US Getting a New National Anthem?

[jenny12]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/culture...ition-15184700

How about a celebration of coke and rum instead of bombs bursting in air?

[michiruwater]

Um, no thank you.

I realize our national anthem isn't easy to sing, but I love, love, love the power and glory behind our national anthem and absolutely do not want it changed. (I also realize the article is totally tongue-in-cheek, but still. I really love our national anthem.)

And I was my High School's national anthem girl for 3 years, and I miss it. There's nothing quite like singing it (correctly) for a crowd.

[Sofia Alexandra]

I had quite a "wait, WHAT?" moment when I was watching The Dark Knight Rises with English subtitles, and realised that there was a line about bombs and stuff in the American anthem. Then I thought "Well that explains a few things".

[A.H.Black]

Um, no thank you.

I realize our national anthem isn't easy to sing, but I love, love, love the power and glory behind our national anthem and absolutely do not want it changed. (I also realize the article is totally tongue-in-cheek, but still. I really love our national anthem.)

And I was my High School's national anthem girl for 3 years, and I miss it. There's nothing quite like singing it (correctly) for a crowd.

I wish more people did sing it correctly. I always listen for the way "banner" is sung in the penultimate line and then know if the singer cared/knew enough to sing it right or not. I also don't like it when people try to "make a career" out of singing the National Anthem. I like mine straight and with pace. It's not a dirge.

I had quite a "wait, WHAT?" moment when I was watching The Dark Knight Rises with English subtitles, and realised that there was a line about bombs and stuff in the American anthem. Then I thought "Well that explains a few things".

I hope someone has told you the story of the writing of the National Anthem since then.

From Wikapedia -

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is the national anthem of the United States of America. The lyrics come from "Defence of Fort McHenry",[1] a poem written in 1814 by the 35-year-old lawyer and amateur poet, Francis Scott Key, after witnessing the bombardment of Fort McHenry by the British Royal Navy ships in Chesapeake Bay during the Battle of Fort McHenry in the War of 1812.

The Defence of Fort McHenry
(“The Star-Spangled Banner”)

by Francis Scott Key (1779-1843)

O! 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 through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through 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 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.

O! 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!

[FigureSpins]

Glenn Close used to sing the Anthem at Mets games all the time. I wonder if there's a record for the most times performing it in public?

I love our Anthem. The words really reflect the turmoil and overwhelming joy of the little colony that could.

[TheGirlCanSkate]

Growing up in NorCal, we never sang the anthem. I grew up singing the first verse of America the Beautiful every morning with the pledge. The anthem was only played at the ball games. I was surprised when in 5th grade and a move to another state that we had to stand for the anthem. Not sing - just stand. It seemed really weird to stand in silence while music came over the speakers.

I am visual so even as an adult passing a farm I think of amber waves of grain and mountains in the distance are purple mountains majesties.

[duane]

I HATE our Anthem. Even the most accomplished singers have difficulty hitting those notes. It's why most people don't even try singing it, while those who do overdo it ("...and the rockets REEEEEEEED GLAAAAAAAAAAARE (applause, applause), the bombs bursting INNNNNNNN AIRRRRRRRRRRRRRR (more applause, applause)...").

[centerstage01]

It always amuses me that the melody for my national anthem was taken from an old British drinking song. Just pick a popular tune and change the lyrics. No one will forget it!

[Skittl1321]

It always amuses me that the melody for my national anthem was taken from an old British drinking song. Just pick a popular tune and change the lyrics. No one will forget it!

We sing a patriotic song to "God Save the Queen" too. I know a lot of American kids who are shocked that the British national anthem is "My Country Tis of Thee"

[maatTheViking]

I think he US anthem is hard to sing, and at skate America is usually sounds atrocious when some one less than capable sings it... I also notice most people don't sing along ( unlike the Danish anthem, which is both pretty and possible to sing decently even while drunk... ) .

Th text is nice, maybe it needs an updated melody?

I always loved This Land is My Land... And think of it as a alternate anthem

[jenny12]

If our National Anthem can't be Ignition , then I'd rather it be America the Beautiful. I've always thought the Star-Spangled Banner was too militaristic.

