"Destroying the National Anthem!!!" Topic

Mary J. Blige. That's all I'm saying.

Allen

So, ya got somethin' against self expression?
Yeah?

So do I.

I would rather hear the Red Army Choir sing the Star Spangled Banner than some of these shrieking idjits. At least THEY understand how to sing.

Never heard of her. I take it I should not go looking for her on youtube, then.

Patti LaBelle.
That's all I'm saying.

Michael, I just did a Youtube search. I got as far as "Oh, say!…"

I just watched it and don't see what the problem is…
YouTube link

It's got some of that vocal 'warbling' that's so popular these days (which I hate) but it didn't seem like some huge travesty.

Just wait till they start requiring it be in Spanish…

Much worse tonight at the World Series.

Allen

Much worse tonight at the World Series.

Oh, so y'all aren't talking about the 2004 NFL one?

Blame Whitney Houston for the Warble…
She could pull it off, and make it sound good back in the day, but now ALL of them "Feel a need" to do it…
And worse off, they think they're good at it….

I'm so glad I'm Deaf and can turn off my Hearing Aids….Thats all I'm saying…

"Oh, so y'all aren't talking about the 2004 NFL one?"

No, only about an hour or so at Yankee Stadium.

"She could pull it off, and make it sound good…"

Nope. Sorry. You are a NO-GO at this station.

John has it right: self-expression is not required. You need that? Write your own damn song. Sing the one song you should rise for in respect (and Mr. Steinbrenner, it ain't "God Bless America"), you'd better make sure you hit all the notes as written, and don't add more'n a couple of your own.

This country's heritage includes that revered drinking song, and it oughtn't be treated as some hip-hop diva's laryngeal playground.

I'm sure Garrison Keillor agrees with me.

Allen

I could not agree with you all more. I wish they would play the national anthem on televised football games, both college and pro. I would rather listen to a well sung version of the song, than listen to some talking head. This is one of my favorite renditions of our National Anthem.

YouTube link

Mike

OK, just tried venusboy's link, and frankly, I didn't recognize what they thought they were playing. Made it to "dawn's early light" before my stomach rebelled.

Some people just need to be smacked hard with a stick until they learn not to screw with the national anthem. Anyone's national anthem.

So?
It is one of the hardest songs to sing. without a YouTube link it is hard to tell.

VR
James Mattes

It is one of the hardest songs to sing…

No, it is not.
*I* can sing it with no difficulty. That should tell anyone who has ever heard me sing how hard it is.
All you need to know is your own key to start singing it in.

What does THAT have to do with singing the National Anthem?

"So?
It is one of the hardest songs to sing. without a YouTube link it is hard to tell.
*snip"

Hard to sing? I don't think so. Here's what my boy Garrison has to say on the subject:

link

So here's a quiz for you, any TMP… aw, let's say "patriot": recite the second and third verses--RIGHT NOW, NO LOOKING!!!

I didn't think so. I only know two of us who can.

And the other one beat me to the post.

Allen

That hurt. With those glasses I kept thinking she was a sleestak.

blog.turntabletendencies.com

Here's how Stars should sing it:
YouTube link

I rarely go there, 'cause it makes me want to click on "Traveling Soldier", and I always lose it.

A fine performance!

Allen

I'm with Allen, John, et. al. on this one, 100%.

Yep!

It may not be hard to sing, but it is hard to sing even passably well.
If you're a trained singer then there is no excuse for trashing it and added crap that wasn't written there in the first place. It wasn't a gospel song originally, didn't start as a lounge act, and wasn't country before country was cool. Sing it simply and it sounds pretty good, add to it and it sounds like you got a gig at the Super 8.
Much prefer 'America the Beautiful' though.

Well, I am ofcorse a non-USian, but I kinda like this version:

YouTube link

Might be my age showing.

Why the reluctance to sing it nowadays? I recall listening to the locals in Guatemala sing their national anthem and it has 12 stanzas with a chorus sung four times.

I make it a point to sing it at sports events now. With a wife that's a high school teacher, that's a bunch of events. She tells me I'm getting better at starting in the proper key. I dig it.

I am not even a Yank, and find this all-over the shop look-at-me warbling offensive.

Put simply its a case of 'I am on a massively watched spot, I must set out my stall', and its just selfishness.

Pat

Its not 'warbling', more like caterwallering…
More 'shreiking' than singing. AND I listen to metal bands, so I know what crud 'singing' is like, and that Bilge is it!
Granted, its almost as bad as Rosanne Barr doing it…. Or Whitney Huston…

I sing it at sporting events, too. Unless, of course, there is an "entertainer" doing it. It would be rude to sing over them, but I might be willing to make an exception in some cases.

"It may not be hard to sing, but it is hard to sing even passably well."

Rooms full of drunks manage, but then it did start as a drinking song. It takes quite the vocal range, volume control, and (unlike most modern compositions) is intollerant of slurred lyrical delivery except when sung by quartets or larger. The singer doesn't have to be good, but should have the vocal training it takes to be good.

