### Author:  [@jebert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jebert)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/1 "2004-08-20T18:11:11Z")
Where did they get that version of the US national anthem they are using at the Olympics? I have actually been moved to tears at times upon hearing astirring treatment of “The Star Spangled Banner”, but the rendition being played for US gold medalists damn near puts me to sleep. I never thought that could happen. It is completely devoid of emotion.
Anybody else agree?
To whom do I write to get this changed before the games are over?
---
### Author:  [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/2 "2004-08-20T18:22:51Z")
Ehh, the Anthem always sings my ass into a coma no matter what the circumstances are. So my reaction to the one used at the games is no different.
Sam
---
### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/3 "2004-08-20T18:24:11Z")
My supposition was that at a time when many international opinions are anti U.S. that we’d substituted a kindler, gentler version rather than a stirring, chest beating rendition. Just a WAG.
---
### Author:  [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/4 "2004-08-20T18:26:47Z")
Dude, even a tintinnabular version of our national anthem could move me to tears. Just sing the lyrics, my friend, and the pride will swell.
> [@](#):
>
> And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air
> Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
> Oh say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
> O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
\That part gets me every time.
---
### Author:  [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/5 "2004-08-20T18:36:05Z")
Better than Roseann Barr’s or Macy Gray’s versions… :o
Send Whitney Houston over there for some real emotion…(or at least the tape of her Superbowl rendition)
---
### Author:  [@Spree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spree)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/6 "2004-08-20T18:37:31Z")
It’s like the Muzak version of the anthem. I like it though. I think it’s pretty. :o
---
### Author:  [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/7 "2004-08-20T18:50:49Z")
I hate to be the gratuitous “disagree with the OP” guy, but I kinda like that version. It’s different. It has some harmonies I haven’t heard done before, and I like how the first phrase is played by the strings the second time instead of just repeating the exact same music, as is usually done.
---
### Author:  [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/8 "2004-08-20T18:52:02Z")
> [@Yeticus Rex](#):
>
> Send Whitney Houston over there for some real emotion…(or at least the tape of her Superbowl rendition)
Isn’t she the one who did it in 4/4 time? :eek:
---
### Author:  [@Yeticus\_Rex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeticus_Rex)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/9 "2004-08-20T18:58:41Z")
> [@blowero](#):
>
> Isn’t she the one who did it in 4/4 time? :eek:
Hell if I know…I just know I felt proud to be American when I heard her belt it out… 🆒
---
### Author:  [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/10 "2004-08-20T19:09:47Z")
“O thus be it ever, when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that have made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
and this be our motto, ‘In God is our trust.’
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!”
-F.S. Key
---
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/11 "2004-08-20T19:19:50Z")
This is one where I am in total agreement with the OP. The first time I heard it at these games I thought WTF? So wussy. Give me the “chest beating” rendition every time.
---
### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/12 "2004-08-20T19:27:10Z")
Face it, we’ve got a turkey of an anthem. Consider these lyrics:
> [@](#):
>
> And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
> That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
> A home and a country should leave us no more?
> Their blood has wiped out their foul footstep’s pollution.
> No refuge could save the hireling and slave
> From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
> And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
> O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
“foul footsteps’s pollution”? That one always cracked me up.
---
### Author:  [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/13 "2004-08-20T19:57:58Z")
Another heartfelt agreement with the OP. That wussy rendition of the anthem pisses me off every time I hear it. I want the chest-beating, singable anthem, not some homework assignment for a first year composition student. The kind of “harmonies” **blowero** mentioned would make “satisfaction” sound like “Tiptoe Through The Tulips.” Come on already!
---
### Author:  [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/14 "2004-08-20T20:43:25Z")
> [@DesertGeezer](#):
>
> Another heartfelt agreement with the OP. That wussy rendition of the anthem pisses me off every time I hear it. I want the chest-beating, singable anthem, not some homework assignment for a first year composition student. The kind of “harmonies” **blowero** mentioned would make “satisfaction” sound like “Tiptoe Through The Tulips.” Come on already!
Well, no - that doesn’t really have anything to do with the harmonies. That would have to do with the orchestration, dynamics, tempo, and/or timbre.
---
### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/15 "2004-08-20T20:46:53Z")
> [@jebert](#):
>
> Where did they get that version of the US national anthem they are using at the Olympics? I have actually been moved to tears at times upon hearing astirring treatment of “The Star Spangled Banner”, but the rendition being played for US gold medalists damn near puts me to sleep. I never thought that could happen. It is completely devoid of emotion.
>
> Anybody else agree?
>
> To whom do I write to get this changed before the games are over?
I thought the one in Korea was even worse, albeit at the other extreme. It was played as though they were in a hurry to finish it. Not even a slight hold on the birdseye note for “freeeeeee”.
---
### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/16 "2004-08-20T21:04:45Z")
Just to nitpick, it’s the arrangement/recording that’s wimpy, not the anthem itself. You gotta love the idea of a country that’ll come up with a national anthem by taking a popular drinking song and filking it to tell a story about a battle we lost.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/17 "2004-08-20T23:46:52Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#):
>
> Just to nitpick, it’s the arrangement/recording that’s wimpy, not the anthem itself. You gotta love the idea of a country that’ll come up with a national anthem by taking a popular drinking song and filking it to tell a story about a battle we lost.
Damn! Edged again at the last post. Anyone got a link to the drinkin’ lyrics?
---
### Author:  [@laigle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/laigle)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/18 "2004-08-20T23:52:01Z")
It’s high time we got a new one. Since we’re the outcast sons of the British Empire, I vote for something by the Sex Pistols. Sure would make it a lot more fun when some stodgy old rich white president is being greeted at an official ceremony.
---
### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [August 20, 2004, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/19 "2004-08-20T23:53:37Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#):
>
> Anyone got a link to the drinkin’ lyrics?
Ask Uncle [Cecil](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_011.html).
I for one am a fan of the kinder, gentler version of the anthem (which I love in all its versions and verses). My thought on hearing it was that it was sweet, rather than martial, which is appropriate to the occasion.
---
### Author:  [@Padmaraga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padmaraga)
#### Post date: [August 21, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751/20 "2004-08-21T00:00:04Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#):
>
> Face it, we’ve got a turkey of an anthem.
I’m not a lib dem, but I definitely agree with Bob - I don’t like either the lyrics or the music of our national anthem. For some reason, I’ve always wanted “America the Beautiful” to be our national anthem; **that** song moves **me** to tears.
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wimpy-national-anthem/260751.md?page=2)