Sing our National Anthem the right way!

Cafe Society
101

Were you aware that “This Land Is Your Land” is actually a protest song written by Woody Guthrie in response to “God Bless America,” which Guthrie considered “unrealistic and complacent”? The full lyrics paint a picture of an America that is anything but “made for you and me” and refer to it as being for some but not for all.

I can’t repost the lyrics in their entirety due to copyright considerations, but here’s a link to them. Pay extra attention to the final two verses.

However, if you’re whooshing us, please carry on. :wink:

102

It’s a banal tune, and lines like “Thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears” are foolish.

103

Yes, well aware of that. But those last two verses are rarely sung, and it is questionable if they were intended as part of the original lyrics.

See Wikipedia:
This Land Is Your Land: Original 1944 Lyrics

Also, I don’t see why a patriotic song should be limited to listing good things about the country, instead of also saying that some things could be better.

104

OTOH, “O Canada” is a nice little tune, although the lyrics are just plain silly:

O Canada!
Land of Guy Lapointe
Like Buffalo
Without as many plants
The Quebecois and Eskimo
Your people are so queer
Where freezing rain and driving snow
Fall to the ground all year
Please say, “hello”
To Santa Claus
O Canada, you have Labatts!
O Canada, you have Labatts!

105

My God! She is seven and can sing like that?

106

Is that for real? Those last two seem like they were added as a joke.

107

Let me conclude by saying that the Mexican national anthem sounds like circus music.

Now I’ve offended pretty much everyone in North America.

108

Here’s a little anecdote.

I attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. We had large and small composition classes. Our professor, Tom McGah, started a discussion on The Star Spangled Banner and how it’s one of the WORST compositions ever written. I could not agree more with this.

You start too low, can’t hit the lows. Start too high, you’ll need sign language for the rest.

<<RECORD SCRATCH >>

Over 40% of our classmates were from all over. Asia, Europe, Africa, etc. ALL-- I repeat-- ALL of the non-American students were flabbergasted at us Americans for saying this.

Most of their home countries the National Anthem must be sung in one key only, one tempo only, and sometimes only by a male or female. Mess up the words in some countries, jail could be involved. (!!!)

Evidently, to many people, the permission for Jimi Hendrix to play a six minute version on distorted guitar of the SSB, or orchestras to play it instrumentally, a horn section from the military, is a huge, huge privilege we shouldn’t take for granted.

But for me, still an awful, awful song.