# Do you think Keith Lockhart hates Stars and Stripes Forever by now? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 7, 2007, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064 "2007-06-07T00:27:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064/21 "2007-06-08T13:07:41Z")
[QUOTE=Hampshire] I think a lot of big artists who perform a lot of their old stuff over and over and over (Elton John, Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney) get really bored when performing some of their songs for the umpteenth time. [/QUOTE] One coping mechanism is to hold the microphone out toward the audience and ask them to sing along - as if that’s what they’d paid for. Another is to patronize them with a cheesy medley, just a few bars from each hit song, to get them out of the way. Even worse, for a high-school bando, is “Pomp and Circumstance” at commencement. For the low brass, it’s just “Bom…bom…bom…” until every grad has crossed the stage. There were 700 people in my class, and the band underclassmen had to keep it going for what seemed like 2 hours. I thought they were about to cry 'round about the W’s. **Cal** , SASF is \*always \* the Pops encore. AFAIK, Sousa wrote the lyrics himself. NFI about Bugs and Groucho. Anybody else see the clip of the Virginia orchestra playing it at Jamestown? Bush actually went up on stage and grabbed the baton from the conductor. ---
**Author:** ![BaneSidhe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c5a1d2/32.png) [@BaneSidhe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BaneSidhe)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064/22 "2007-06-08T13:12:57Z")
[QUOTE=MaxTheVool] Whistle, heck, I can play the piccolo solo on the bassoon. Although, technically, not in the original register. [/QUOTE] Now THAT I wanna hear! ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064/23 "2007-06-08T13:23:19Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves] One coping mechanism is to hold the microphone out toward the audience and ask them to sing along - as if that’s what they’d paid for. [/QUOTE] Joaquín Sabina remark after getting the audience to sing half of one of his classics “and it’s \*you guys \* who are paying _me?_” In Spain singing along with the band is part of the fun of any “not-classical-music” concert, so yes, in a way it’s what we pay for. I was in a Spandau Ballet concert a long, long time ago and after a bathroom break, the singer came back on stage to several thousand people trying to out-OEO each other (half the audience would sing OEEEEEEE-O!; then the other half, then the first half). He signaled “hey I’m back” and said “oweo?”, we all went “OEEEEEEE-O!”, he tried it again, got it right, we applauded. He turned to his bandmates and said something along the lines of “we thought they were coming to our concert and it turns out it’s their concert instead.” Of course it is, the concert belongs to the audience. OEEEEEEE-O! ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064/24 "2007-06-08T13:43:12Z")
> [@](#): > > Cal, SASF is always the Pops encore. AFAIK, Sousa wrote the lyrics himself. NFI about Bugs and Groucho. No freakin’ way did Sousa write lyrics that went “Be kind to your web-footed friends…” He certainly wouldn’t have ended the lyrics abruptly before the coda. So who did write those lyrics? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064/25 "2007-06-08T14:12:24Z")
:shrug: Okay, don’t listen, see if I care. Maybe you’d believe [Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stars_and_stripes_forever)? > [@](#): > > Sousa wrote lyrics to the piece, but they are not widely known; the chorus begins with “Hurrah for the flag of the free; may it wave as our banner forever…” That’s what the chorus sings when they’re at the Pops. [The full story, unconstrained by Wki’s fastidiousness about copyrights, even if it weren’t in the public domain now](http://www.dws.org/sousa/content/view/6/). Everybody, sing! Oh, yeah, that same site says Fred Allen wrote the duck lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064/26 "2007-06-08T14:29:20Z")
> [@](#): > > :shrug: Okay, don’t listen, see if I care. Maybe you’d believe Wiki? **ElvisL1ves** – from the cite you yourself give: > [@](#): > > Be Kind To Your Web-Footed Friends (attributed to Fred Allen) So – not Sousa. But answered. ---
**Author:** ![AmericanMaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@AmericanMaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AmericanMaid)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064/27 "2007-06-08T14:32:57Z")
[QUOTE=MissTake] May I say, as a piccolo player who toured Norway for a few weeks as a teenager with my High School Band, after the second time playing _Stars and Stripes Forever_ one begins to wish for death. Or a sore throat. Or a canker sore. I played that song at LEAST 100x’s in a month what with rehearsal and multiple concerts in one day. I still cringe when I hear it. And I snark out the piccolo solo. _Doo dee DO dee DO dee doodle deedle doo DOO_ [/QUOTE] As a former marching band member, I feel your pain! What is even worse is listening to piccolo auditions. I played euphonium and my whole section hated “Stars and Bars”. ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2007, 10:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064/28 "2007-06-09T10:54:29Z")
[QUOTE=ElvisL1ves] Even worse, for a high-school bando, is “Pomp and Circumstance” at commencement. [/QUOTE] Ahhh yes…I have a date with Pomp and Circumstance this coming Friday. _Valse Triste_ by **Sibelius** was what our conductor used it as the “hands-on” piece for his conducting class when I was in college. We’d give up one rehearsal every semester, they’d go up there, wave their arms around, we’d play just like we had every other time, they’d stop, we’d applaud, etc. Two semesters X 20 student classes X 4 years of college, by the 100th time you’ve played it, people are playing different instruments, sitting in different sections, trying to play it all on one string, etc. Anything to try to stay entertained. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-keith-lockhart-hates-stars-and-stripes-forever-by-now/407064.md?page=1)