Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

He really is that stupid.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

To the privileged, equality seems like oppression.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

I would try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

A fool as well as an oath-breaker.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

“But what about the lurkers?”

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / As Independence Day (USA) 2017 Comes To An End: Let Freedom Ring

As Independence Day (USA) 2017 Comes To An End: Let Freedom Ring

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Earlier Doug! asked about patriotic songs. My favorite has always been My Country Tis of Thee. Many patriotic songs, regardless of nation-state, are often rewritten during troubled times. For instance, Naomi Shemer’s Yerushalayim Shel Zahav (Jerusalem of Gold) released just three weeks before the Six Day War was rewritten after the war by Meir Ariel. Ariel was one of the paratroopers that fought in the battle to take East Jerusalem from the Jordanians in 1967. His rewrite, Yerushalayim Shel Barzel (Jerusalem of Iron) was intended to emphasize the horrors of the war and became a protest song as the Israeli occupation of the West Bank continued year after year.

During the years prior to the Great Rebellion, America abolitionists rewrote the lyrics to My Country Tis of Thee. This abolitionist variant, done in a minor key, becomes a haunting spiritual begging the divine providence cited by the Founders in the Declaration, Constitution, and their other writings to finally bring liberty to all. This variant is below followed by The United States Army Field Band’s performance of the traditional version.

Let freedom ring!

 

 

Reader Interactions

73Comments

  1. 1.

    efgoldman

    And of course the Israeli National Anthem, Hatikvoh, borrowed the tune of Smetana’s Czech tone poem Vltava (The Moldau).

  3. 3.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    I used to say “This Land is Your Land” should be our national anthem, but these days I’m more like “Battle Hymn of the Motherfucking Republic, Motherfuckers.”

    It’s just getting really dark here in San Francisco and the rockets’ red glare has started in earnest. Our municipal fireworks will be mere blurs in the fog, as usual, but the impromptu neighborhood displays are more than making up for them.

    Happy (end of the ) Fourth, all.

  4. 4.

    efgoldman

    Gang – I won’t be around on Wednesday and maybe Thursday. Surgery to implant the catheter for peritoneal dialysis.
    It’s supposed to be day surgery, but it’s also general anesthesia. Given my age and history, they told me they’d likely as not keep me overnite.
    See you in a couple of days.

  6. 6.

    Another Scott

    With all the talk about war and destruction in the earlier threads today, I was reminded of this picture. My old boss had a print of it in his office for years. It was kinda disconcerting the first time I saw it, but it was a good conversation starter… :-)

    ‘night all.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  7. 7.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: My Dad was on dialysis for several years. Not what you’re getting, but if you or the Mrs or your kids have any questions, please feel free to email me.

  8. 8.

    Comrade Colette Collaboratrice

    @efgoldman: Best of luck. I’ll say a Mi Sheberach for you. Please do check in to tell us how you’re doing afterward.

  15. 15.

    trollhattan

    @efgoldman:
    Best wishes for an easy procedure and rapid return to the jackal pack. An extra dish of vitriol will be waiting.

  16. 16.

    Brachiator

    @efgoldman: Good luck with your health issues. Look at the time off as a time to relax, a mini vacation with a little health related detour.

  18. 18.

    Tom Levenson

    @efgoldman: May you have an easy surgery, fast times in the recovery room, and a return to your customary curmudgeonery as swiftly as possible.

  20. 20.

    Mart

    @efgoldman: Wife and I are visiting a buddy in Texas as he just had the procedure. Our mutual friends were worried sick about him before surgery, but is doing great post surgery, getting his strength back. Good luck.

  21. 21.

    Brachiator

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:

    .I used to say “This Land is Your Land” should be our national anthem, but these days I’m more like “Battle Hymn of the Motherfucking Republic, Motherfuckers.”

    I hear you. Part of it is that I want the melody of an American anthem to be an American composition, not a reworking of a British song. Battle Hymn’s music comes from the melody for John Brown’s Body and supposedly is from American camp songs, American folk music.

    And the music for “This Land is Your Land” is based on tunes created or compiled by the Carter Family.

  24. 24.

    seaboogie

    @efgoldman: Wishing you a successful surgery and a big fresh shiny summer onion for your belt – maybe a purple one if you are feeling fancy.

  25. 25.

    Jacel

    I’ve grown fond of “Hail Columbia!”, which was written with the intent of drawing together factions of Americans who urged support of England or of France in their wars. The now better known song, “Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean” sort of ripped off this earlier anthem, with less meaning.

  31. 31.

    divF

    @Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
    We spent this afternoon at a family get-together in Half Moon Bay. The sun broke through the fog bank for maybe an hour or two. We’re back in Berkeley now, listening to the fireworks.

    At the family gig, a SIL and her husband were educating a friend on classical music as it has appeared in cartoons since 1928. Youtube is a wonderful thing !

