Singing "The Star Spangle Banner"

[Lokidude]

My big pet peeve is when people treat it like a funeral dirge. In the words of my old band director (and a retired Air Force SGT), "We won the war."

Treat it with respect and reverence, sure, but also a very healthy dose of pride.

[HTRN]

I'm a life-long Mets fan

BURN HIM! HE'S A WITCH!
(at least you're not a [shudder]Sox fan[/shudder])


HTRN

[Bob K]

HTRN,

Red Sox or White Sox?

I grew up on the South side. Got into some trouble with truant officers in '59, going to games.

Now I live a half-block from Wrigley Field, and my wife, well, can you say, "Dyed in the wool?"

[Dedicated_Dad]

When sung in public, as for example to open some ceremony or event, it should be sung as written in terms of both notes and time.

OTOH, Hendrix' interpretation was none of the above - it was his interpretation of the song. Had he done this in a context such as the above, I'd fight to be first in line to flog him, but as it stands, I actually LIKE what he did...

DD

[cu74]

My big pet peeve is when people treat it like a funeral dirge. In the words of my old band director (and a retired Air Force SGT), "We won the war."

Treat it with respect and reverence, sure, but also a very healthy dose of pride.

I agree that it should be sung "briskly". It has been, (had been? I haven't been in a few years) a tradition at the Clemson University baseball games for the anthem to be sung by some "local talent" just before the game. Often I thought the poor child trying to sing it before a night game wouldn't finish until after her bedtime.

(Clemson also has the tradition of the crowd saying the Pledge of Allegiance as well as singing the National Anthem before home football games. They also have a prayer - you don't know before the game whether you will hear a Rabbi, a Catholic priest, or some other Protestant minister... )

[Bandito]

But I much prefer "America the Beautiful," and believe that there have been some efforts in the past to make that the official national anthem.

Yes, and a large part of those efforts arise from the belief that we shouldn't have a song written during a war about a war. Granted, the song itself is tangentially related to representing America in terms of its lyrics, but I sure as hell object to changing it on the basis of it being "warmongering" and "violent". The War of 1812 and what happened at Fort McHenry are an important part of American history, and hardly a shameful part of it either.

As far as I am concerned, the Star Spangled Banner is as much a part of America as the flag, the Constitution, George Washington, and so on. It should not be changed, ever. As for the singing, I thinking the singing part is optional. It sounds just fine with our without singing, and given that lately our pop stars have taken to singing it, it usually songs better without it.

I think that the popularity of "America the Beautiful" vs the Star Spangled Banner has more to do with the fact that the former is a much better tune, while the latter is pretty lame (musically, that is). A lot of people just liked "America" better, even before any anti-military, political correctness raised its head.

Anything along the lines of a national anthem should be musically inspiring, or else have such deep seated roots in a country that nothing else could even be thought of being its anthem.

Given that the Star Spangled Banner wasn't adopted as the de jure national anthem until 1931, I don't think of it as being an inseparable part of America and our history. If tradition was the standard, then Hail Columbia should have be been kept on.

[MarkD]

I'm a life-long Mets fan

BURN HIM! HE'S A WITCH!
(at least you're not a [shudder]Sox fan[/shudder])


HTRN

I've been known to root for the Red Sox when they're playing the Yankees......

Been a Mets fan since I was in first grade, riding home on the school bus chanting "Let's Go Mets!" during the '69 World Series. Too old to change, and too stubborn to change even if I were younger.

To bring the thread back on topic, I offer Mr Merrill singing our National Anthem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JlzkXROA10

If anyone doesn't think that's the way it OUGHT to be sung, I don't want to talk to you.

[blackeagle603]

Why is the Star Spangled Banner appropriate as our National Anthem?

Just for sake of review read the whole thing and then tell me if you don't "get it."

fwiw, I say it envokes the Spirit of '76. The Spirit of the Revolution. We're not just living in a beautiful land. We living in a land where the tree of liberty has been watered with the blood of patriots.

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, 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 through 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 in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh 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 washed 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!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home 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, when 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!

[chrisb]

Aaron Neville is the worst ever!

[MiddleAgedKen]

I recall this being posted on the old board, but since blackeagle saw fit to post all four stanzas (and a good job too), I figure it bears relinking here:

All Four Stanzas.