# Interpret "Star-Spangled Banner" as a pro-drug anthem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interpret-star-spangled-banner-as-a-pro-drug-anthem/443458>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 31, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interpret-star-spangled-banner-as-a-pro-drug-anthem/443458 "2008-03-31T22:21:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interpret-star-spangled-banner-as-a-pro-drug-anthem/443458/1 "2008-03-31T22:21:35Z")

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Over in [Snopes](http://snopes.com/music/songs/puff.asp), I was reading about the old chestnut that Peter, Paul & Mary’s “Puff the Magic Dragon” is a veiled attack on marijuana. Peter Yarrow insists it is not (and I’ll take his word for it), but there is mention that Yarrow demonstrated how drug references can be read into any song, including the _Star-Spangled Banner_. Snopes just doesn’t mention _how_ the national anthem can be interpreted that way. For the life of me, I can’t see it. Can somebody explain to me what Yarrow was talking about?

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**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interpret-star-spangled-banner-as-a-pro-drug-anthem/443458/2 "2008-03-31T22:30:25Z")

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Maybe it’s about a drug trip- where we see “broad stripes and bright stars” and “the rocket’s red glare, the bombs bursting in air.” And take a look at the lesser-known second verse.

> [@Francis Scott Key](#):
>
> 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!

“The mists of the deep?” “The gleam of the morning’s first beam?” Sounds like somebody’s trippin, man!

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**Author:** ![Darth\_Sensitive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/58956e/32.png) [@Darth\_Sensitive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Sensitive)\
**Post date:** [March 31, 2008, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/interpret-star-spangled-banner-as-a-pro-drug-anthem/443458/3 "2008-03-31T22:33:30Z")

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Hendrix covered it man. That’s all you need.