Kind of like:
“O beautiful, for heroes proved in liberating strife
who more than self, their country loved”
One problem with The Star-Spangled Banner is it’s usually performed in a key that’s too high. It should be B flat or lower. The basses and altos can carry the low notes at the beginning, then more people can sing the high notes in the middle and the end. And it should be sung by everyone. If there’s a soloist, he/she should sing it straight, leading the crowd.
And the only verse of the SSB that’s almost always sung is really a question, not a declaration: is the flag still there? That’s coincidental, really, but it has meaning, and I think it’s unique.
If we did switch, I’m for America the Beautiful.
Me, too.
So would you agree with this?
A good carpenter never blames his tools for a poor job.
This reminds me of the East German anthem from Top Secret!, which I often sing a totally incorrect version of:
Hail, Hail East Germany
Land of wine and bread
If the barbed wire on the Wall doesn’t kill you
The armed guards probably will
FriarTed
That’s why I qualified my remarks with ‘you must be familiar…etc’.
Still, I thought the uninitiated should be informed of the precise drinking song and its author. It was a story that had to be told. 
Ah, what sweet memories that brings back of my junior year abroad at the University of Blaupunkt.
No way. It’s an awkward song to sing, but the closing kicks, and people love it.
No other song suggested to replace “The Star Spangled Banner” can touch it.
“the land of the free. and the home of the brave”
Since so many folks have referenced the East German National Anthem from the movie Top Secret - here are the lyrics:
Hail, hail East Germany
Land of fruit and grape
Land where you’ll regret
If you try to escape
No matter if you tunnel under or take a running jump at the wall
Forget it, the guards will kill you, if the electrified fence doesn’t first.
Mods please delete this post if you think that quoting the “entire” anthem (yes all 6 lines) is a copyright infringement.
rowrrbazzle—que?
Looking at your location, I feel like enough of a smartass to point out that the closest such war to where you’re standing was the Texan War of Independence. Not quite related to the National Anthem, but you do make a good point.
I just want to point out that, if we switch to Bohemian Rhapsody, C-Span will become far more entertaining when we get to watch Congress headbang.
Pansies. “America the Beautiful?” “God Bless America?” Truly, it is to vomit.
Oh, merciful heavens, the national anthem is too hard to sing! It’s* toooo haaarrrd!!!* Why do we have to sing such a hard song? Couldn’t we have an easier national anthem? A song that doesn’t challenge anyone’s skills, that’s friendly and twinkly and fluffy and has only nice things to say about how pretty our country is and how much God loves us? By all means, let’s have a national anthem that’s just as warm and fuzzy as a Hallmark card! Then we can make the stanzas into bumper stickers to show how patriotic we all are!
That’s just sad. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is the best national anthem ever, and I’ll tell you why.
First: *it was originally a drinking song. * This has been mentioned before, but bears emphasis, because evidently some people do not realize its significance. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is set to music that was intended to be sung while drunk. ‘Oh, it’s sooo difficult to sing properly…’ Bullshit! It’s a drinking song; it’s supposed to be fun to sing, not an ordeal! Unreasonably difficult tunes do not become popular drinking songs in the first place. If you can’t make it sound good, then maybe you aren’t drunk enough yet.
Second: It has rockets in it. Do any of these other songs mention rockets? What the hell is the matter with you, that you can’t see how important rockets are to a national anthem? This point can not be overstated.
Third: *It’s weird. * Maybe most of us are too familiar with the song to appreciate just how awesomely weird it really is, but think about it for a second. If most people were going to sit down and write a national anthem, what would they include? Well, they’d probably write a bunch of nice things about how utterly wonderful their country is, and they wouldn’t be very subtle about it. America, the Beautiful! God Bless America! Columbia, Gem of the Ocean! Hail Columbia, happy land!
“The Star-Spangled Banner” doesn’t do that. This song doesn’t start out with boasts and self-congratulation, it asks fearful questions. Oh say, can you see? Does that banner still wave? We don’t know. Right now it’s dark; there are bombs and rockets exploding. Will the star-spangled banner still be flying come morning? There’s no righteous certitude, no bold assurance of triumph; counterintuitively, this national anthem is rife with tension and anxiety about the future.
Sure, the song goes on to tell how the loathsome British are driven back in the end; but nobody cares about that part, and rightly so. It’s the first stanza that’s the keeper-- the part that asks you to preserve hope even in the face of uncertainty and peril.
Admittedly, the song probably does contribute to American exhibitions of unseemly flag-worship, even to the point of trying to protect the thing with constitutional amendments and other such nonsense, which we could certainly do without. However, even with that in mind, none of those other songs-- smug, pious, self-aggrandizing and saccharine–can hold a candle to it.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” is simply and completely the greatest, darkest, rousingest, drinkingest, rampart-watchingest, rocket-glaringest, baseball-game-startingest national anthem of any country ever.
But if we have to switch anyway, I vote for “Roll with the Changes” by REO Speedwagon.
If it were to be changed, I would vote for “America! Fuck Yeah!” from Team America: World Police/ (This is a lie; I would go for “America the Beautiful,” with the stipulation that the other three verses be sung as well. “Confirm thy soul in self-control, thy liberty in law” kicks ass, as does “who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life.” “Undimmed by human tears” makes me cry, too.)
BUT THE POINT IS: “America! Fuck Yeah!” would be a fantastic anthem if only for the Olympics medal ceremony if ones of ours wins. “It’s the dream that we all share, it’s the hope for tomorrow! FUCK YEAH!”
New Mexico is the land of the flea and home of the plague.
I am in favor of keeping The Star Spangled Banner. If it’s too hard to sing, get a better singer.
If we had to change, I would vote for America the Beautiful. Powerful lyrics in the latter verses.
That’s nice of him, but he stole the tune anyway. Wiki says:
This is backed up by anyone who’s ever sung or heard the song, which is published in various hymnbooks (my dad used to collect them). I don’t know from the Carter Family, but “When the World’s On Fire” is a stompin’ good old gospel tune, and it’s fun to sing. Unfortunately, whenever you sing it, someone says, “Hey! That’s the tune from This Land!” and you’re forced to defend its honor. Harumph.
And so I’m not posting a complete hijack, I like the Star Spangled Banner and want to keep it. I do wish people would just sing it, and not futz with it. It’s a lovely song, and it takes a semblance of talent to sing. Must you add vocal curlicues and wavers and crap? Just sing the bloody thing! Some of us like to sing along, and when you add all that garbage, you make it nigh unto impossible.
My absolute favorite (quasi-)patriotic song would never be allowed as a national anthem because it’s all about God: The Battle Hymn of the Republic. Preferably all six verses. There are a few snippets of music that always make me bawl, and the verse that starts “In the beauty of the lilies” is one of those. sniff And doesn’t the chorus just make you want to march in step, preferably right over the enemy? I love that song.