June 16, 2007

• Marvin Gaye's performance brought a tear to my eye, especially when the crowd starting clapping along. He was in such a dark place by the end of that year, so it's heartwarming to see this moment preserved. Thanks for this post, HW!
• ... and by proud Canadian Leslie Neilsen.
• Here's the Youtube version of that Finnish choir.
• I prefer the original to the English translation: So' banner puv Dung puH source: attributed to Kahless I, the Unforgettable toH jatlh laH SoH legh Sum po nuq maH Daq may' wov maj tIq 'oy'naQ QIDpu' ghachmey je 'ugh Hov vegh quv may' Dung yotlh vo' may' maH legh vaj quv bIQtIQ je qul Doq wov qul Daq pagh nobta' legh vegh ram vetlh maj flag ghaHta' vIHHa' toH jatlh ta'taH vetlh qul So' banner puv Dung puH vo' HoS je tuq vo' quv
• I so want to hear the Finnish Shouting Choir do that version.
• You know, I've always liked the second and third verses of that poem. It's too bad that no one puts those to music.
• Also see Jamie Kennedy pissing off the baseball crowd by going into the second and third stanzas, running the anthem singing time up to 6 or 7 minutes. Well worth it.
• (starts for real at 1:35, poster should have trimmed that clip)
• Oooooooohhhh, say can you seeeeeeeeeee Jimi Hendrix, oh my. Good times.
• And then there's the Borat version.
• Wow. Marvin Gaye fixed the song!
• That Borat(Sacha Baron Cohen) guy must have balls of steel. Or maybe a lot of faith in the crowd mentality, or perhaps simple faith in the forgiving nature of Americans. Or good bodyguards. Or great insurance. Or a death wish. He has something.
• Pretty cool Hendrix-inspired version by cellist Matt Haimovitz here.
• Oh say, can't you sing
• I think I'm the only person who enjoyed Roseanne's version. That took guts. Know what else takes guts? Making a Spanish version of the Star Spangled Banner (Nuestro Himno). I kinda like it, too.
• Not wishing to derail or deride, but let's face it: The Star-Spangled Banner is a lousy national anthem. The poem is awkwardly structured and doesn't really fit the tune, which is fairly unmemorable anyway. To an untrained voice, it's virtually unsingable: it covers a range of one and a half octaves; two if you take the optional high note near the end. People at ballparks don't sing along to it. All they do is yell "Oh!" right after the bridge. To be sung before sporting events is surely the most important function of any national anthem, and ours has tanked spectacularly at that. Athletes can't even weep along to it at the Olympics. Every few years, some thinking Congressperson tries to get legislation passed to make America the Beautiful the national anthem, on the grounds that it's a better poem, better music, and praises the nation rather than the sodding flag. It's about peace, beauty, prosperity and building a better world, while the current anthem focuses on kicking British arse. America the Beautiful is easier to sing, since the range is only a ninth (an octave plus a tone.) The high note comes right where it should, on "A-mer-i-ca" rather than on some crap about bombs in the air. Ray Charles recorded it, which ought to qualify it automatically. Every time, the legislation gets knocked back. Boooooo. Oh, and: To Anacreon In Heav'n, the British drinking song from which we got that unfortunate tune.
• Well said, Pallas. And given your reference to a sodding flag, I take it you don't prefer the rewritten Maple Leaf Forever to O Canada?
• The Star-Spangled Banner is a lousy national anthem I disagree entirely (although I feel that the taste of a song is in the eye of the besniffer; and albeit that you no doubt have more antipathetic childhood associations with the tune). I hereby confine my following comments to the first and best-known verse, leaving aside any British-killing sentiments that the accursed sequel verses annunciate. Point the first: the major arpeggio opening is a wonderful and immediately recognisable musical idea, and compares favourably with openings to other anthems of nation that arpeggiate up from a note other than the tonic (I refer you to the Australian national anthem, pustulating forth intolerably from the third of the scale). Lemma #2: The poetic idea of the first verse, that the narrator knows that the flag, and hence the fledgling country, is still in existence because (rather than in spite of) of the bombardment of rockets, is a delightful transmutation of adversity into victory. 3rd conclusion: "America the Beautiful"? What - are you kidding me? Why not have a song called "America is the Bestest Ever and All You Other Nations Can Suck It cos Y'all be my 'Bitches' Under Commonly Accepted Principles of International Law and the Bare Facts of Military and Economic Reality, Yo." - HUH? Why not have THAT? Corollary IV: Under the PATRIOTISM ACT, criticising national symbols, chants, mantras or hieroglyphs is a crime punishable by head-first interment in a vat of otter bile. Please report to your nearest otter bile repository for upside-down insertion therein.
• As far as point 2 goes, quid, everyone knows that the rockets are euphemisms for the Washington Monument and, further, that the bombs are analogous to fast food (i.e. "bursting in air"/"breaking wind). The USA is no more a warmongering country than is Israel, home of The Jesus, king of the peacenik pinkos.
• Why can't we just change to "Are you ready for some fooootball?!?!" ?
