{"data":{"description":"Archiving Early America - Why We Should Deep Six The Star Spangled Banner As Our National Anthem","title":"Why We Should Deep-Six \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" As Our National Anthem","post_type":"post","content":"\u003cstrong\u003eBy Don Vitale\u003c/strong\u003e\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nGetting rid of The Star-Spangled Banner may sound like treason instead of reason.\r\nBut hear me out first, friends, before you have a Stage10 Panic Attack!\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nFrancis Scott Key may have been an amateur poet...but he\r\nwrote a poem that stirred our spirits based on what he saw during the\r\nBattle of Baltimore on the night of September 13, 1814.\r\nThe scene: British ships bombarding Fort McHenry in Chesapeake Bay.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nKey witnessed the \"rockets red glare\" and the \"bombs bursting in air\"\r\nas British frigates aimed their gunpowder at American forces\r\ndefending the Fort. The attack lasted 25 hours but when the smoke cleared,\r\nKey saw the American flag atop the Fort's ramparts signaling that the\r\nAmericans had won the battle.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nTo make a short story even shorter....\r\nKey wrote his poem based on what he saw, it was set to music\r\nand eventually became America's National Anthem.\r\n\r\nBut hold on. It took from 1814 when Key wrote the poem until 1931\r\nwhen it was signed into law by President Herbert Hoover to make it\r\nAmerica's official National Anthem.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nI will not send you to the back of the classroom if you ask why it took\r\n117 years to get ourselves an Anthem. Maybe whoever said 'the mills of the gods\r\ngrind slowly' had our Anthem in mind!\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nWas there a problem?\r\nNot really....other than few people can actually\r\nsing the Anthem without making a fool of themselves.\r\n\r\nYou heard me right, friends, the words written by Key are singable, barely.\r\nHowever you slice it, the song's 12-note span is a stretch for most singers,\r\namateurs and pros alike.\r\n\r\nEven though \"The Star-Spangled Banner\" is played at the beginning\r\nof public sports events in this country, including before every baseball\r\ngame, it's no secret that the Anthem we have is-- are you hearing me on this?---\r\ndifficult to sing.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nOkay, you're telling me you want a for instance?\r\n\r\nSure, partner, here's a for instance. Some of this nation's most popular singers performing the song have either left out one of the lines or repeated the same line out of sequence. At the Super BowlXLV played in Texas on February 6, 2011 pop singer Christina Aguilera sang the wrong lyrics replacing the song's 4th line with an alteration of the 2nd line.\r\n\r\nOr how about just simply forgetting the words as many performers have done?\r\nIt's why many ball parks and other venues have pre-recorded the song, which is\r\nlip-synced by the singer who pretends they're singing the Anthem.\r\nAt Boston's Fenway Park it's standard practice.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nThen there's singer-songwriter Steven Tyler performing the\r\nNational Anthem at a pro football championship game in 2012\r\nwith a cappella renditions of the song with changed lyrics.\r\nDo you believe it? He sang it without music using lyrics he changed!\r\nThe man issued a public apology afterward.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nI could go on with a myriad of renditions of the Anthem,\r\nmany substituting a verse with words that express a political\r\nopinion or lifestyle.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nIs it any wonder that a recent Harris Interactive poll showed that\r\nmany adults not only do not know the song's lyrics but are unaware\r\nof its history.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nLook friends, I can continue our trip through this Land of Make Believe\r\n....but I think you get the picture.\r\n\r\nAll of which accounts for a growing chorus of those who say our country needs a different National Anthem. One that expresses the beauty of our land, extols our heroes\r\nand celebrates our history. Not to mention an Anthem that's easy to sing.\r\n\r\nMany who've debated replacing our present Anthem point to\r\n\"America The Beautiful.\"\r\n\r\n\"I love this song,\" says author and former tv personality Lynn Sherr.\r\n\"America The Beautiful\" is \"...simple...emotionaland I think it talksabout a country, a land and its people....not just about a flag, not just about a battle. It doesn't talk about conquest. It talks about the possibilities of this nation.\"\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nKatharine Lee Bates of Massachusetts, a college professor, wrote the poem\r\nin 1893 after a train trip to this country's west. The trip took her through\r\nKansas and its \"golden wheat fields waving in the wind\"...Colorado,\r\n\"where she saw \"the purple gorgeous mountains of the Rocky Mountains.\"\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nSherr says the words written in 1893 are just as meaningful today as they were then.\r\nTwo years later Katharine Lee Bates published her poem in a church periodical.\r\nSamuel Ward, a church organist and choirmaster wrote the music.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nPersonally, I cast my vote for replacing our National Anthem.\r\nDo I like \"The Star-Spangled Banner\"? You betcha, partner!\r\nAnyone says I don't gets an invite to step off 40 paces tomorrow\r\nmorning and...don't forget your weapons, Mister!\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nBut while I like our present Anthem, I love \"America The Beautiful.\"\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nThere was a time when it was appropriate for our National Anthem\r\nto express our battles waged...our wars won...with bombs bursting in air.\r\nBut not today. Today our National Anthem should express\r\nour nation's beauty, its grandeur, it's spirit of renewal.\r\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \r\nFollowing the September 11 attacks in the U.S....CBS news anchor Dan Rather\r\ncried briefly as he quoted the 4th verse of the poem.\r\n\u003cblockquote\u003eAmerica! America!\r\nGod shed his grace on thee,\r\nAnd crown thy good with brotherhood\r\nFrom sea to shining sea!\u003c/blockquote\u003e\r\nSure sounds like a National Anthem to me\u003cstrong\u003e--dv\u003c/strong\u003e","menu":[{"path":"lives-early-america","title":"Famous Lives","submenu":[{"path":"lives-early-america/autobiography-benjamin-franklin","title":"Autobiography of Ben Franklin"},{"path":"lives-early-america/ramsays-life-washington","title":"Ramsay's The Life of Washington"},{"path":"lives-early-america/adventures-col-daniel-boone","title":"The Adventures of Col. 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