Christina Aguilera has become the latest star to apparently blow the national anthem. In her case, she left out the “O’er the ramparts we watched” — a critical and noticeable line. However, the real question is why we have a national anthem that only a castrato with a photographic memory can sing.
I do not wish to insult anyone, but our national anthem is pretty lame. It lacks the power of the “La Marseillaise” and the accessibility of “Oh Canada.” Just look at the words and think how few Americans can actually recite let alone sing this song:
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, O! 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!
“The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” anyone? I must say that I have long had a particular fondness for O Canada (as well as the Canadian flag). While it is a bit too late to take over that country to take either item, we might consider finding a song that a citizen can sing.
Source:Huffington Post
Let’s compare:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDvF0NtgdU&w=480&h=390]
Codger alert! Said in that Andy Rooney voice: I still remember when going to a game entailed the audience standing up and singing the first verse. What’s wrong with bringing that back? Now there’s even a Jumbotron that could display the lines.
I’d like to see “We Are Family” played before games, get people on their feet, shake some booty 🙂
LoL, the first comment on the first vid I opened on UTube said “This should be the National Anthem” !!!!!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t26FXONisQ&w=480&h=390]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuc4BI5NWU&w=480&h=390]
“O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,” leaving unmentioned that the word “freemen” included only white people, and that those “freemen” were busily enslaving other human beings.
These wretched lyrics are a relic of the racist past and belong on the junkheap of history.
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The new slavery is economic.
This song is as pertinent today as it ever was. Freemen then may have only been white…that is not true now. The lyrics are poetic…perhaps a more educated society would better be able to understand them….for sure the crowd did not like having the lyrics screwed with….
BIL: “Seems like his guitar’s famous inscription of “This machine kills fascists” is still working just fine.”
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I always just *loved* that about him. That wouldn’t be a bad statement to make on a line of writing instruments either, pens or electronic.
Proud Abolitionist: “And what exactly does this mean, in the third verse?”
Wikipedia:
“According to the historian Robin Blackburn, the words “the hireling and slave” allude to the fact that the British attackers had many ex-slaves in their ranks, who had been promised liberty and demanded to be placed in the battle line “where they might expect to meet their former masters.”
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Atoning for original sin is a long process indeed.
And what exactly does this mean, in the third verse?
“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.”
So just who are the “hireling and slave,” and whose side are they on? Other than rhyming slave, grave, wave and brave, it seems that Key, a slaveowner who advocated colonization and opposed abolitionists (but did emancipate his slaves) did not include Americans of African descent in the land of the free. It was not the British invaders who were enslaving people, it was the Americans
His song goes “O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,” leaving unmentioned that the word “freemen” included only white people, and that those “freemen” were busily enslaving other human beings.
These wretched lyrics are a relic of the racist past and belong on the junkheap of history.
Ms.B:
“one has to block out the delay or else confusion sets in and one loses one’s place in the song”
In her case I guess the delay was from brain to mouth.:=)
I happen to love our National Anthem. I used to sing it a lot more than I do now….everyday in school in fact. It is difficult to reach those high notes but despite my inability to sing, I probably sing a lot better since I learned it and sang it everyday in school….
that said, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Anthem_Project
too bad it too has been hijacked to the ‘higher purposes’ of the corporatebusiness barons…
Ms Aquilere f*cked it up, plain and simple…she got lots of deserved boos.
She is supposed to be a professional who comes prepared….
Andy,
See how correct you were?
The mere mention of Woody Guthrie makes them foam at the mouth.
Seems like his guitar’s famous inscription of “This machine kills fascists” is still working just fine.
Andy:
how about you spreading your workers paradise crap somewhere else.
Like most everything else from Pittsburgh yesterday (Aguilera grew up in Pittsburgh), it was a little off key. Oh, well, there’s always next year.
CHARICE sang it perfectly on a Dodgers game when she was only 15 and the stadium noise did not bother her. Watch it on Youtube and you will be amazed. While you are at it watch her also sing the “God Bless America” during the Obama inauguration party.
How about “This Land is your Land.” It would be fun to watch the right go crazy when they noted the writer’s politics.
Mojo,
Marvin Gaye could have sang the back of a cereal box and made it awesome.
“America the Beautiful” would be a great National Anthem, but its not. Instead we have a song about a battle that we won.
But, I happen to love it. I prefer the straight forward rendition instead of Christines’. She made the song more about her singing abilities than the song. Shame on her. I hope sometime the Super Bowl organizers can choose a good singer who loves the song. As it is we get more ‘look at me’ than anthem.
I had forgotten that there are so many additional verses. Marvin Gaye made the song his own, and it was a beautiful variation, but unless you can do it like Marvin did then you should stick to the basic song. This song wasn’t butchered because she left a line out, it was pretty much butchered all the way through …
I’m grateful for this country, and grateful that she didn’t continue into the extended verses.
There really is no excuse for a professional of her caliber to error so badly in so many places. I will say that it is difficult to sing live in a stadium as the amplified sound comes back to one’s ear delayed … one has to block out the delay or else confusion sets in and one loses one’s place in the song often forgetting a line or repeating a line. The ticket is practice, practice, practice.
It is only a song and people are human. I forget some of the words myself. Of course, I don’t know any verse but the first one. I agree that America the Beautiful is the best “national” song anyways!
I believe Ray Charles devoted the last several years of his life to making “America the Beautiful” the national anthem. It’s simple, sincere, and easy to sing, even for those without operatic training.