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Viva BrisVegas: No, just Oh Canada. One of the reasons I like it, aside from the lyrics, is the melody. The melody provides the connection to our more civilized cousins in Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

  34. 34.

    seaboogie

    Just returned from my local mini mart, and fireworks are happening. Regular Mexican gent was off duty from the mart to take his kids to the fireworks, so the gentlemen from India wished me a happy 4th. A sweet note on an otherwise weird 4th.

  38. 38.

    BBA

    When I’m in one of my better moods, I think “America the Beautiful” ought to replace “The Star-Spangled Banner” as the national anthem, and “The Star-Spangled Banner” should become Maryland’s state song replacing the current anti-Lincoln excrement they have.

    When I’m in one of my worse moods…has Rev. Wright’s “God Damn America” been set to music yet?

  44. 44.

    Adam L Silverman

    @trollhattan: Pretty much. More’s the pity. Always nice when the people claiming to be the most patriotic can’t actually recognize the Declaration of Independence.

  47. 47.

    frosty

    @BBA: I’m OK with that. SSB is all about Maryland’s defense and the current state song was written by a Confederate sympathizer. I love the line “the despot’s heel is at thy door”… the despot is Abraham Lincoln. smh, as lamh36 sez.

  52. 52.

    opiejeanne

    @efgoldman: I wish you success and a quick recovery.

    We were In Bozeman, Montana on the 4th. The Bozeman Symphony Orchestra gave a great concert at the fairgrounds followed by fireworks. They played a variety of things, a debut of a new composition made up of WWI songs that was being played across the country tonight. There was a medley from Frozen for the kids, Hymn for the Fallen from Saving Private Ryan. During the obligatory 1812 Overture I was trying to figure out how they did the cannons and the church bells. We were sitting so far away from the stage that I couldn’t see any bells, and I wondered if they had a pair of cannons behind the band shell.

    The encore was Stars and Stripes Forever and the piccolo part was played as a solo. I’ve never seen that before.

    As the fireworks began the orchestra quietly left the band shell and we were treated to a lousy C&W version of America the Beautiful. Off-key and twangy duet between some old guy and young girl.. We started walking back to the hotel at that point, watching the fireworks pretty much overhead as we walked. When we were nearly out of earshot of the canned music they started playing God Bless the USA. I was grateful that the racket of the fireworks drowned it out.

    The orchestra is paid a “service fee” for rehearsal time but not for the hours of practice they put in. The conductor is also paid, enough to pay his mortgage he said. I’m wondering if Bozeman is a blue oasis in the sea of red that is Montana.

  54. 54.

    Elie

    @efgoldman:
    Hey what’s this?
    Don’t want to intrude if not welcome. I wish you the very best and overcoming the dialysis. Hopefully not permanent

  60. 60.

    Anne Laurie

    @efgoldman: Best wishes for an easy surgery, a swift & uncomplicated recovery, and that you’re not so uncomfortable afterwards as to make your darling wife’s life too miserable!

    (Will hold you in the light, awaiting your return.)

  62. 62.

    JWR

    Can’t say if this song, from my early, (9 or 10 years old), youth, would qualify as a “patriotic” song to anyone else, but it’s long been a sort of national anthem for me:

    Steppenwolf – “Monster/Suicide/America” (Extended version)

  64. 64.

    debbie

    My favorite has always been My Country Tis of Thee.

    Mine too. Nothing about God in it, all about the beauty of the country. Wish we could start a GoFundMe to buy the rights from England.

  67. 67.

    Chris

    I don’t know if it counts as patriotic, but I’ve always loved “America” from West Side Story. The frank back and forth between “come on, it’s not that bad” and “come on, it’s not that good” and the laundry list of nice things versus not-so-nice things versus nice-things-that-are-only-available-to-certain-people… is something I end up liking a lot more than the long list of uber-whitewashed “gosh darn it, isn’t this just the swellest place ever?” songs. I don’t hate all of those songs, and sure, it makes sense that patriotic anthems should emphasize the good rather than the bad. But the West Side Story one is still my favorite America-themed song.

  68. 68.

    Tenar Arha

    @Adam L Silverman: I was thinking about why this is so familiar, and I realized that it’s like the echoes of the King James Bible in 18th & 19th century speeches. Our vocabulary of protest is similarly formed by the Declaration of Independence, therefore even when “we” don’t recognize the actual words, we feel the words and the protest there ;-)

  70. 70.

    cgordon

    Last night at the ball game there was fireworks and patriotic songs. They played Neil Diamond’s “Coming to America” and I wondered if anyone realized it was about immigrants…

  72. 72.

    Librarian

    I’ve never liked My Country Tis of Thee. When I was taught it in school, of course they never mentioned it was a ripoff of God Save the King.

  73. 73.

    Prof. of Spherical Harmonics

    Battle Hymn of the Republic.
    “The union forever, hurrah, boys, hurrah!
    Down with the traitor, and up with the star!”

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