[danceronice]

Growing up in NorCal, we never sang the anthem. I grew up singing the first verse of America the Beautiful every morning with the pledge. The anthem was only played at the ball games. I was surprised when in 5th grade and a move to another state that we had to stand for the anthem. Not sing - just stand. It seemed really weird to stand in silence while music came over the speakers.

I am visual so even as an adult passing a farm I think of amber waves of grain and mountains in the distance are purple mountains majesties.

I *hate* "America the Beautiful." What an insipid song. Even "Battle Hymn of the Republic" (which I loathe for other reasons and would flat-out refuse to sing, not that I'd sing America the Beautiful, either) would be better, or the equally hopelessly cheesy "God Bless America" (which they couldn't use anyway because the atheists would sue. Speaking of political correctness, is the lyric in "O Canada" still "True patriot love/in all thy sons command'?)

And for reasons that should be blindingly obvious, "My Country 'Tis of Thee" is RIGHT OUT. Though I can sing the "real" lyrics to that one.

It's not like the majority of people can sing ANYTHING well. If you CAN sing, there is a key for you in with "The Star-Spangled Banner" shouldn't be hard.

[ballettmaus]

Is this for real? "Well over 100,000 people in America"?! In a country of what? An estimated 315,452,000 according to wikipedia. Even Wyoming, the least populated state has a population of over 560,000, so 100,000 Americans wouldn't even be a fifth of the least populated state. That's a very strong argument there.

On a more serious note, I find it kind of wrong to change a country's national anthem as I feel it is part of the country and how it defines itself. It's as if you change the national flag or the language spoken. JMO

[Skittl1321]

Is this for real? "Well over 100,000 people in America"?! In a country of what? An estimated 315,452,000 according to wikipedia. Even Wyoming, the least populated state has a population of over 560,000, so 100,000 Americans wouldn't even be a fifth of the least populated state. That's a very strong argument there.

They haven't even found 100,000 people who agree yet- the petition is under 10,000 still. It is just at 100,000 signatures that the white house guarantees a response.

It is clearly a joke petition.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/pet...remix/Rm8SC7FP


So is this "Ignition" song a patriotic thing? I've never heard of it? And is R.Kelly no longer a disgrace?

[jenny12]

Is this for real? "Well over 100,000 people in America"?! In a country of what? An estimated 315,452,000 according to wikipedia. Even Wyoming, the least populated state has a population of over 560,000, so 100,000 Americans wouldn't even be a fifth of the least populated state. That's a very strong argument there.

But I'm sure more people will be racing to sign the petition when they hear the brilliant lyric, "Bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce."

[Artemis@BC]

... Speaking of political correctness, is the lyric in "O Canada" still "True patriot love/in all thy sons command'?)

Yup. There have been moves in the past to change it, and doubless will again, but not yet.

I always sing "In all of us command" though.

And of course "our home and native land" has some serious issues re: correctness too!

BTW, tho I might object to some of the imagery in the US national anthem, what I like about it most is its passion. And it's uniqueness. So many national anthems -- including O Canada -- are generic, bland, and unmemorable. That definitely cannot be said of "The Star-Spangled Banner!"

[Karina1974]

I always loved This Land is My Land... And think of it as a alternate anthem

Pete Seeger, who was a very good friend to Woody Guthrie, always says that he didn't think initially that that was one of Woody's better songs. "Shows you how wrong a fellow can be," he said in an interview with Bill Moyers for his 75th birthday. He's actually giving a concert in my area in 2 months. Turning 94 this year, and still getting out there to perform.

[UGG]

I HATE when people like Christina Aguilera sing the national anthem. They make the song too much about "them" and hitting 10 different notes for the word "free" and screaming.

[Cachoo]

I don't have a link but I read that the first night that Broadway reopened after going dark on 9/11 Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane and the cast of "The Producers" took their final bows then threw the house lights up and sang "God Bless America" with the audience. I don't think we need a new national anthem. It's just that I like singing GBA better.

[Vash01]

We don't need a new national anthem. I just want the singers to stop butchering it to show off how great their singing is. I love our national anthem.