The Star Spangled Banner
I know this is our national song, and love to hear it, but it is a HARD song to sing. I hate it when so-called celebrities try at a sporting event and end up butchering it (Carl Lewis, Rosanne Barr, etc...). But found this clip on you-tube of Marvin Gaye's rendition at the 1983 NBA all-star game. IMHO...BEST I HAVE EVER HEARD....PERIOD! Awesome! Marvin was the man! Who can forget "Let's Get It On", "Heard It Through the Grapevine", "Sexual Healing", "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing". Man...now I have to go dig out all my old albums!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvVzaQ6i8A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRvVzaQ6i8A
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whitney houston tore it up at the superbowl I think 1990 or so. (in a good way) they was playing it on the radio and everything. 0 -
If one is into the abstraction of things, Marvin Gaye's slant of the national anthem is a very fine rendition, indeed. Myself, I prefer the reality of things when America's idenity, culture, and history are at stake. These areas to me are sacred, especially since they are constantly under attack by the secular-progressives whose very existence in America depends on distortion, but that's just me. 0 -
quote:whitney houston tore it up at the superbowl I think 1990 or so.
It was for the Super Bowl in 1991.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STKSdLm2r8k
Good rendition, but I still like Marvin's better! Made it his "own", but in no way butchered it or disrespected like others have. Like these for example...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uE3iIgkKjmc&mode=related&search=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pK8z8oWERMk0 -
kimi...I agree to a point with what you are saying. When I hear the Star Spangled Banner, I feel chills and pride in my country. What I hate are people who, I feel, intentionally try to butcher the song and make a mockery of it and what it stands for, like Carl Lewis or Roseanna Barr did. Even in the Borat movie I thought it was wrong to do what Cohen did to the anthem. Marvin's version, while not traditional, still "speaks" to me in the manner in which he performed it. It was very respectfully done, in a unique and tasteful way. The words are still the same, and more importantly, the meaning is still the same and the feeling is still there. I loved it and wish all people who sing it publicly could do so with the same class and elan as Marvin (and Whitney Houston's version also, crack-head that she might be today!) 0 -
I know exactly what you mean, friend. You qualified everything well in your initial post, and I really appreciate your sensitivity to that end. Thank you. 0 -
It was originally written as a poem not a song and it is indeed hard to sing. I suspect those whom you think intentionally butcher the song are unfortunate choices who simply cannot sing very well. 0 -
I cringe when "R&B" artists (The once-divine Miss Houston included) put too many damn syllables in a song. Yes, you can personalize it a bit, but what I've heard lately is simply too-over the top. It's no longer about honoring our fine country, it's about "Lisen to how fine I can sing".
Keep in mind, I have this same reaction to any piece of music similarly hacked (5th of Beethoven, anyone?), but The Star Spangled Banner is one piece of music that I enjoy on a deeper level than any other tune.0 -
I heard that the tune was originally an english bar song, just different words 0 -
quote:Originally posted by buschmaster
I heard that the tune was originally an english bar song, just different words
There may be some truth to that .
The Star-Spangled Banner
-Francis Scott Key, 1814
O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' 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 thro' 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, half conceals, half 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 wash'd out their foul footsteps' 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.
O thus be it ever when free-men shall stand
Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation;
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust!"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
On Sept. 13, 1814, Francis Scott Key visited the British fleet in Chesapeake Bay to secure the release of Dr. William Beanes, who had been captured after the burning of Washington, DC. The release was secured, but Key was detained on ship overnight during the shelling of Fort McHenry, one of the forts defending Baltimore. In the morning, he was so delighted to see the American flag still flying over the fort that he began a poem to commemorate the occasion. First published under the title "Defense of Fort M'Henry," the poem soon attained wide popularity as sung to the tune "To Anacreon in Heaven." The origin of this tune is obscure, but it may have been written by John Stafford Smith, a British composer born in 1750. "The Star-Spangled Banner" was officially made the national anthem by Congress in 1931, although it already had been adopted as such by the army and the navy.
I was back at Fort McHenry this last summer . Hard not to look out on the bay and at the flag flying and not feel proud to be an american .0 -
IMHO, anyone who adds their own "flair" or "Style" to the National Anthem is a numbnuts, including Marvin's version.
It is meant to be sung the way it is, period.
Chaps my arse to have anyone screw up its simple beauty.0 -
Best live version I ever heard was the lead singer of Alabama singing it by himself at the Charlotte speedway about 15 years ago. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by lt496
IMHO, anyone who adds their own "flair" or "Style" to the National Anthem is a numbnuts, including Marvin's version.
It is meant to be sung the way it is, period.
Chaps my arse to have anyone screw up its simple beauty.
+1
When done right it brings tears to my eyes. When not, it makes me mad as a hornet that someone could screw up something special.0
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