I’m not really much of a raging political pacifist or anything, but the main reason I don’t like the U.S. anthem is because rather than talk about how great and unified our country is, it’s a tribute to how great we are at blowing things up and killing British people. Bombs! Rockets! Ramparts!
And of course, as we all expected, I must vote for:
Germany.
[ol][li]La Marseillaise- Stirring song.[/li][li]Oh Canada- The best sing-along national anthem.[/ol][/li]
The Star Spangled Banner is undone by its unwieldy melody. Becuase of the song’s range, you can’t find a key that will allow everyone to sing along. I like the lyrics, though.
As a national anthem, America the Beautiful would be a much better choice. Or maybe God Bless America.
They’re technically not a national anthems, but if you’ve had the privilege to be at a rugby international at Murrayfield and heard The Flower of Scotland or at Cardiff Arms Park and heard “Land of my Fathers” then you’ll know what they mean when they talk about the hair on the back of your neck standing up.
At the other end of the scale, I might point out that Advance Australia Fair goes very well to the tune of Gilligan’s Island. 
I’m partial to the Irish national anthem.
Also born of rebellion, although it was written a few years before their war for independence.
A SOLDIERS SONG
We’ll sing a song, a soldiers song,
With cheering rousing chorus
As round our blazing fires we throng
The starry heavens o’er us
Impatient for the coming fight,
And as we wait the morning’s light
Here in the silence of the night
We’ll chant a soldier’s song
Chorus:
Soldiers are we,
Whose lives are pledged to Ireland;
Some have come from a land beyond the wave.
Sworn to be free,
No more our ancient sireland
Shall shelter the despot or the slave.
Tonight we’ll man the gap of danger
in Erin’s cause come woe or weal
‘Mid cannons’ roar and rifles’ peal
We’ll chant a soldiers song
In valley green, on towering crag,
Our fathers fought before us,
And conquered 'neath the same old flag
That’s proudly floating o’er us.
We.re children of a fighting race,
That never yet has known disgrace,
And as we march, the foe to face,
We’ll chant a soldiers song
Chorus
Sons of Gael! men of the Pale!
The long watched day is breaking;
The serried ranks of Inisfail
Shall set the the Tyrant quaking.
Our camp fires now are burning low;
See in the east a silv’ry glow,
Out younder waits the Saxon foe,
So chant a soldier’s song
Chorus X2
“As we stand here and wait
For the ballgame to start
Let’s give thanks for our homes
and our three car garages
and our color tvs…”
Right, ours is hard to sing and hardly anyone knows the words.
I used to think O Canada was dismal until I heard the lead singer from The Cowboy Junkies give a rendition that was absolutely beautiful. IIRC it was for an All-Star game one year. I would love to get a tape or CD of it.
Also kind of partial to Prathet Thai because my kids like to sing it.
Another Vote for old soviet anthem. I used to listen to this one every day in drafting class(there was a computer program with all the anthems). It’s been a while, I am pretty sure that I like the French one but I honestly don’t remember.
jarbabyj, you said:
Though I am of the belief that everyone is entitled to his opinion, I do feel I have to say something in this case.
The parts of the song to which you refer are:
O’er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming!
and
and the rockets’ red glare! The bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there!
In all three cases, there is no evidence that said objects are American deployed. Rather, the purpose of the imagery in the song was that the light of the objects made the flag visible during such a trying time, giving the soldiers-whom, whether you like it or not, sacrificed their lives so you can have such an opinion as quoted above-added courage to continue the fight.
I’m not saying that your opinions are not legitimate; whether or not you love the US nat’l anthemn means nothing to me. But, please, dont’ use the nat’l anthemn as fuel for an anti-war comment.
I’m afraid that I, one of the most “trivia” knowledgable people I know, don’t really understand what the Internationale is.
I was watching “Air Force One” (go president, go president!) with a Swede, and she pricked right up when the prisoners started singing it. I don’t think I’d ever heard it. I’m playing it right now from finding it on a file sharer, and nope, I don’t even know the tune.
What’s the story behind this song?
Don’t the Beatles use the beginning of “La Marseillaise” to start some song?
I don’t know about the best, but I’d like to put a vote in for the Israeli national anthem (“HaTikva”) as the saddest. It’s never played before ball games or festivities, because who can act cheerful after listening to it? think of it this way - wile the French and American atnthems sound like they should be played by trumpets (or electric guitar), and the Russian one should be sung by a forceful, healthy-looking male choir, then the Israeli one should be performed by a single, lonely violin. It’s a powerful effect, if you can take the pathos.
Plus, it’s only two verses.
[2000 yr old man] Cave 76 has the best Nat’l anthem, of course.
