Demilitarize The National Anthem!

With the approach of the 4^th of July, the electronic media will be filled with bombs bursting in air and the rocket's red glare. Enough with Francis Scott (Off-)Key already! "The Star-Spangled Banner" became the national anthem in 1931 when President Herbert C. Hoover signed the authorization bill enacted by Congress. Hoover should have vetoed the loser song and left well enough alone. It is no coincidence that the tune for the national anthem existed first as a British drinking song ("To Anacreon in Heaven"). 'Tis better to attempt to sing this song while drunk. Snarlin' Mike Kinsley offers several alternatives to the song filled with bombs and rockets and gives a slight edge to

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"America The Beautiful"
Introduction by Clint Eastwood
Performed by Willie Nelson (and most of Hollywood)



"America The Beautiful." (1895)
Words by Katharine Lee Bates and music by Samuel A. Ward.

O beautiful, for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

O beautiful, for pilgrim feet
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw;
Confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law!

O beautiful, for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America! May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness, and ev'ry gain divine!

O beautiful, for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years,
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea!

There! Aren't gleaming alabaster cities and the fruited plain better than bombs and rockets? The only sour note here is the proclivity of The BFI to make regular reference to "the fruited plain" during his bloviating performances on his radio show. However, if "American The Beautiful" became the national anthem, The BFI — consummate patriot that he is — would not have the nerve to mock a phrase from the national anthem. Otherwise, The BFI would join the ranks of Roseanne Barr, Jose Feliciano, Michael Bolton, Carl Lewis, and Jimi Hendrix as a desecrator of the national anthem. So, fellow singer/sufferers of the national anthem, let us leave the bombs and the rockets for the amber waves of grain and the purple mountain majesties. If this is (fair & balanced) musicology, so be it.

P.S. Wikipedia tells us that Lynn Sherr's 2001 book America the Beautiful discusses the origins of the song and the backgrounds of its authors in depth. Sherr points out that the poem has the same meter as that of "Auld Lang Syne"; the songs can be sung interchangeably.

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Oh, Say Can You Sing It?
By Michael Kinsley

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In the Age of Karaoke, more people (including me) like to join in the singing when they strike up the national anthem at public occasions. No one can stop you, no matter how embarrassed she might be by your obvious lack of talent. It's always disappointing when you're invited to stand and enjoy some high school glee club or famous opera singer. But chances are that even the opera singer won't get it right.

"The Star-Spangled Banner" is notoriously unsingable. A professor of music, Caldwell Titcomb of Brandeis, pointed out years ago in the New Republic that its melody spans nearly two octaves, when most people are good for one octave, max. The first eight lines are one enormous sentence with subordinate clauses, leaving no really good place to take a breath. There are far too many mandatory leaps off the high board (". . . what so PROU-dly we hail . . .").

The melody is lifted from an old English drinking song. The lyrics are all about bombs and war and bloodshed — and not in a good way. By the penultimate verse, the song has turned really nasty: "No refuge could save the hireling and slave/From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave." In the first verse — the one we generally sing — there is only one reference to any value commonly associated with America: "land of the free." By contrast, "home of the brave" is empty bravado. There is nothing in the American myth (let alone reality) to suggest that we are braver than anyone else.

No, "The Star-Spangled Banner" has got to go. The only question is, What should replace it? Here we have an embarrassment of riches. Let's review some of the candidates.

The unimaginative, easy choice would be "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," a.k.a. "America" — as if applying for the job, since the word "America" isn't even in it. Case for: The melody is simple, familiar and easy to sing, with a range of less than an octave. The lyrics express American sentiments, by and large, though with no particular flair. Case against: The tune is a rip-off of "God Save the Queen," and as insipid as the lyrics to boot.

"The Battle Hymn of the Republic" has a range of one octave exactly, and beautiful, inspiring lyrics. A bit martial, of course, but in reference to our nation's greatest cause rather than mindless nonsense about rockets and bombs. A bit religious, too, but probably not unconstitutionally so if "one nation, under God," passes muster in the Pledge of Allegiance. Written by Julia Ward Howe during the Civil War to supply something more wholesome for Union soldiers to sing to the tune of "John Brown's body lies a-moulderin' in the grave," it is already used sometimes at liberal occasions as a substitute for "The Star-Spangled Banner." Even at this late date some Southerners might object. But hey — who won the war?

The best of the conventional choices would be "America the Beautiful." Its range is an octave plus one note, with a couple of tricky leaps ("Uh-MARE-i-cah, America"). But the tune is lovely, and the lyrics are eloquent and almost eerily appropriate in their humility. ("Confirm thy soul in self-control/Thy liberty in law.")

What about Irving Berlin's "God Bless America"? The lyrics are more enthusiastic than eloquent. There is nothing so wonderful about our oceans being "white with foam." But it's a tuneful tune, not only easy to remember but hard to get out of your head. It might seem tough to argue that "God Bless America" is not a religious sentiment, potentially violating the establishment clause of the First Amendment. But the song is so jolly and un-hymn-like that I am confident some professors at our finer law schools could make the case. (You see? That tune just fills you with American optimism and energy.) As this column has pointed out, in our political culture the phrase "God bless America" has come to mean little more than "I'm through with my speech. See you later."

Woody Guthrie wrote "This Land Is Your Land" out of annoyance at the popularity of "God Bless America." The melody has a range of just seven notes, which is hard to beat. The lyrics can be treated as either a generalized appreciation of the American landscape or a more pointed political claim for equality ("This land was made for you and me"). There's no question which one Guthrie had in mind. He was a communist fellow-traveler. But the song has been absorbed into our culture and is loved even by Republicans who have no idea about its origins.

How about Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA"? A bit dark for a national anthem, I suppose. The Shaker hymn "Simple Gifts" (turned by Aaron Copland into a theme in "Appalachian Spring")? Have I left out your favorite? Nominations are welcome. Anything would be better than those "bombs bursting in air." Ω

[Michael Kinsley is a political journalist, commentator television host, and liberal pundit. Primarily active in print media as both a writer and editor, he also became known to television audiences as a co-host on CNN's "Crossfire." Kinsley has been a notable participant in the mainstream media's development of online content; Kinsley was the founding editor of Slate. Currently, Kinsley is a columnist for both Time magazine and The Washington Post. Kinsley graduated from Harvard University in 1972. At Harvard, Kinsley served as vice president of the University's daily newspaper, The Harvard Crimson. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship and studied at Magdalen College, Oxford, then returned to Harvard for law school. While still a third-year law student, he began working at The New Republic and finished his Juris Doctor degree in the evening program at The George Washington University Law School.]


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