It’s not THAT hard. Difficult for an untrained singer, but any trained vocalist worth his salt should be able to toss it off without too much trouble. It’s only an octave and a fifth. The only thing you need to watch out for is what key you’re doing it in.
What really makes it hard for the average Joe is that the average Joe has a range of about an octave and a fifth, so unless whoever’s playing/singing it does it in just the right key, Joe can’t quite get all the notes.
“You got your peanut butter in my Wankel rotary engine!”
Luckily, when i don’t stand for the anthem, i’m not looking for anyone’s sympathy.
Really? I can recall several efforts to have America the Beautiful replace The Star Spangled Banner, dating back at least to the 1960s, but I have never heard of an effort to use God Blrss America as the anthem.
I have to be honest, I never really understood why people choose to sit as a form of protest. Seems just as pointless as those damn patriotic car magnets.
I have and would stand for any national anthems other than my own at public events.
Playing the national anthem at sporting events never bothered me because I know how excited we used to get as players while the song was performed. To me it was a better hype song than anything else I had on my discman. GBA during the 7th inning stretch annoys me to no end but I am usually in line to take a leak so whatever. I have yet to run across an event where the national anthem was played despite it seeming out of place or inappropriate.
Know what would make a great melody for a national anthem? The Maine Stein Song. A catchy tune that’s easy to sing. Just slow it down and get somebody to write some patriotic lyrics, and voila!
Now that I think of it, you’re right. (So that was the bad taste in mouth when I woke up - my foot, again.)
My apologies.
No apologies needed. After a while, all sentimental music starts running together in one’s mind. 
You know what would make a good alternate Canadian anthem? The Rodeo Song. “Weeeeell it’s forty below and I don’t give a fuck…”
(“God Blrss America,” Tom? I like it!)
I have always loved “America the Beautiful”, although it does have religious references. We’d have to remove the bit about pilgrim feet, though, it’s not the done thing anymore.
I always thought that we’d have a great Canadian national anthem if they put words to the Hockey Night in Canada theme music. 
I thought that was the Canadian National Anthem. 
Let’s just commission Bob Dylan to write a new one. Key’s poetic skills were sub-mediocre and the tune is hard to sing and easy to mangle.
The tune, BTW, was borrowed from a British upper-class drinking song.
Write a new one? We’ve got Rainy Day Women already!
Well, the American anthem is more likely to be heard at a Canadian game than the Canadian anthem at a US game simply because of the fact that there’s 6 Canadian teams and 24 US teams in the NHL.
However, I cannot agree with the played recording at hockey, simply because it’s such a tradition, and cities have their own traditions (noise throughout the anthem in Chicago…well, now that people in Chicago can finally come back to the 'Hawks)…and subjectively, I love hearing Pittsburgh’s anthem singer (Jeff Jimmerson) sing, mostly because he’s not classically trained and it has such a nice sound.
The university band playing the national anthem and alma mater(along with a color guard) at a college football game is another wonderful tradition that I just wouldn’t want to see disappear.
My own reasons for treasuring the national anthem around would probably be considered too maudlin and idealistic to discuss around here, so I’ll just leave it at that.
Damn right. If Woody were a true American, he’d have written
This land is made for Exxon, Microsoft and Haliburton.
It seems to get sung in schools all the time without controversy, so I don’t see why there would be any if it got adopted. Anyhow, Key was a lawyer and we forgive him that.
I’m for staying with the Star Spangled Banner myself.
Oh, and I stand and even sing for the National Anthem. I stand for foreign anthems. I even stay quiet for prayers and such, but I don’t bow my head.
Isaac Asimov memorized all the verses specifically to out-patriot anyone calling him a Commie. He sang them all for us at the 1970 MITSFS picnic. He never mentioned ever getting beat up for it, though.
I favor staying with the current national anthem as well.
My point was that however much the song wasn’t controversial anymore (George H.W. Bush would play it at campaign events, which probably had Guthrie spinning in his grave) it would become very much so if it were given any stamp of officialdom.
Let’s just leave it in its place in culture and history, along with other gems like the Battle Hymn of the Republic that cannot really be listened to properly without an understanding of whole story behind the piece.
that’s not that god damn song from the Chevrolet commercials, is it? If so, I can assure you that no sports fan ever wants to hear that thing again, since it’s played in damn near every commercial break. Ten years from now, the only things I’ll remember from this baseball season is that this is our country and there’s only one October.
Speaking of baseball, I remember hearing O Canada several times when the Expos came to town (it’s pretty much moot in the National League now, though) and I think they usually replaced the California flag with the Canadian for the series.
An aside- worst Anthem moment ever was when we went to see an A’s game a few years ago. We were half-asleep after a long BART ride and lethargically dragged our asses out of our chairs as the PA guy said, “And now, performing the national anthem… Huey Lewis and the News!” We got all excited, because even though they’re from around here, they don’t usually come perform the anthem at the ballpark. And they didn’t. They played a goddamn recording of the anthem- the one time in seventeen years of baseball I’ve ever seen that happen.