This is an article from several years ago: The secret history of how former Confederates made the Star Spangled Banner our official national anthem in 1932.
The NAACP was spitting mad about it, because to them it was a lynching song, a song sung by people who wanted to lynch them. But of course Congress completely ignored any black voices, then, as now.
— Badtux the “Isn’t history interesting?” Penguin
The Star Spangled Banana was already ludicrous enough because it’s about an episode where the Merkins got their arses kicked. Whenever anyone here mentions it, I tell ’em it’s about when the Brits cruised into Baltimore, blew up the place for a while and then sent troops to burn what little there was in the swamp known as Washington, D.C. The song is just as stupid as Australia making a national holiday out of ANZAC Day. That’s all about a seaborne invasion of Turkey during WW I where Aussies and Kiwis got smashed so badly they had to evacuate everyone still left alive during the middle of the night.
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I like it anyway:
1. The Star-Spangled Banner is the only symbol of the country that isn’t boring.
2. It doesn’t mention God anywhere.
3. It’s a question. (!)
4. The original lyric ends, “… to entwine the myrtle of Venus with Baccus’s vine.”
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But it’s unsingable by mere mortals. Hearing various pop singers massacre the song at every sporting event makes my ears hurt.
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OK, we’ve heard for years that the anthem is based on an old drinking song. I ask you, does that story make any kind of sense? Few people can even handle that tune sober, much less in their cups! Someone is trying to deceive us.
That said, if their nefarious plot involves entwining Venus’ myrtle, then I welcome our off-key overlords! Besides, “Star Spangled Banner” is still better than the wretched “God Bless America”, even if it doesn’t quite measure up to what the Russkies have.
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“Few people can even handle that tune sober, much less in their cups!”
What, you thought drunksinging began with the invention of karaoke machines? Put a bunch of Brits, Irish, Germans and probably a whole lot of other cultures together (with their own kind, not other ethnicities– that leads to brawling) and they’re going to start chanterwauling. Especially if they songs are maudlin. “Oh Danny boy…”
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The alternative to the “Star Spangled Banner” apparently was the song “America the Beautiful”. Which does have the disadvantage of having the phrase “God shed his grace on thee”, but at least it’s about something non-violent rather than about some poor schlubs in a fort getting the crap blasted out of them by cannon fire.
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[…] to BadTux, who’s been on a roll this […]
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Star Spangled Banner offends anyone who loves music, America the Beautiful offends atheists with the God line, God Bless America ditto, and This Land Is My Land offends anti-communists. So no matter what someone’s annoyed. I’ll go with America The Beautiful, which is easy to sing.
San Francisco had two contenders for its song; the compromise is that “San Francisco” is its official _song_, and “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” is its official _ballad_. Maybe a similar compromise will work?
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