The anthem asks the question or: how I learned to stop worrying and love “The Star-Spangled Banner”
A lot of Americans don’t especially like “The Star-Spangled Banner,” our national anthem here in the United States of America. Difficult to sing, clunky lyrics, hard to dance to. I used to be one of those people. Then I sang it at the start of a baseball game.
This week’s weird idea
I didn’t sing the national anthem in a big stadium before an MLB game or anything. I sang it at 5:45am to start a marathon softball game for charity. It was held on the solstice, the longest day of the year, with multiple squads tag-teaming in to keep the game going from sunup to sundown.
When I sat down to prepare the song (choose a key, memorize the lyrics), I found out three things.
- It’s not that hard to sing. The song’s range (lowest note to highest note) is the same as “Silent Night.” You just have to be careful where you start.
- The rockets with the red glare? Those bombs bursting in air? Those are British weapons bombarding Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the war of 1812. The British stayed out of range of the fort’s cannons, so the bombardment was pretty one-sided. But the fort, and the men defending it didn’t fall to the attempted invasion. They endured. “The Star-Spangled Banner” is a song about beating the odds through grit.
- The anthem doesn’t really end. It literally hands care of our the country back to those of us listening, by asking if we still live in the “the land of the free / And the home of the brave?” So every time that song is sung, it asks us to think: are we still free? And are we brave enough to regain that freedom when it is threatened? Can we endure, like those soldiers at Fort McHeny?
The Star Spangled Banner offers no answers, makes no promises. It just reminds us that we need grit and bravery to preserve the freedoms this country has always tried, with greater and lesser success, to provide to all of us within its borders.
Go see
An interesting way of defining patriotism, going way beyond flag lapel pins.
Adam McCann
Have a listen
This song literally changed my relationship to music. I heard it playing while at the CD shop Silver Platters (insert nostalgic comment about CD technology here). It was the Lucretia Mac Evil horn sample that pulled me in. This was my intro to the whole subsection of music using samples of music, dialog, and sounds as lego blocks to build new compositions.
And keep breathing
Dogpocalypse is coming. Or as it is known to many, the 4th of July. Not just pets are affected. There are plenty of people who don’t enjoy sounds resembling explosions and gunfire going off in their neighborhood. Makes it hard to relax.
The Wirecutter, the product recommendation service from The New York Times, has a pretty good article on how to lessen the impact of Dogpocalypse for both pets and humans. I haven’t tried most of these recommendations, but I did order a couple of the doggie headbands for our two corgis. Maybe something here will help you and yours.
Until we talk again, I remain,
Your pal,
Jamie