Touching Patriotism

Cafe Society
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[QUOTE=Jess]
I’m almost sloppily patriotic and I like some of Toby Keith’s songs (although not The Angry American, which I don’t dislike for the sentiments but because it’s just dumb). I like most of the ones mentioned here, especially some of the lesser heard ones such as Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean, and This is My Country, both of which I love.

When I was in the 2nd grade (circa 1968), our class opened the day with the Pledge of Allegiance and a song from a mimeographed pamplet our teacher (Mrs. Cunningham) had made. The pamplet had a bunch of patriotic songs – Columbia…, and …My Country among them). Each day a different kid got to choose the song. When it was my turn, I always chose This Land is Your Land. So I’ll give a shout out to that one – still a favorite of favorites.
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I always liked Dave Barry’s riff on that one:
“This land is your land
This land is my land
Looks like one of us
Has a forged deed to this land…”

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I heard Billy Joel’s, Goodnight Saigon for the first time in about 10 ten years yesterday. That’s another good one, kinda got me.

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[QUOTE=tiny ham]
I was just coming in here to say the exact same thing. It just reminds me of cities and gleaming skylines and the roaring twenties and all that. It puts me in an “american” mood.
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I’m a Brit and ‘Rhapsody’ says “America” to me.

As for patriotism, I think we’re just as patriotic over here, just quieter about it (Still embarrassed about the empire probably) :rolleyes:

Personally, my favourite expressions of the feeling are Maggie Holland’s ‘A Place Called England’:

"For England is not flag or Empire. It is not money and it is not blood.
It’s limestone gorge and granite fell. It’s Wealden clay and Severn mud.
It’s blackbird singing from the may-tree, lark ascending through the scales.
It’s robin watching from your spade and English earth beneath your nails.

And** ‘Coranach’** By Ian Anderson. This should be the national anthem:

“Sweet the rose, sharp the thorn,
Meek the soil, proud the corn.
Blessed the lamb that would be born
Within this green and pleasant land…”

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I find myself agreeing with the vast majority of choices put forth. But I’d like to add that the occasion can also add to the experience. Remember when Reagan died and his state funeral was televised? Being a federal employee in the Washington D.C. metro area, I had the day off and I watched the televised service for several hours. I was in tears hearing such hymns as Amazing Grace, Battle Hymn of the Republic, etc., being sung by Ronan Tynan, the Washington Cathedral choir, and so on. I’m wondering if there is a DVD available that contains these performances?

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Another vote for Battle Hymn of the Republic. The Star Spangled Banner can get me too, but only if it’s sung simply- the overdone versions at the beginnings of sports games that are more about the singer showing off than making the song sound decent drive me up the wall. I hate all the obnoxious extras that singers throw in. I understand it’s difficult, but that song sounds better if it’s done simply.

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As a Canadian, I’d have to say that there a lot of Stompin’ Tom Connors’ stuff that reminds me where I come from and is just plain fun besides. “The Hockey Song” is a natural, as is “Bud the Spud” and “Sudbury Saturday Night.” And let’s not forget “The Ketchup Song” or “Tillsonburg (My Back Still Aches When I Hear That Word”).

But Tom also gives a nod to the people of Canada who work for a living, and so “The Bridge Came Tumbling Down” is doubly good: it salutes the guys who work, and it salutes the “we’re gonna finish this job, no matter what it takes” attitude of Canadians.

In a more serious vein, the group Tanglefoot has done a remarkable job with their song, “Vimy.” I have yet to meet a Canadian who knows his or her history who cannot make it through hearing this song without a tear–indeed, I was supposed to sing it with some friends (four-part male harmony) once, and we decided to take it off the program because we simply could not get through it in rehearsal.

The chorus of “Vimy” is deceptively simple until you understand it: “You’ll die in Kenora, Billy; you, Jim, in Winnipeg; and I will end my days in Montreal.” And only later do you realize that these singing boys have given Canadian place names to shell craters in the European battlefields of WWI. They ain’t coming home. But they’ll rest for eternity in craters named for their hometowns. Phew–strong stuff.

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Sousa often gets to me: Semper Fidelis, The Washington Post March, and El Capitan especially. I like The Stars and Stripes Forever well enough, but just consider it far too overplayed (I know, I know, it’s the National March).

These also often bring a lump to my throat and a tear to my eye:
The Star-Spangled Banner
Lincoln and Liberty (an 1860 campaign song - very stirring)
The Opinions of Paddy Magee (a song about an Irish soldier during the American Civil War, talking about all he was grateful for in his adopted country)

…and just about anything on the soundtrack to Glory. Very good stuff.

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Not music so much, although I do like a good, rousing, Oh Canada, but what gets me going is defending the place. I might bitch, moan and whine about the place, but let anyone else do it…wham!

Oddly enough, what really gets me musically isn’t Canadian at all. It’s the Marseille (sp?) scene from Casablanca. I think it’s because the French were our allies and I kind of transfer the song into standing for all the Allied forces in WW2.

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[QUOTE=zoogirl]
Oddly enough, what really gets me musically isn’t Canadian at all. It’s the Marseille (sp?) scene from Casablanca. I think it’s because the French were our allies and I kind of transfer the song into standing for all the Allied forces in WW2.
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Oh yeah, that’s a great scene – probably my favorite in that movie. If you want to see another great filmic version of La Marselleise (sp?) look for the old silent movie “Napoleon” – there’s a great scene showing the beginning of the French Revolution where the masses are introduced to the song. Very affecting.

Add me to the chorus of people in praise of “America the Beautiful” – I would sign a petition making it the national anthem. As for our real national anthem: growing up on Army bases, every time we went to the movies at the post theater, before the movie started they would play an orchestral version of the anthem, accompanied by various patriotic clips (raising the flag at Iwo Jima, etc.). Everyone would stand and salute the flag – a very patriotic moment.

Probably the most patriotic movie I’ve seen is “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” – the scene where Jimmy Stewart is standing at the Lincoln Memorial and various people are reading from the Gettysburg Address – great stuff.

How about the last page of “The Great Gatsby,” the part about the “fresh green breast of the new world” before Dutch sailors’ eyes:

for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent…face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder.

That always kind of rattles my thinking about my country.

I had a rather odd surge of patriotism recently, from a pretty unlikely source. I was reading a British crime book, and it was very clearly a modern spin on old 30s and 40s American hardboiled detective novels (by the likes of Raymond Chandler, James Cain, Dashiell Hammett, etc.). For some dumb reason it made me feel all patriotic – the idea of an aspect of my country’s culture being read and admired and imitated abroad. Maybe that doesn’t make sense, considering the ubiquity of American culture, but…well, I dunno, I guess I can’t really rationalize it. :slight_smile:

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[QUOTE=Rodgers01]
Add me to the chorus of people in praise of “America the Beautiful” – I would sign a petition making it the national anthem.
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I would, too. But it’ll never happen because it has that pesky word “God” in it. Many would consider it a retreat from separation of church and state and one step short of theocracy.