No it’s not. The Nationalist Anthem is a lame old drinking tune with bombastic lyrics. I try to be in the bathroom taking a leak when it plays. The only version I’ve ever liked is Marvin Gaye’s.
That’s how I feel about “Take Me Out to the Ball Game.”
Hey, if it were my choice it would be America the Beautiful which in its later verses says something so great it makes my heart ache - “America, America - God mend thine every flaw - confirm thy soul with self control, thy liberty in law!” Now I’m an agnostic but I think that is what your national anthem ought to be espousing.
When I saw the snickers commercial with Barr I thought of her singing the National Anthem and smiled. fantasy fulfilled.
The Best! He also answers the question about the cheers for the rockets red glare–they “gave proof through the night that our flag was still…THERE!”
And it chokes me up every time.
Heck, that’s how I feel about the Air Force Song. Sadly, they only teach the chorus and the first verse, just leaving the other two verses off. Then they turned around and came up with this “Airman’s Creed” stuff that we have to recite before singing the song… even though it basically rehashes everything that they cut out of the full song.:smack:
To the guy who makes sure he’s in the bathroom during the National Anthem: Please tell me you at least stand up when you hear the song. 
To this day she claims she was not being intentionally disrespcctful and that’s her real voice. One day she may even say that and have it believed.
Not long after that she came out with some malarkey about recovered memories of being sexually abused by her parents when she was a baby (she literally claimed she remembered being sexually molested in her crib when she was a few months old). It was a fairly obvious ploy for sympathy.
Isaac Asimov wrote an essay in praise of the all-four-verses version of the national anthem. (IIRC it appeared in his regular science column in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction.) It’s been reproduced on numerous websites.
In SACRED Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster, senses 2b and 5b (although not in everyone’s opinion, obviously)
But that makes it provocative. We should always be asking if the country is at least trying to live up to its ideals.
[post=9750574]a previous SSB complaint thread[/post].
Well played.
I do have my moments.
So, funny thing, on military installations, they have this phenomenon we call “Music”, basically, loudspeakers around the base blast out various tunes depending on the time of day. It varies from base to base, but the gist is at about 7AM, we get to hear that most cherished and loved piece of military folk music: Reveille. Around 5PM, we hear “Retreat” (announcing the official end of the duty day; incidentally, these two songs also mark when the flag goes up and down for the day), and at 10PM we have Taps (turn out the lights, or at least turn down the music so your neighbors can sleep.)
I was going to make some snark about being so unpatriotic as to dodge the national anthem of our great nation, but then I thought about what I see people do on base at 6:57AM, 4:57PM, and 9:57PM. You’ve never seen so many people in a hurry to get indoors in your life, because of course, for each of these tunes, we’re required to come to attention or parade rest (depending on the song) and salute (depending on the song and our uniform). Also, in tech school, Taps also marks curfew, another good reason to hoof it.
That said, you don’t see a bunch of guys with crewcuts making a bee line for the restroom before every baseball game either. 
From the view of the commenter, no. But the commenter is being rather whiny. They’re complaining that he doesn’t have perfect pitch (an ability few singers have), and that he transposed it to fit his voice (which most singers do).
And it that’s a little too technical, I can go simpler: “He’s a crappy singer; he sang it in the wrong key!”
What’s really funny is that there are legitimate criticisms that can be made, particularly about his tone and vowel quality. I personally expected better from someone who used to be an opera singer. I almost suspect it was on purpose–to make him sound more like an everyman.
So far, I still prefer my “conservative melisma” woman. It’s pretty much exactly how I wish Christina had sung it. She gets her little flourishes in, but it’s tasteful.
Two things: the National Anthem is not a pop song, and most pop singers don’t sing with that much added melisma. Heck, they wouldn’t have time for it, since they are always backed by accompaniment. And many couldn’t do it if they wanted to, as it’s not something you can do if you rely on Auto-Tune to tune yourself (and not just to cover flubs).
BTW, I hate that we call it melisma, as melisma has a legitimate usage. Heck, there’s written melisma on the first not of the anthem. All melisma is is singing more than one note on the same syllable.
I have the routine down. I usually arrive back at my seat at the exact moment the home team takes the field. Oh, and I’m good until the seventh inning stretch and “God Bless America” …
My choice would be “This Land Is Your Land” - easy tune to sing, and uplifting lyrics.
I am most decidedly NOT a fan of Christina Aguilera, and her preferred style of vocalizing (I hesitate to call it singing) is about as appealing to me as fingernails on a blackboard. I will, however, come to her defense on flubbing the lines. If you’re a singer, even a professionally trained singer, this ***will ***happen from time to time, even with songs that you’ve known for years. She screwed up the line, but she went on. I give her a thumbs up for that.
Le Ministre is correct on this. Gilbert was notoriously hostile towards any “unauthorized” line alterations or ad-libbed business on the part of his cast members. Even he, however, understood that topical humor was a tenuous thing – that a joke past its prime was dead weight. Likewise parochial humor when transplanted. Thus the tradition of “updating” or “localizing” songs and dialogue was born.
One of my favorite examples being for stage performances of “Cabaret” since the movie came out often making a point when introducing Sally making a point of saying “And she’s ENGLISH!” as one of her selling points. She was always English in the stage production, but in the movie, they made her American because they cast Liza Minnelli in the role. Not important either way for the story, but still amusing.
(I’ve heard rumours this lady came back the next night or some time shortly after just to prove she actually COULD sing the anthem.)
Mostly, it means “I want to prove how musical I am, but actually I’m a moron.”
It doesn’t actually make sense. “He sang it in F! He should have sung it in F! Except he transposed it! To F!”