[chajin]

There was a "Star-Spangled Banner" of sorts before there was a Star-Spangled Banner--by which I mean there was a patriotic song sung to the same tune, the words of which you can read here. I actually had a group of people once sing all the verses of this for a July 4th commemoration, and the general reaction was that it was too confusing and too long. Long is one issue, but if you take the time, you will discover how much patriotism can be found in the lyrics.

[Whenifhow]

The article below claims that Francis Scott Key borrowed the tune “To Anacreon in Heaven” - video of that tune is linked below.

‘Star-Spangled Banner’: Anthem was once a song of drinking and sex

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-star-spangled-banner-200-anniversary-20140912-story.html

“The words of ‘To Anacreon in Heaven,’ the song that Francis Scott Key borrowed for the melody of ‘The Star-Spangled Banner,’

The Anacreon Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydAIdVKv84g

[JohnBovenmyer]

Anacreon seems to have been a popular tune to use back in the day, for all the modern gripes about its range. Keyes had explicitly used the tune before to set an earlier poem, celebrating earlier battles in a current war, albeit according to Pasha Obama, not a real war.