Posted on 02/28/2010 4:36:46 PM PST by RGirard
You may remember that The Star Spangled Banner, America's national anthem, was written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key, but did you know it is a religious song? Originally written as a poem, Francis Scott Key instructed others to sing the words to the tune "Anacreon in Heaven" written by John Stafford Smith. Although "heavenly" sounding in title, The Anacreotic Song was actually a bar song that got "saved" so-to-speak.
Here are the patriotic words to the first stanza, which most U.S. citizens learned as children and still sing before baseball games, and every time one of our athletes win a gold medal at the Olympics. It is customary to place your right hand over your heart, as one does when saying the pledge of allegiance, unless you are a Jehovah's Witness, Communist, or Barack Hussein Obama ...
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
That’s some pretty twisted logic right there.
Did Barack actually say that in real life?
Thought it was a poem sung to the tune of a tavern drinking song.
you are correct ... tavern and bar are synonyms
so......Liberals will now want to ban this from any public events and institutions also.....
...or they’ll come up with a new one, with Obama as the main feature......easier than him up on Mt. Rushmore as many Libs dream about
In 18th century England, certainly not. If a low-class fellow attempted to enter the sort of place where these songs were song, he would be told: “Sorry, we sell no beer here.” It was wine only at this sort of place, and the patrons were well educated in Latin and Greek mythology:
“To ANACREON in Heav’n, where he sat in full Glee,
A few Sons of Harmony sent a Petition,
That He their Inspirer and Patron wou’d be;
When this Answer arriv’d from the JOLLY OLD GRECIAN
“Voice, Fiddle, and Flute,
“No longer be mute,
“I’ll lend you my Name and inspire you to boot,
“And, besides, I’ll instruct you like me, to intwine
“The Myrtle of VENUS with BACCHUS’s Vine.
However my favorite arrangement of the national anthem is one by Felix Vinatieri, band master for Custer's 7th Cavalry. Available on CD here
Yes. He did.
See “Obama: America ‘One of the Largest Muslim Countries in the World’” BY Michael Goldfarb June 2, 2009 8:09 PM
http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/06/obama_america_one_of_the_large_1.asp
I thought it was originally a drinking song from the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team. Cigars were optional.
A Maylasian person named Gann probably copied off a record player of Horowitz. He e mailed me a copy and wished me luck with it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAYPN-1Yjt0
Star Spangled Banner (First and last verse!)
Jeez, a real knee slapper. I had heard it was a bar song, but never saw the lyrics. Thanks.
What infinitesimal portion of the population could even follow those original lyrics?
Just FYI,
Not if you live in the state of Washington. There, a tavern serves beer and wine only. A bar, OTOH, serves beer, wine, hard liquor and mixed drinks, and is often a full restaurant as well.
Two verses here. Listen to the whole thing. 2nd verse rocks. Stepan12, I think your record stands.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=by_ayjw_hcM&feature=related
Fyi, here are the four stanzas:
Oh, say can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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.
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen 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 hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner forever shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
The third post, as anyone can see, mocks the British and is rarely rarely sung.
I try to sing in the original C major and hope my falsetto is good enough for the high notes.
Incidentally, I did finally find someone else on youtube who sings all four verses, but, it appears, she uses a less arcane form than early 19th century form verses that I copied these stanzas from: Sing along Star Spangled Banner
This is the first time I saw on youtube a full version besides mine.
Finally, here is the song the tune is based on, Anacreon in Heaven
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