrix and Gaye run rings around the overrated Houston.
Come to think of it almost everything Houston (except mid90s era Hakeem) is overrated.?
J R in WV
@jharp:
And Marvin was killed by his religious nutjob father.
We need more religion in America??
Bruuuuce
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): I was always more of a KITT guy. And, of course, The White Shadow was fun for its time. But the best later role, IMO, for an actor from the movie, was John Cullum’s Holling Vincoeur in Northern Exposure.
Omnes Omnibus
@TriassicSands: Oh, ffs. You read like a person who looked at people playing a harmless game and said “You shouldn’t be playing a game. There are people starving in Country X.” I am frivolous at times. I beg your pardon.
J R in WV
@Cheryl Rofer:
Awww! We have something in common, I played a Sousaphone in marching band. Responsible for my remaining strength in my old age!! And good wind when I blow in that gadget at the annual physical. I usually blow about 35 years old, which is pretty good for 66+ !
Bruuuuce
@Mnemosyne:
Yep. It’d be worth it to play him for just the first, and in many ways the least, of those, “Haven’t you ever seen a great man before?”
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: See above.
Also too, if one wants to cite a less sanguine author, there’s Han Ho Suk (from 2000):
(I get suspicious about comments, like those of Schwartz, without knowing the surrounding context.)
Who’s right? With luck we’ll never find out…
US Korean bases are being moved south of Seoul.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
Bruuuuce
@WestTexan70:
I kind of like the classic rainbow unis for the Astros, personally.
EBT
@Omnes Omnibus: A significant portion of Seoul is out of range of a good deal of the artillery that NK has. That which it does have is all but irreplaceable, and any sort of artillery strike that failed to totally knock out SK’s ability to respond would result in NK having minutes to fire. And personally I believe that NK does not have that sort of alpha strike capability.
Omnes Omnibus
@Another Scott: All I am saying is that I know the kind of damage the guns that I worked with could do. People who poo-poo that are like Georg C. Scott’s character in Dr Strangelove – “I’m not saying we won’t get out hair mussed.”*
*From memory; may not be word for word.
Mnemosyne
@Bruuuuce:
I keep wishing that Howard da Silva had lived in the era of audiobooks. He has one of those voices that could read the phone book and make it interesting.
Mnemosyne
@Bruuuuce:
“Not everyone’s from Boston, John.”
Omnes Omnibus
@EBT: Maybe my personal prejudices and loyalties affect my judgment. I would ask if the average citizen of Seoul wants to bet on you rather than me. I should note that I tend toward liberal interventionism.
Bruuuuce
@Mnemosyne: Oh, yes, indeed. I’m not an audiobooks kind of guy (I lose track, doing other things), but I’d love to just have his voice in my headphones.
“I won’t put politics on paper; it’s a mania.”
Mnemosyne
@Bruuuuce:
The line came up, and I had it slightly wrong. It’s actually, Not everybody’s from Boston, John.
Bruuuuce
@Mnemosyne: That’s an easy memory error. NP.
“The people have read Mr. Paine’s “Common Sense”. I doubt very much the Congress has.” Some things never change.
Frankensteinbeck
@Patricia Kayden:
I read his whole statement. It is as classy and absolute a refutation of Trump and online racist garbage as it gets, including declaring that he is done with it and an explanation of how eye-opening it was that messages he sent just to get a rise out of forum-goers really hurt people. It does not equivocate or sorry-not-sorry. Most of it is an explanation of how seductive trolling is, in tones of a lesson learned and shared rather than excuse-making.
rikyrah
Gaye’s anthem…I always imagine women throwing panties to him afterwards:)
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: Not during?
Mnemosyne
@Bruuuuce:
When Adams gets squicked out because they’re lurking outside Jefferson’s window waiting to see if Jefferson is done having sex with his wife yet, “Don’t worry, John, the history books will clean it up.”
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Wife?
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Jefferson’s wife, not Adams’ wife. In case that wasn’t clear. It’s probably ahistorical, but Martha Jefferson comes to Philadelphia during the writing of the writing of the Declaration of Independence.
ETA: Jefferson didn’t get involved with Sally Hemmings until after Martha Jefferson’s death. To me, the whole Hemmings thing is even more gross when you know that she was almost certainly Martha Jefferson’s half-sister, so Sally was basically a replacement for his dead wife.
Bruuuuce
@Mnemosyne: Leading to one of Adams’ best lines: (cribbed from IMDB for exactitude) “It doesn’t matter. I won’t be in the history books anyway, only you. Franklin did this and Franklin did that and Franklin did some other damn thing. Franklin smote the ground and out sprang George Washington, fully grown and on his horse. Franklin then electrified him with his miraculous lightning rod and the three of them – Franklin, Washington, and the horse – conducted the entire revolution by themselves.”
@Omnes Omnibus: Martha. As sent for by Adams to get Jefferson past his sexual frustration and to get him to work.
Mnemosyne
@Bruuuuce:
Just got past Franklin’s best unspoken exchange:
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: I had assumed that the “bouncy-bouncy” was with Sally Hemmings and that it was veiled a anti-slavery and historical whitewashing reference. I may have given the 1776 the benefit of the doubt. I thought the play was calling him out.
Cheryl Rofer
@Hal: Jet lag? From New Jersey?
Bruuuuce
@Mnemosyne: My watch will be when I get in to work at midnight. Looking forward to it
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s pre-Hemmings. There are quite a few open references to slavery and the conflicts between the Founding Fathers, so no need to be oblique for this particular work.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Burr did better. He made sure that Theodosia was educated as well as any man.
Jim Parish
I love 1776, but I find it hard to forgive its near-slanderous treatment of James Wilson. (He’s not the only one who gets a bum treatment, but his is the most extreme case, I think.)
Villago Delenda Est
@Another Scott: They’re finally getting around to getting out of Seoul. They’ve been talking about doing that for at least 30 years.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
Just got past the epic “Molasses to Rum to Slaves” number and they do whitewash Jefferson a bit, though not the slavery issue.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: A bit?
frosty
@Uncle Cosmo:
I gather from various comments your a Marylander. As a former Baltimorean I agree. We wouldn’t even have a USA now without the defense of Ft McHenry and the Battle of North Point. DC rolled over and got burned and Baltimore stopped the British. ‘Nuff said.
frosty
@Patricia Kayden: Maryland can try to crack down, but unfortunately the fireworks shops in South PA do a booming (oops, sorry ’bout that) business. Oddly, you can only buy them with an out-of-state ID.
Beautifulplummage
Sun just went down over the Olympic Mts. Hoping for some sparkly shows in an hour to make up for all the noise. Kitties seem mellow, which is good.
Mnemosyne
@Omnes Omnibus:
He says he has “resolved” to free his slaves, but of course, he never did.
One of the books that That Play relied on that I think some Burr defenders here really liked was The Heartbreak of Aaron Burr. Basically, the guy did go a little nuts towards the end of his life because he lost literally everyone he ever loved: grandparents, parents, wife, children, even his only grandchild.
Suzan
Marvin’s 1983 version is the best. I regret that I can’t find a version without a sportscaster speaking over the first few words but it is worth it and I LOVE that you post this every year.
NotoriousJRT
@phein55:
I’m with you.