I agree that the “Star-Spangled Banner” is a difficult song to sing well and could also be dubbed the “Star-Strangled Banner” (sorry about the pun) for how most folks sing it.

I have always been a big fan of “God Bless America” and think it would be a great replacement for our official national anthem though I think you’ll have a hard time pitching the change the American public. And with God being such a touchy subject these days, the title is bound to irritate non-believing folk. My fourth grade teacher taught us “God Bless America” and made us sing it every day after the pledge of allegiance and you would think that type of indoctrination would make me hate this song but I still love it!

As an aside, I am digging the graphic!

We can’t do “My Country Tis of Thee.”

We beggared that tune off the British national anthem. They’d never let us live it down.

I like the Star-Spangled Banner fine, although I do agree with the witnesses you point out. I’m willing to let you hating slide though because I hate, hate, HATE “God Bless America.” I also hate that it now has to be sung at the seventh-inning stretch of every baseball game. I hate that it is treated like an opera aria. I hate that I’m supposed to like it and get teary-eyed when it is sung. I hate everything about it.

I could totally go for a change to “America the Beautiful.” And Seth is right, we can’t do “My Country Tis of Thee.”

If we’re going to go to the trouble of changing it, let’s do it right and make it “This Land is Your Land.”

I don’t hate “The Star Spangled Banner”, but it certainly is not my favorite. I vote for “America the Beautiful”.

Jacob J–are you saying democrats don’t like God? Of course not, that would be lunacy! There are plenty of patriotic songs that do not include God, just that they need to include God if we are going to stick them in the hymn book. I challenge you to find a national anthem that is not sappy–I think it is a prerequisite.

anon–I am feeling your love for “this land”

ESO,

Of course I am not saying democrats don’t like God. Where did I say anything like that? Wanting to remove official mentions of God which could be construed as an endorsement is not the same as not liking God–you should know that, c’mon.

I challenge you to find a national anthem that is not sappy

Our current national anthem is not sappy. Militaristic hymns are almost never sappy since they are about kicking ass. If we had to change our national anthem, I would be okay with Battle Hymn of the Republic. Not sappy.

How about “I’m Proud to Be an American?”

Cause don’cha know… there’s pride in every American heart, and you can’t take that awaaaaay!

I’ll represent the opposite view.

I love the Star Spangled Banner. It is the best national anthem ever. All other national anthems (except France’s and England’s which are even older than ours) are written by committees, are dull and boring, and are unpasteurized propaganda. You have to love a country that has an old drinking song for its national anthem. Really. That alone will keep us from becoming Nazis or Commies.

The SSB has personality and character, even quirkiness. It’s honest. It is the USA at its unselfconscious best. You can’t say that about the sentimental dreck of ‘America the Beautiful.’ There’s nothing ‘anthem’ about ATB. It doesn’t come close to moving one like the first few notes of the SSB does, which are unmistakable. Touching. Stirring, even.

All the objections listed are actually its strengths. Who cares if you can’t sing it well? Are we having a contest? Is somebody recording this? The glory and dignity is in the attempt. The words to the first verse (the only one we sing) are as easy to learn as ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ and certainly as easy as ATB. You can’t complain about it being too long and then complain that we only sing one verse. Anything that a committee writes to “memorialize our entire history, culture, and country” is going to be totally insufferable.

The SSB matches our flag perfectly. Accidental icons. Kitchen table design. Equally honest. Completely unpretentious. Totally unpoliticized.

We should keep it. Which is fortunate, because we will. People have been trying to get rid of the SSB for a generation or two. Ain’t gonna happen.

Happy 4th everybody.

#19:

What are you talking about? What in the world do you mean by “People have been trying to change it from the key it is in”? You can sing it in any major key you want. There is no official key for the Star-Spangled Banner any more than there is an official key for “I Am a Child of God” (it’s different in the hymn book and the Children’s Songbook, by the way, D and C major, respectively, if I remember correctly).

The only way your comment would make sense would be if you meant that people were trying to change it into a minor key (or, more precisely, another mode), which isn’t what you meant, so your comment doesn’t make sense. What do you mean?

ctlewis,

Actually there is an official key for the Star Spangled Banner. And there have been attempts to change it. But I say, leave it in the key of B flat.

President Woodrow Wilson decreed in 1916 that ”The Star-Spangled Banner” be played at military events, and it became the national anthem by act of Congress in 1931. In 1942 the War Department adopted a code governing its presentation, and B flat was designated in the official arrangement published by the Armed Forces School of Music.

#22:

Fair enough, Dan, I didn’t know that. I’m just surprised that people feel the need to have it officially changed since I doubt that it is consistently played in that key everywhere (soloists at sporting events certainly never worry about the official key). Besides, the real problem is that the range is an octave and a half… that’s going to be constant no matter what. It’s either too high or too low. Why bother?

#23:

That’s a pun worthy of my older brother. Sorry, Left Field, once again we have different ideas about what’s funny (you Ann-hole, you).

I completely agree with Jim Donaldson. SSB is the end-all-be-all of national anthems.

And I strenuously disagree with your 5th point, ESO. The SSB is not all about the flag. Can your reading of its verses really have been so sloppy?

The name of Key’s poem before people made it our anthem was “The Defense of Fort Henry.” The flag functions as a symbol, a standard held forth to all nations, a standard made bright and permanent by our endeavors to defend our homes and our freedoms from foreign attack. This is what waves over our entire nation, over the land of the free and the home of the brave. This notion that we are a free land favored by God and the home to the brave and the enterprising — the United States of America, to be specific — is always already the topic of the song.

#27, I agree with the “too many liberties” statement. I realize there are arrangements that take the soprano up to a high B-flat, but ouch. F is high enough, ‘kay?

Perhaps we should adopt the Spanish model. After winning an important international soccer tournament last week, the team joined the fans in humming the national anthem. Apparently, it has no text.

I agree, it isn’t practical, doesn’t suit many singers, and is long. And it’s about the flag, this is true. But I don’t agree we need to replace it.

Songs that suit all singers sometimes lack the flair of our national anthem; part of its appeal lies in its musicality. We need more patriotism, not less, more awareness and commitment, (read willingness to memorize the national anthem, among many other things), and the sentiments in the song, although written about one event, apply to many others also. I don’t see a problem with it being about the flag, since to me the flag represents everything about our country.

So, I guess I don’t agree…though I must add I love your thoughts, that’s why I keep visiting this blog.

Elaine

When I was in Washington D. C. years ago, I went up to Fort McHenry. It’s an incredibly moving place to be when you try and visualize in your mind what happened here. There was one wall that was made up of Francis Scott Key’s poem that he wrote while watching that battle. It took one verse of that amazing song and had it written with pictures of that battle. Every single verse tells a story of America’s freedom on that battle…which had it not happened, you might not have had the freedom you have to write a post like you did. America the Beautiful is a wonderful song which tells much about this incredible country. But it does not do what ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ does in telling the story of the freedom we have to live in America….the beautiful. Think about it.

Count me in the group that LOVES the star spangled banner. Now, I’m also a tenor who can hit the high C, so take my opinion for what it’s worth…

That said, I would argue that the War of 1812 was the war that made America, America. It was the war that gave America the confidence for manifest destiny. It was the war that let us announce to the world that we had arrived. It was integral to the foundational psyche of our nation. It think it is perfectly appropriate that our national anthem is also a product of that war.

I’m not a big Josh Groban fan, and I think that performances at championships and All-Star games tend to be overdone, but this version of “God Bless America” was better than most:

http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?mid=200807153139391

(I’d dock a few points for changing lyrics and for some note changes, but otherwise, it wasn’t bad.)