Jose, can you see?

[jamiebk]

How does everyone feel about the new "spanish" version of our national Anthem?

[Shapley]

I haven't heard it. Assuming the translation remains loyal to the original text, I don't see a problem with it.

What do you think about the Star Spangled Banner itself? I personally think we could have chosen a better National Anthem. That's what happens when you let politicians choose your music for you, I suppose.

V/R
Shapley

[BigJon@Work]

Yeah! The Anthem. You gotta be an opera tenor to sing it. What gives!?

[Trumpetmaster]

MSN has a poll.... out of almost 70,000 voters.... 82% are against it.....

[Shapley]

Well, I'll go cast my vote. Maybe I can help knock it down to 81.9%.

[Shapley]

I voted, but I hate polls like that. I don't like the wording. The affirmative says something like: Great! I reflects the multicultural melting pot we've become!

I'm not opposed to it, but I don't think it's "Great", nor do I give a big whoop about multiculturalism. I reckon it's just a song, and not a very good one at that. If the want to sing it in Spanish, Latin, French (Okay, well, maybe not French!), or Greek, that's fine with me.

I don't see how it can be any worse than they way it's butchered by some of the 'soloists' that sing it at ballgames (think Roseanne Barr!), or the schoolkids forced to sing it in grade school?
Here, BTW, is the lyrics:

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!

Did you ever wonder why we don't sing the second, third, and fourth verses?


V/R
Shapley

[BigJon@Work]

Did you ever wonder why we don't sing the second, third, and fourth verses?

Because they are more inpenatrable than the first?

[jamiebk]

I started this thread, but did not voice an opinion, which I will now do. As bad as it is, I don't think the anthem should be sung in Spanish, French, Latin...etc. etc. This is our American anthem and should be performed in English as it was written. I suspect that most of those who would be singing it in Spanish have no right to sing it anyway, since they are likely here illegally. They can sing the anthems of their own countries.

For that matter, I really hate it when the so-called "artists" mangle the National Anthem at sporting events and the like....shades of Roseanne Barr (OK...she was just plain horrible). The anthem is simply the anthem...we don't need "variations on a theme" or alternative arrangements and styles.

[jamiebk]

PS...Shapley....THANK YOU for digging out the other verses. I forgot most of them.

I agree with BigJon re: why we don't sing them as well...the anthem is interminably long as it is....

[piqaboo]

What would you propose as an alternative anthem?



btw, I bet the iraqi's would find that last verse somewhat bitterly ironic.

[Nicole Marie]

I heard a Hispanic DJ in LA this morning say it best... He does not agree with the re-writing of the National Anthem in Spanish. He would be upset if someone went to Mexico and re-wrote that anthem in English and he thinks that it should not be written in Spanish.... when in Rome... nuff said.

By the way the version that was recorded by UBO has a changed title. It's called "Nuestro Himno" which means OUR Hymn, not the National Anthem. “Nuestro Himno” is also slogan for many South and Central American groups with political revolutionary goals. UBO Records, which released the track to coincide with a U.S. Senate debate, charges $10 for this "Latin" style version. A few years ago UBO filed Chapter 11 and laid off most of it’s 200 plus employees. To me this smells of "let's make $$$", and nothing more.

Now according to Billboard (the industry mag) after the May release of Our Hymn, UBO and many of the artists featured on the first recording are releasing a second version in June. This remix will contain several lines in English that condemn U.S. immigration laws. Among them: "These kids have no parents, cause all of these mean laws ... let's not start a war with all these hard workers, they can't help where they were born."


Bush even said to knock it off.

[Shapley]

Here are all the verses, translated courtesy of Babelfish:

¿Opinión de O, puede usted ver, por la luz temprana del amanecer, qué tan orgulloso nosotros hail'd en destellar pasado del crepúsculo? ¿De quién amplias rayas y estrellas brillantes, thro ' la lucha peligrosa, O'er los terraplenes watch'd, tan galantemente fluíamos? Y el fulgor rojo de los cohetes, las bombas que estallaban en aire, dio a thro de la prueba ' la noche que nuestra bandera todavía estaba allí. ¿Opinión de O, esa bandera estrella-star-spangled todavía agita O'er la tierra del libre y el hogar del valiente?

¿En el thro dévil visto de la orilla ' las nieblas del profundo, donde el anfitrión arrogante del enemigo en silencio del pavor descansan, qué son la que la brisa, o'er el escarpado elevado, como fitfully sopla, mitad encubre, mitad divulga? Ahora coge el destello de la primera viga de la mañana, en la gloria completa reflejada, ahora brilla en la corriente: ' Tis la bandera estrella-star-spangled: ¡O, puede él agitar de largo O'er la tierra del libre y el hogar del valiente!

