Maybe it’s time to kneel for a different anthem.
Personally, I think there are many better options than the current song. I’m getting tired of the constant association of America with violence. Why can’t we sing about nice things?
“Oh say, does that cute little kitty still play?”
This seems like a loser issue for progressives.
Maybe wait until you aren’t in the political fight of the country’s life before you make your platform “destroy everything people associate with America”.
Yeah. The anthem is a long stretch in these particular times.
Honestly, it was never a very good anthem.
It’s not especially stirring like say, the Russian or French anthems (which imo are among the best).
(Soviet anthem used here because it’s basically the same thing and has better audio)
Maybe an anthem about freedom instead of “we weren’t utterly destroyed”.
That said, it should be near the bottom of any list of “shit that matters right now”.
Exactly this. Wait for the right time.
Well, the lyrics are ok, but he did pinch the tune from a bawdy “gentlemen’s club” drinking song, so that may be an argument either way.
Lol i remember when i was in French class in junior high, and we learned the French national anthem. That shit is freaking dark!
Arise children of the fatherland
The day of glory has arrived
Against us tyranny’s
Bloody standard is raised
Listen to the sound in the fields
The howling of these fearsome soldiers
They are coming into our midst
To cut the throats of your sons and consorts
To arms citizens
Form your battalions
March, march
Let impure blood
Water our furrows
I’ve long maintained the French Anthem is the most metal of all anthems.
I had a teacher (this was in Christian high school, so he was a right-wing nut) who had a point he would make a few times each year about how the Star Spangled Banner sucks. The range is too wide for the average person to sing it on-pitch, it’s long as fuck, and no one knows the words anyway. He suggested we replace it with America the Beautiful.
That wouldn’t be my choice of a replacement, but I’ve come around to his point of view. Our anthem sucks.
If we’re gonna continue to give into gross nationalism and celebrate a country with a song, there’s really only one choice to make:
I will only accept a new anthem if it is written by Group X.
Well, that may be the fault of one of my ancestors, Ferdinand Durang, though it’s never been positively confirmed.
This page gives some assorted details from my family tree, though this is the passage that is relevant:
Ferdinand was my great, great, great uncle.
Along with Hendrix, there’s another great cover of the anthem which fiddles with the lyrics:
I like the anthem the way it is. :(
It’s funny that so many staid sober anthems of Americana got their start as drinking songs or otherwise repurposed melodies. And we don’t even have drinking songs any more. Well, we do, but they’re karaoke hits.
Maybe we could put new patriotic lyrics to “Sweet Caroline”, “Piano Man”, or “Don’t Stop Believing”.
(Also, your great-uncle sounds like a fun guy to party with.)