I think we should keep it. I like it, plus Frederick, MD, where I’m from, wouldn’t have anything else to lay claim too! we have FSK buried here and EVERYTHING is named Key. Ok so once we where an answer in Final Jepordy but thats it! 
Hehe…that’s a reference to Ren and Stimpy, not an ACTUAL cite.
On to the topic at hand, I’m DEFINETLY a fan of the anthem, so I say keep it.
No.
Catchy? Pretty? Easy to sing? Fergit it! It’s an anthem, for gosh’s sake, not a pop song!
Could you imagine Lance Armstrong on top of the podium at Sydney, gold medal around his neck, standing all proud and tall and American, and the first notes of This Land is Your Land ring out? Yecch!
Flymaster said:
I’m glad to hear that–the idea of a real entity called the “Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen” might make my head explode.
(I’m middle aged and I don’t watch that much television–references to stuff like Ren And Stimpyare gonna go right over my head.)
Green Bean said:
It could be worse, though–oldscratch suggested The Internationalle. All the Russians in the audience would stand…
Oh, come on, Edward The Head - wasn’t Frederick an important Civil War battleground? You’ve got to move with the times man, and capitalize on a newer war! That 1812 War is like so yesterday. Give someone else’s hometown a chance!
Now Sousa - he was born in Washington, D.C. - our Nation’s Capitol. And he wasn’t some pantywaist cowering in a boat writing “poetry” in the middle of a battle, either. He went into the Marines at age 13! How’s that for manly? (Okay, maybe his fondness for white kid gloves was a bit of a giveaway, but he had a really big baton!)
Just listen to S&S Forever and tell me that doesn’t make your heart beat faster. And it’s much sexier than any of the others - isn’t that what we want in a national theme song?
Hell, I’m not even American and I love your anthem.
It’s upbeat. It’s majestic. You can hum along with it. It tells a tale of triumph over adversary. What more do you want? I say keep it.
Hard to sing or not, no song brings to mind “The USA” and stirs those patriotic emotions quite as well as a hastily written poem set to an old drinking song :-).
No sarcasm intended, by the way. I’m dead serious. Whenever I heard “The Star Spangled Banner” I immediately get all caught up in the moment.
Which brings me to a hijack. Whats up with people not putting their hands over their hearts, or not taking their hats off, or worse, not standing up when the anthem is played? It’s not like it’s that difficult to do. And it’s simple patriotism.
MilTan
Don’t you mean:
“The land of the free and the home of the brave?”
MilTan
Let’s change it to “American Pie” by Don McLean.
As an American, I’d like to have a national anthem that I’m capable of singing. I can’t handle the “rockets red glare” part without putting my nuts in a vise.
::pats self on back:: My karaoke version of McLean’s song is awesome.
Yeah, but when it is sung by someone who actually can sing it, it is pretty dern impressive.
When I was in Seoul, I would go out on Saturday nights to Itaewon, a bar district near the US army garrison at Yongsan. At one bar, the East/West Club, at midnight, the DJ would play the Star-Spangled Banner and Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless The USA”. Listening to my national anthem in a Korean bar full of American soldiers gave me a genuinely patriotic feeling.
If anyone is looking to replace our national anthem, may I suggest Parliament’s “One Nation Under A Groove”.
I say keep it. So what if it’s hard to sing, it glorious.
And definitely don’t go with Guthrie. I love This Land Is Your Land but it was sarcasm when Guthrie sang it. Having you heard the most recent release of an old version Gutrie recorded? Wow, bitter, biting sarcasm criticising the government and the people of america for abusing their land and questioning whether they can really call it theirs. Not where I want to go with a national anthem.
I would be ok with America as the anthem, and I nominate the Ray Charles version as a standard.
That’s exactly why I recommend it! I think it’s a good reminder for people that liberty and justice are a constant struggle, and that the fight for freedom didn’t end in 1776. I think that in fact the true patriot is the one who cares enough about her country that she is willing to keep alive the combat for the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Green Bean: I think “This Land is Your Land” would sound very well when someone is standing on the podium at the Olympics. If you think it’s not “majestic” enough, you can have it interpreted by the New York Philharmonic and play it at full blast.
I used to really like the National Anthem, before I saw The Naked Gun. The seen where Leslie Nielson is butchering it(and yes the fact that he is Canadian makes it even worse) just jumps into my mind everytime I hear the first few notes.
VileOrb wrote:
So that was why I learned these “alternate” lyrics up at summer camp:
“This land is my land,
It isn’t your land;
I’ve got a shotgun,
And you don’t got one –
If you don’t get off,
I’ll blow your head off!
This land is private property.”
You mean “My Country 'Tis of Thee”? THAT “America”? The one we ripped off from “God Save the King”?! Bleah. Not even Ray Charles could make that song un-British.
I think you answered your own question.
There’s also the issue that standing, taking off your hat, and putting your hand over your heart during The Star-Spangled Banner is not an “ancient tradition.” The Star-Spangled Banner wasn’t even our national anthem until the 1930s.
If I had to guess, I’d say that the “tradition” of putting your hand/hat over your heart during The Star-Spangled Banner got started during the McCarthy Era, along with such “time-honored” traditions as putting “in God we trust” on paper money and adding “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance.
Change the anthem? Are you kidding? I’m sorry, but the Star Spangled banner, more than any other song, captures the things that make the United States different from all other countries.
It’s a bad poem.
About war.
Written by a lawyer.
To the tune of a drinking song.
Stolen from our enemies.
Which we can’t even sing.
The only thing that would make the SSB more emblematic of the United States is if you could fit a committee meeting in there somewhere.
I say keep it.
God Damn Manny. I can’t argue with logic like that, I don’t think anyone can.
Although I still like the idea of a national anthem that makes referenceto cannibalism.