"It takes quite the vocal range…"

It's only an octave and a half. The key is pitching it correctly, as Garrison Keillor and this genetlamn point out:

link

Allen

So here's a quiz for you, any TMP… aw, let's say "patriot": recite the second and third verses--RIGHT NOW, NO LOOKING!!!

That's easy; the second and later verses of ALL national anthems are "nner ner ner … ner ner … mumble" vaguely in tune.

Mind you, mine witters on about crushing rebellious Scots, so that doesn't get much use up here. I don't mind it; I'm not a rebellious Scot. .

Perhaps I could sing it in French, to annoy Nick Griffin:

link

I am completely with Allen on this. The myth that the Star Spangled Banner is diddicult to sing is just that. a myth.
I opined earlier that a man gots to know his limitations, or in my case, my own privvate key to start it in. I now find that it is G. CCool.
Belleve me, it does NOT sound bizarre.
If you cunningly keep the low notes in your register, the high notes are a piece of cake.
Try it in the shower, where are your own best audience, and the acoustics are terrific. You will surprise yourself.
I just did the 4th verse this morning.
"Oh, thus be it ever
When free men shall stand
Between their lov'd homes,
And the war's desolation."

Each to their own I personally agree with Grungir, Jimmi sure knew how to play the guitar. I don't have any major issues with a singer or musician putting on their own spin to it. Keeps it from getting boring and making people contemptuous when it comes on.

Then there is this version too: YouTube link

Damon.

Ever since I first learned that the tune is a saloon ditty I have lost interest in and respect for TSSB. I think we should change ours to America the Beautiful, since we must have one at all (I dislike dictating what "official" anthems, pledges, slogans, etc. ought to be, on general principles….)

I've always heard it was hard to sing because of the cadences and major key changes along the way. It takes an amazing vocal range to get it right. The phraseology is no picnic in the park, either.

No offense, John, but singing it and singing it professionally to an audience of fifty million, all of whom have their own opinion of what the "proper" way is, isn't quite the same thing.

And all artists will put their own interpretation on any work of art. Being generic isn't part of an artists' DNA.

I don't have earphones here at the library and didn't see the game, so can't comment on Mary J. Blige's rendition.

The worst performance at the singing of the National Anthem I ever saw was a control freak swearing at a guy who didn't stand up, because he was a stadium employee and was receiving instructions from his boss.

The girl singing it was absolutely out of this world (a Canadian, no less) and even the moron couldn't ruin it for me.

JW

I find this a fascinating diffenence between 2 parts of the English speaking world.

Here in the UK, our national anthem is something of a dirge, which makes it east for the average sporting crowd of mixed singing ability to grunt along. It's almost always sung as written and had the virtue of being fairly brief.

The dirgieness is notable at the beginning of sporting events when compared to other anthems.

To me the Marseillaise, delivered at a fair pace, is among the best.
If I wanted to fire up a rugby team for a ferocious start to a game that would be the theme music.

The Star spangled banner has wonderful rises and crescendoes, and delivered straight is of similar quality.
As a Brit, I find it fascinating that you always get these star singers to murder the melody. But I never forget that you gave the world Jazz, Blues and Soul and I thank you for that. I am however reminded of Andre Previns exchange with Eric Morcambe.
Andre: "You're playing the wring notes!"
Eric: "Which ones?"
Andre: "All of them!"
Eric: "Listen sunshine, I'm playing the right notes, though not necessarily in the right order."

Others worthy of note are the Italian (Slow start, but nice change of pace), and the Irish – melodic and a nice climax (Can I say that here).

I like German singing personally.

Has nothing on this horrid version (complete w/crotch-grabbing and spitting.)

YouTube link

IMO the Americans have a great National Anthem though some of the versions I've heard sung at televised sporting events have been awful.

Our anthem only speaks about the queen. I'll hold my hand up and say I'm not a royalist, I'd abolish the monarchy tomorrow if I could, but given the fact that we are a constitutional monarchy, that the queen for all practical, everyday purposes is merely a figurehead and most of us republicans whilst not agreeing with monarchy accept that the majority want to keep it and respect that choice; couldn't we at least have an anthem that speaks of Britain, its people, its achievements (for example standing alone against the Nazis in 1940, Battle of Britain etc, there's lots to choose from in the last thousand years) rather than a dirge that speaks of a fawning, and to be fair, a completely unrealistic subjection to Elizabeth Windsor? We have the "Mother of Parliaments" for crying out loud, shouldn't we be celebrating that???

The Star Spangled Banner is such a rousing tune and the Marseillaise never fails to impress me. I'd rather have something like that, no matter how mangled.

the Brazilian anthem always strikes me as a bad anthem made magnificent by its associations.

You can only watch so many Brazil v Anyone games before the sound of it starts to give you a feeling of impending Horror.

Pat