¿Y dónde es esa venda que tan vauntingly juró que el estrago de la guerra y de la confusión de la batalla, hogar de A y un país debe dejarnos no más? Su sangre tiene wash'd fuera de la contaminación de sus pasos asquerosos. Ningún refugio podía ahorrar al hireling y al esclavo del terror del vuelo o del abatimiento del sepulcro: Y la bandera estrella-star-spangled en la onda O'er del doth del triunfo la tierra del libre y el hogar del valiente.

O así sea siempre en que los free-men estarán parados entre su hogar del lov'd y el desolation de la guerra; ¡Blest con vict'ry y paz, puede la alabanza heav'n-rescatada de la tierra el Pow'r que el hath hizo y preserv'd nosotros una nación! Entonces conquístenos debe, cuando nuestra causa él es justa, y éste sea nuestro lema: "en dios está nuestra confianza!" ¡Y la bandera estrella-star-spangled en triunfo agitará O'er la tierra del libre y el hogar del valiente!
V/R
Shapley

[Shapley]

Nicole,

Thanks for info. As I said initially, I would not be opposed to merely translating the words and singing it it another language, but I do not favour rewriting into something it's not, in this case a political commentary on immigration.

Of course, the Star Spangled Banner is actually just a poem set to the music of a song by John Stafford Smith. It could be argued that any variation is actually doing the same thing. Much in the manner that America is set to the music of God Save the Queen.

Piq,

I've not given a lot of thought to it. God Bless America, or America have both been proposed in the past. Of course, The Star Spangled Banner has the benefit of being secular, at least. It's just so d**n hard to sing.

V/R
Shapley

[BigJon@Work]

Freebird should be the national anthem.
Have a great weekend!

[Shapley]

I think I see a topic for the Weekly Poll question. I'll have to figure out how to word it and then get it submitted.

V/R
Shapley

[Shapley]

How About:

Which song should we adopt as our National Anthem?

1) The Star-Spangled Banner

2) America (My Country 'Tis of Thee)

3) God Bless America

4) America the Beautiful

5) Free Bird

[barfle]

Just an FYI, the flag known as the Star Spangled Banner, the one that flew over Ft. Sumter and inspired Key to write the poem, has been restored by the Smithsonian Instutute and as I understand it, is on display, at least until they start the renovations of the Museum of American History in deecee.

I saw it on display a few years back, then they had the restoration facility on display where the flag was laid out horizontally with an interesting sort of scaffold arrangement for the restorers to work on it without moving it much. It's made of wool, so it's subject to all sorts of problems after this long.

[shostakovich]

No language could make the Star Spangled Banner sound good. It should be dropped as national anthem. The tune is from an English tavern song. It may sound better if you're three sheets to the wind.

I would go with America the Beautiful as a replacement. English would be most proper.

If the Spanish version (of SSB) takes hold, we pull the switch. Catch them off guard. A condition for citizenship should be the singing of whatever the anthem in English.
Shos

[dai bread]

Sometimes I wonder which country I live in.

Every time there's some sort of big international event where national anthems get played, people write Letters to the Editor rubbishing ours. One of the ones they extol is "The Star-spangled Banner". (The other is "L* M*rsell**s*").

I suspect that those who like the SSB have never sung it. My father, who was a passable baritone, reckoned it ruptured his throat when he had to sing "the rockets' red glare..." and he shuddered at what sopranos did to that line.

But I'm sorry, Americans, I don't like two of your substitutes one little bit. The others, I don't know.

"My country 'tis of thee", sung to "God Save the Queen" (!) is soppy and surely you don't want to use the anthem of the ex-colonial power!

"America the Beatiful" is'nt as bad, but again is rather sugary. I know most anthems are, but it would be nice if you chose one that isn't.

Mind you, nothing could be as bad as "O. Can. adah". The Aussie anthem isn't much better if you listen to the words.

[Catmando]

dai bread,

As a Canadian, I can honestly say that I do not like our anthem "Oh Canada". I had to sing it in French every school day growing up!

I've always preferred national anthems to be played instrumentally, and "Oh Canada" especially.

I wish in Canada we had a second sort-of-anthem like the Americans with "America the Beaufitul".

However, if our equivalent substitute became the God awful "Good 'Ole Hockey Game" ((bbb should put a gag reflex emoticon)) by Stompin' Tom Connors, I'd rather stick to "Oh Canada", thank you very much!

Ray