• In Ivor Wynne stadium the other day, to take in the fireworks for the St. Anthony festival, they played the Italian national anthem. As I only know it from watching the game, at the end, I fully expected somebody to exchange flags, shake hands, and do that grip-the-back-of-the-neck-in-friendship-thing, which really is a dig-your-nails-in-the-back-of-the-guy's-neck thing. Guy in front of me was more or less thinking the same, screaming for Totti to take to the field. All of which is apropos of nothing. Carry on.
• People at ballparks don't sing along to it. Are they supposed to? Firstly, what would be the point of engaging a professional singer? Secondly, since said professional singers often take liberties with phrasing and meter, how could the crowd be expected to follow? I guess the argument could be made that they might take fewer liberties if they knew the crowd would be joining in. But since it's not a tradition to do so, it would take a while to start a new tradition. (The last time I was ever on TV, it was because one of my professors had entered one of those periodic "let's have a new national anthem" contests, and he got my college chamber choir to sing his entry on the local news. It was utter pablum. And the conductor's elbow kept getting between my face and the camera.)
• Are they supposed to? If a song is your national anthem wouldn't you want to sing it? But I suppose it makes sense that only a select few people with rich vocal chords should represent the whole vocal spectrum of the country.
• Well, blame my general ignorance of sporting protocol - do spectators in other countries join in the singing?
• Yes, but they have their own words.
• Why not have a song called "America is the Bestest Ever and All You Other Nations Can Suck It cos Y'all be my 'Bitches' Under Commonly Accepted Principles of International Law and the Bare Facts of Military and Economic Reality, Yo." - HUH? Why not have THAT? Yea, Quid, WHY NOT?? And how about One nation, under Bush...
• This song gives me the willies these days, between dubya and that hand-over-heart thing that the proles are ordered to do. I'm know it's a fine country and all, but that clutching of giblets seems like a scary sort of "Heil!" behaviour. When we sing the Canadian anthem we do a few genuflections, the high sign and a pirouette, but that's it.
• You forgot the permission to perform victory dances on completion of a flawless execution for a thirty second maximum with absolute forgiveness on the hot-dogging...
• There's plenty of otter bile to go 'round, traitors - so keep on whinin'.
• Well, Google has us for 1, 2 & 3 on "owl semen", but we don't rank for "otter bile".
• Yet otter bile
• O Quidnunc, dashing young rogue of my heart: I shall answer your argument point-by-point, according to the Ancient Laws of Debate. If, at the end, neither party is satisfied, we may then proceed to duel with taxidermed otters in accordance with clause MXCVIII(a) of said Laws. Counter-Point the First: I concede that the opening motif of our current national screech is, as you say, instantly recognisable. (I further concede that the verb "to spangle" is extremely cool and should be used wherever possible.) However, I dispute your use of the term "wonderful", as it makes a mere major triad look big and clever. Analemma no. 2: Could this same "adversity-into-victory" motif be responsible for the belligerent mentality that has done our nation such harm in the eyes of the world? 3rd Confusion: I agree that the title you suggest has its charms. Surely "It's kinda pretty" is about the most inocuous thing that could be said about America right now. Anti-Corollary IV: No! For God's sake, think of the otters! Won't someone please think of the ottmmmphgrbl?
• Won't somebody please think of the weasels? Oh, and BTW... otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile
• I dispute your use of the term "wonderful", as it makes a mere major triad look big and clever Oh, you're always trying to diminish my triads!
• /forehead smack
• /collapses into heap, hands quid a banana
• Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner...
• 'Bout time!!! MoFi Rules!!! GO MOFI!!! otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile
• Also, OMG we must crush The Wyldlyf Vetrinry Onvsytgtn Cntr (misspelled so I don't give them any extra hits!), because nobody wants to hear about Otr Ble FLUKES!!! ICK!!!
• otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile quid bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile
• Otter bile, baby.
• What is it with all these bilious otters? I must say it's an improvement over RTD's previous googlewhack attempt. otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile otter bile
• I heard that otter bile cleans owl semen stains, and vice versa.
• Okay, this one is harder to explain.
• Oh, my.
• Also, we're number 1!1!1!!!1
• Um, yeah, Tick, we are...
• I just popped in to say this: The Star Spangled Banner is not hard to sing. Suck it up, people. Also, otter bile.
• RTD- when I clicked your link at the time, I got the WVIC at first and second positions, and MoFi at third. Maybe my PC's slower than yours. IANAD.
• OK, mct, if it's not that hard, I totally dare you to post a sound file of yourself singing it. And no weenieing out on the infamous "rockets" section. /sings "God Save The Queen", dies from boredom
• Oh, you're always trying to diminish my triads! /dies
• Music freaks
• Don't make me come over there.
• That's why the good Lord invented falsetto.
• It's why the Romans invented castrati!!
• I just popped in to say that the Royal Canadian Kilted Yaksmen is the best God Save The Queen ever.
• Otter bile wannabees Wild Whatever Institute still second. Get yer otter bile here!
• I propose a monkey singing contest, wherein we all sing the national anthem, post files, and Tracy judges who sucks the most.
• ... and the silver medal for Chy. Thanks.
• I'm game. Where do we post 'em to, oh Lara-of-the-grand-technology?
• Do I have to be Simon? I think Paula has the most fun.
• Because she's high as a kite. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
• *pops pill, trips over dog*
• MeFi version of this FPP.