“Let 'em all go to Hell, except Cave 76!”
Still brings a tear to my eye [/2KYOM]
Awright, grab a drink and have a seat. This won’t take a moment but it’s nice to be comfy anyway.
The words to the Internationale were written by a man named Eugene Pottier in 1871, as an inspirational poem for the men and women fighting for the Paris Commune of that same year. Essentially the Commune was the first attempt at the modern working class to seize power for itself and it succeeded for 71 days. Plenty of great stuff in there - it’s some 6 or 7 verses long. IIRC, he wrote it in hiding after the Commune had collapsed in May of 1871. The tune came a little later, written by a man named Pierre Degeyter in 1888. It was adopted by the Second International at some point shortly thereafter and became the song of the revolutionary left by the turn of the century.
Originally it was the anthem of the early Soviet Union until that Georgian schmuck decided they needed a new one.
If you enter “Eugene Pottier” into a handy search engine like Google you’ll find plenty of pages devoted to this song and some of his other works as well.
Ease up teppei. Had you taken one second to read the first line of my post I said that I am not a raging political pacifist. My statement was not “anti-war” and your emotional plea for the soldiers who gave their lives for my freedom (as if it’s never occurred to me) doesn’t make the song any better.
I don’t like the lyrics. Whether they’re british rockets or american, I don’t care. I don’t think a national anthem should focus on past violence.
I don’t like the tune. I can not sing this song. Nor can I sing happy birthday. They just don’t fit in my range
I prefer America the Beautiful
Please don’t turn my words around to be anti-american. Danke.
jarbaby
Actually, the ramparts were “American deployed”, since they refer to a part of the structure of the fort rather than a weapon used during battle. So there. 
I gotta say, The Star-Spangled Banner is pretty cool. The tune is based on an old drinking song (Anachrion in Heaven, IIRC), and even though almost no one has the vocal range to sing it correctly, any anthem based on a drinking song has it’s heart in the right place. I’d still have prefered the Battle Hymn of the Republic, personaly, but whatever.
That said, Internationale is pretty damn rousing.
For brevity, the Japanese anthem (unofficial, but played at all sports and state events) deserves mention:
Kimi ga yo ni
chiyo ni yachiyo ni
sazare ishi no
iwao to narite
koke no musu made.
And that’s it.
Translated,
May your reign last
thousands and eights of thousands of years
until the pebbles
become big rocks
and grow moss.
Which is certainly great for getting fans in the mood for a soccer game.
–sublight.
I remember watching the last world cup Rugby and the South African Anthem was really nice. The Australian anthem sounded like a pub song, but was still kind of cool.
yay ireland! it sounds nicer in irish though…
but since i can’t spell it very well i’ll leave it to someone else to write it down.
oh, and ireland’s unofficial anthem?
The Fields of Athenry
By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young girl calling
“Oh Micheal they have taken you away
for you stole Trevallion’s corn,
that our young might see the morn,
now a prison ship lies waiting in the bay.”
CHORUS
Low lie the fields of Athenry
Where once we watched the small free birds fly
Our love was on the wing,
we had dreams and songs to sing
it’s so lonely around the fields of Athenry
By a lonely prison wall
I heard a young man calling
“Nothing matters Mary when you’re free,
against the famine and the crown,
I rebelled, they cut me down.
Now you must raise our child with dignity”
CHORUS
By a lonely harbour wall
She watched the last hour falling.
As the prison ships sailed out against the sky
for she’ll live in hope and pray,
for her love in Botany Bay.
It’s so lonely round the fields of Athenry
this can be heard in bars, and at rugy/football and gaelic matches all over ireland every weekend.
IIRC, at the beginning of “All You Need is Love”.
The Australian National Anthem (Advance Australia Fair) has got to be at least one of the worst. It’s terrible. One line, “Our home is girt by sea” is the butt of so many jokes, and that’s just one line in the song. Plus, there are a heap of verses, but your average Aussie knows only the first one - rather embarrassing. Finally, it’s just a horrible, horrible song.
What’s worse is that the people who want to change it, want to change it to something even worse - “I am, you are, we are Australian” by the Seekers. Ugh! Don’t just state the bleeding obvious, do it three times to a terrible annoying tune, and in the style of FOLK MUSIC. Way to look sophisticated to the rest of the world.
So what if Waltzing Matilda is about a sheep thief who commits suicide? It’s famous, it’s Australian, it has proven it has staying power by being popular for so long, it doesn’t contain the word “girt” and it’s a darn good tune. My vote goes to Waltzing Matilda for the Australian National Anthem, and then we’ll have the best anthem in the world!